REVIEW: STAY AWAKE, BY MEGAN GOLDIN

Liv Reese wakes up in the back of a taxi with no idea where she is or how she got there. When she’s dropped off at the door of her brownstone, a stranger answers—a stranger who claims to live in her apartment. She reaches for her phone to call for help, only to discover it’s missing. In its place is a bloodstained knife. Her hands are covered in scribbled messages, like graffiti on her skin: STAY AWAKE.

Two years ago, Liv was thriving as a successful writer for a trendy magazine. Now, she’s lost and disoriented in a New York City that looks nothing like what she remembers. Catching a glimpse of the local news, she’s horrified to see reports of a crime scene where the victim’s blood has been used to scrawl a message across a window, similar to the message that’s inked on her hands. What did she do last night? And why does she remember nothing from the past two years? Liv finds herself on the run for a crime she doesn’t remember committing. But there’s someone who does know exactly what she did, and they’ll do anything to make her forget—permanently.

A complex thriller that unfolds at a breakneck speed, Stay Awake will keep you up all night.

As we follow the journey of a traumatized woman in Stay Awake, we are definitely intrigued…and unable to stop reading.

Liv had a great life until someone tried to murder her. After awakening from a coma, she is plagued by amnesia: every time she awakens from sleep, her short term memory is erased.

The story flips back and forth in time, from two years ago with events leading up to Liv’s trauma, to recent days and weeks as she tries to piece things together.

The tale also alternated between Liv’s experiences and the detectives pursuing the case of a recent murder that eventually connects to some of what has happened to Liv.

I couldn’t wait to see what would happen.  5 stars.

***My e-ARC came to me from the publisher via NetGalley.

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