Genre: Suspense Thriller
Publisher: St. Martins Press
Release Date: August 9, 2022
Order Link: Amazon
4 Compelling Hearts
Many thanks to St. Martins Press for an arc of this book.
In the vein of SJ Watson’s Before I Go to Sleep and Christopher Nolan’s cult classic Memento, Megan Goldin’s Stay Awake is an electrifying novel that plays with memory and murder.
Review:
Liv Reese is missing the past two years of her life. As in she has no idea what happened during that period of time. One minute she's sitting at her desk at a trendy magazine office and the next she's in the back of a taxi feeling disoriented and lost with two years having passed. Her hands and arms are covered with messages written in ink - Stay Awake, Wake up, Trust no one. When the cab stops at her old brownstone, she rings the bell to get her roommate up; however, the door is answered by an angry stranger yelling at her to go away while claiming to have lived there for some time. Megan's phone is missing as is her purse. If she allows herself to go to sleep, she repeatedly forgets the last twenty-four hours. Each time she wakes up, her mind is a blank slate. She's running on fumes. What's happening to her? Why does she have the feeling she may have done something terrible and her life is in danger?
Detectives Darcy Halliday and Jack Lavelle are working the murder case of a man whose apartment window has the words Wake Up written on them in his blood. A woman was seen entering his apartment with him hours earlier, but later left by the back alley alone. As their investigation progresses, the detectives have reason to suspect Liv is that woman. It's true that the same message is written on her hand, but does that make her a murderer? She hasn't a clue why she wrote it nor why she was carrying a bloody knife wrapped in her bloody shirt that she threw in a garbage can. The story that ensues is convoluted, twisted and tense.
Stay Awake unfolds through two points of view - Liv's and Det. Hallidays. Liv has an illness brought on by an extremely traumatic event that she doesn't remember. This story is told through dual timelines, slowly revealing what happened to Liv two years ago and the police investigation in the present. The action is fast-paced from beginning to end, and the tone is dire. Readers soon realize that someone has reason to silence Liv, and she's a sitting duck with the amnesia rendering her clueless as to who she can trust and who she can't. Goldin brilliantly weaves several viable red herrings into the story, and I'll admit to not suspecting the true murderer until the reveal. When I realized who the culprit was and why, I kicked myself for not figuring it out. But then, that's the magic of Goldin's stories.
While some may find Liv’s story a bit repetitive, it serves to drive home the dilemma she finds herself in each time she awakens with no memory. She's living in a nightmare, on the run from everyone including the police while doing everything possible to stay awake and figure out what's happening to her. I believe the repetitiveness of that part of the story drives home the magnitude of the state she finds herself in while driving the tempo at breakneck speed.
Stay Awake is a mesmerizing, expertly plotted psychological thriller intertwined with an excellent police procedural. The two go hand in hand steadily building the tension all the way to the shocking climax. My understanding is that readers may get to see Det. Halliday in future books, and I must say I'm intrigued. Goldin has penned another dark, ominous thriller with vibes of Memento. Highly recommended to fans of suspense thrillers, mysteries and police procedurals!
Synopsis:
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 now lives in her apartment and forces her out in the cold. She reaches for her phone to call for help, only to discover it’s missing, and in its place is a bloodstained knife. That’s when she sees that her hands are covered in black pen, scribbled messages like graffiti on her skin: STAY AWAKE.
Two years ago, Liv was living with her best friend, dating a new man, and 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, the same 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 as she tries to piece together the fragments of her life. But there’s someone who does know exactly what she did, and they’ll do anything to make her forget―permanently.
Two years ago, Liv was living with her best friend, dating a new man, and 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, the same 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 as she tries to piece together the fragments of her life. But there’s someone who does know exactly what she did, and they’ll do anything to make her forget―permanently.
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