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3.75 AVERAGE
3.75 AVERAGE
Does the author also have Liv’s condition lol she must have fell asleep and forgot about all her gaping plot holes
3.5 stars
Quick pace, left me guessing until the end, but felt things wrapped up a bit too easily at the end. Overall a good read.
Quick pace, left me guessing until the end, but felt things wrapped up a bit too easily at the end. Overall a good read.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Megan Goldin is one entertaining author I will go back to read. This is my first novel by her and I can say that I was pleasantly surprised. I went in thinking I knew exactly what was going to happen, and often times I was, but being surprised by some of the clever turns taken. There were moments I felt frustrated by the actions Liv took when she finds the knife and slowly discovers things are no longer the way they were in her last memory. I realize looking back, I probably wouldn’t act a “right” way either. The pacing and the changes in views were done nicely and I really enjoyed reading the investigation happen as Liv is on her own discovery mystery.
Cannot wait to read more be Megan Golding! I make escape rooms for a living so I have my eyes on that one next.
Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read this suspenseful place an discover a new author!
Cannot wait to read more be Megan Golding! I make escape rooms for a living so I have my eyes on that one next.
Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read this suspenseful place an discover a new author!
3.5 stars rounded down
This book held my interest, and was difficult to figure out who the murderer was. The amnesia with Liv got a little annoying to read the same things over and over, but I know that’s part of the storyline so couldn’t be avoided.
This book held my interest, and was difficult to figure out who the murderer was. The amnesia with Liv got a little annoying to read the same things over and over, but I know that’s part of the storyline so couldn’t be avoided.
Stay Awake is about a young woman who wakes up each day with no memory of the last two years of her life. This story follows Liv, our main character with amnesia, and two police detectives after a murder is committed and all signs point to Liv. This is a dual POV suspense thriller following Liv's past memories, present day situation, and the investigation the detectives are leading.
This was an extremely interesting premise that had me absolutely hooked from the start. There were so many possibilities on who the killer was and I loved that. Often when I read whodunit murder mysteries there are only a handful of possible suspects, and you can kind of predict who it is from the start or middle. I didn't predict the killer until the very end, as the author clearly intended. Megan Goldin did an excellent job of keeping me on my toes and each chapter ended in such a gripping away. I love when there are constantly new revelations being made, and I loved the anxiety driven plot. I felt so anxious to find out who was the killer and what happened each chapter that I found myself reading faster and faster!
This was creepy and suspenseful and I loved it. I can't rate this five stars however, because I feel like there were some missed opportunities and that the big reveal for the killer was anticlimactic. There were some aspects that didn't make sense and were not answered. If this didn't have such a rushed ending and would have had a bit more of an interesting reveal I would have rated this five stars. Ultimately, what you should take from this review was that this book was exciting, interesting, suspenseful, and well written. I very much enjoyed this book and will be reading this author's older novels since this is my first one I have read by her.
Thank you so much Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for letting me read this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion! This will be released on 8/9/22!
This was an extremely interesting premise that had me absolutely hooked from the start. There were so many possibilities on who the killer was and I loved that. Often when I read whodunit murder mysteries there are only a handful of possible suspects, and you can kind of predict who it is from the start or middle. I didn't predict the killer until the very end, as the author clearly intended. Megan Goldin did an excellent job of keeping me on my toes and each chapter ended in such a gripping away. I love when there are constantly new revelations being made, and I loved the anxiety driven plot. I felt so anxious to find out who was the killer and what happened each chapter that I found myself reading faster and faster!
This was creepy and suspenseful and I loved it. I can't rate this five stars however, because I feel like there were some missed opportunities and that the big reveal for the killer was anticlimactic. There were some aspects that didn't make sense and were not answered. If this didn't have such a rushed ending and would have had a bit more of an interesting reveal I would have rated this five stars. Ultimately, what you should take from this review was that this book was exciting, interesting, suspenseful, and well written. I very much enjoyed this book and will be reading this author's older novels since this is my first one I have read by her.
Thank you so much Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for letting me read this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion! This will be released on 8/9/22!
One of the better thrillers I've read in a long time. I quite literally couldn't put it down until I finally had to because I couldn't stay awake long enough to finish it!
Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of this in exchange for an honest review.
Liv Reese wakes up in the back of a taxi with STAY AWAKE scribbled on her arms in pen, a knife with blood on it, and no recollection of where she is or how she got there. All Liv remembers is two years ago, when she and her best friend lived together, and she worked at a culture magazine in New York City. Now, it's a new season, her apartment is owned by a new couple, and a man has been found dead with the message WAKE UP on the window in his blood...eerily similar to the print on Liv's own arms.
The book alternates between Liv's first-person POV and the detectives' third person POV, with 95% of the story taking place in a 24-hour period starting on a Wednesday at 3 a.m., as we follow Liv in her attempts to outrun the police while trying to regain her memory and, more importantly, to stay awake.
I listened to the audiobook ARC I received for this, and I was pleasantly surprised to hear Imogen Church's voice! She's personally one of my favorite audiobook narrators, after having heard her narrate Ruth Ware's Turn of the Key . I know some people don't like her style, as she tends to dramatize her readings, but I thought it worked really well here.
Once I passed the 50% mark, I couldn't put it down! Things started falling into place, and the time honestly flew by. I felt like the book really benefitted from alternating perspectives, adding to the unreliability of the Liv as a narrator. I loved that we were thrown right into Liv's perspective as she's waking up. It would be like watching 50 First Dates from Lucy's perspective instead of Henry's...if Lucy was a suspect for murder. We're finding things out as Liv does, supplemented by the detectives' findings in the POVs in almost every other chapter.
I could see this book being frustrating for some, especially because the beginning is a little repetitive and slow, since Liv has no memory and therefore we have a really steep learning curve. It isn't until the end that we realize the significance of starting at the exact moment we did.
Overall, this was a really solid thriller, and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a fun mystery/suspense read that has the same vibes as the movie Memento .
Liv Reese wakes up in the back of a taxi with STAY AWAKE scribbled on her arms in pen, a knife with blood on it, and no recollection of where she is or how she got there. All Liv remembers is two years ago, when she and her best friend lived together, and she worked at a culture magazine in New York City. Now, it's a new season, her apartment is owned by a new couple, and a man has been found dead with the message WAKE UP on the window in his blood...eerily similar to the print on Liv's own arms.
The book alternates between Liv's first-person POV and the detectives' third person POV, with 95% of the story taking place in a 24-hour period starting on a Wednesday at 3 a.m., as we follow Liv in her attempts to outrun the police while trying to regain her memory and, more importantly, to stay awake.
I listened to the audiobook ARC I received for this, and I was pleasantly surprised to hear Imogen Church's voice! She's personally one of my favorite audiobook narrators, after having heard her narrate Ruth Ware's Turn of the Key . I know some people don't like her style, as she tends to dramatize her readings, but I thought it worked really well here.
Once I passed the 50% mark, I couldn't put it down! Things started falling into place, and the time honestly flew by. I felt like the book really benefitted from alternating perspectives, adding to the unreliability of the Liv as a narrator. I loved that we were thrown right into Liv's perspective as she's waking up. It would be like watching 50 First Dates from Lucy's perspective instead of Henry's...if Lucy was a suspect for murder. We're finding things out as Liv does, supplemented by the detectives' findings in the POVs in almost every other chapter.
I could see this book being frustrating for some, especially because the beginning is a little repetitive and slow, since Liv has no memory and therefore we have a really steep learning curve. It isn't until the end that we realize the significance of starting at the exact moment we did.
Overall, this was a really solid thriller, and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a fun mystery/suspense read that has the same vibes as the movie Memento .
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes