Leanne Olson

by Megan Goldin

Releasing August 9, 2022 from St. Martin’s Press

Although I loved the premise of Stay Awake, the new thriller by Megan Goldin, the book just didn’t work for me.

It starts out strong: Liv Reese wakes up in a taxi and returns to her apartment, where she finds strangers living there.  She has a bloody knife and messages written all over her hands, reading “Stay Awake”

I loved the movie Memento so I was intrigued by a mystery with a similar idea, where the protagonist loses new memories every time she falls asleep.  I also enjoy stories that jump around in time, flashing back between present day and a previous crime, which is the structure this book follows.

Unfortunately, the writing just wasn’t very strong.  I like character-driven stories, and I never got a handle on Liv or the two police detectives who are tracking her down.  Liv makes strange choices right from the start (for example, after she realizes that strangers are in her apartment, she gets her hair cut and goes to work) and was hard for me to relate to (she assumes her cat is dead and just…doesn’t seem to care?).  The police officers as well have very stilted dialogue, explaining very simple concepts to each other as if they’d never investigated a murder before.

I did find this to be a very quick, easy read, and got through it in one night, but overall I was frustrated with the experience.  I think readers who are intrigued by the premise and are more interested in twists and turns than character moments will likely enjoy this a lot more than I did.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for my review copy of this book