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A review by bookph1le
Stay Awake by Megan Goldin
1.0
I'm not one-starring this because I think it's necessarily a bad book, but because I didn't like it--which according to the Goodreads scale, is what a one-star review means.
It is an intricate novel and I did admire the way it unfolded, but I never bought the plot entirely, probably mostly because I am not a fan of the amnesia trope in mystery books. I did think this sort of plot could work really, really well in a sci-fi mystery novel if the memory loss were due to, say, a new drug or some sort of new technology invented for nefarious or benevolent purposes, but that is not what this book is. If the book I mentioned there is ever written (or if it already has been and I just need to discover it), we'll see if I feel differently about the amnesia plot line.
However, it's not just the amnesia plot I didn't like. While I liked Halliday as a character, I think she would have been better served in her own book, possibly as part of a series. Goldin does a good job of giving her some shades here, but I didn't really understand what the point of giving her shades *is*, since this book is ostensibly about Liv and whatever is going on with Liv's memory that makes it impossible for her to remember whatever traumatic event triggered her memory loss problems. Was there just not enough plot surrounding Liv for this to work? As it was, this book felt like two halves of a book mashed together, one about a woman who forgets everything whenever she sleeps, and the other about a female veteran turned cop who's trying to prove herself.
And the last thing that left me cold about this book was the revelation of the villain.
This was definitely a disappointment. It has some good bones but could use a lot of remodeling.
It is an intricate novel and I did admire the way it unfolded, but I never bought the plot entirely, probably mostly because I am not a fan of the amnesia trope in mystery books. I did think this sort of plot could work really, really well in a sci-fi mystery novel if the memory loss were due to, say, a new drug or some sort of new technology invented for nefarious or benevolent purposes, but that is not what this book is. If the book I mentioned there is ever written (or if it already has been and I just need to discover it), we'll see if I feel differently about the amnesia plot line.
However, it's not just the amnesia plot I didn't like. While I liked Halliday as a character, I think she would have been better served in her own book, possibly as part of a series. Goldin does a good job of giving her some shades here, but I didn't really understand what the point of giving her shades *is*, since this book is ostensibly about Liv and whatever is going on with Liv's memory that makes it impossible for her to remember whatever traumatic event triggered her memory loss problems. Was there just not enough plot surrounding Liv for this to work? As it was, this book felt like two halves of a book mashed together, one about a woman who forgets everything whenever she sleeps, and the other about a female veteran turned cop who's trying to prove herself.
And the last thing that left me cold about this book was the revelation of the villain.
This was definitely a disappointment. It has some good bones but could use a lot of remodeling.