Sometimes I write short reviews, sometimes longer ones.

Get comfortable. I'm about to tell you why this is one of the very best new thrillers I've read this year.

Stay Awake opens with Liv Reese waking up in the back on a New York taxi with no idea where she is, or why there's a bloodstained knife in her pocket. Liv has amnesia, every time she falls asleep she forgets, she scribbles notes and warnings on her hands to try and remember. On the run, having forgotten what she's running from or where's she's running to. This is one strand.

The second strand sees Detective Lavelle (rookie female on the Murder Squad) partnered with top cop Halliday trying to solve a murder, and Liv is the main and only suspect. They are a formidable partnership with good chemistry and I'd love to read more with them.

The third strand starts two years into the past with Liv's life and memory was normal, with a good friend for a flat mate, a boyfriend and a good job.

The three strands are perfectly balanced, each with a great story to tell, each containing vital information, and twists. Many of the chapters end with little reveals and cliffhangers which kept me completely hooked, cover to cover. As the novel progresses these strands intertwine so tightly.

Combining Psychological Thriller with a Police 'follow the evidence' manhunt is truly inspired. This book will appeal across a wide spectrum of Psychological Thriller and Crime readers.

It's beautifully tense and anxious. Liv doesn't know to trust and neither does the reader.

You really feel for Liv as she struggles to stay wake and muddles to try and piece the details together, while sliding deeper into paranoia and instability.

The character writing, development, pacing and story telling are just wonderful. The plotting is intricate and the pacing? Wow!

The murder manhunt rushes forwards at speed while Liv is trapped in her amnesiac loop, regularly forgetting and trying to pick up the pieces again.

One of those books that you want to race through but don't want to miss a single detail.

Before I properly started reading Psychological Thrillers there were two Psychological movies that I loved, Memento (about amnesia) and The Machinist (insomnia induced breakdown and psychosis)...

I've since read plenty of Thrillers involving amnesia and a few involving sleep deprivation, by combing the two, together with a murder manhunt, with the main character on the run and hunting her own evidence, Stay Awake does something very exciting and different.

Darker, with more threat and tension, with a deeper 'edge of madness' paranoia than any of the other amnesia based Psychological Thrillers that I've read before. It grabbed me by the throat then burrowed deep inside my brain.

This is a must, must, must read and sure to be in my books of the year. Rush to buy and read it as soon as you can.

Thanks to Netgalley and Canelo

A cracking plot that takes the amnesia plot to a new level.
A woman remembers everything up till she answered the phone at work, two and a bit years ago.
The problem is she forgets everything after that point every time she falls asleep
When she hears about a murder in a tower block, with the words Wake Up! Written in the victims blood on the window, she knows she’s connected. Because she has similar things written in pen on her hand.
As she tries to piece together her memories, before she falls asleep again, the police have identified her as a suspect in the murder.
A fast paced thriller that kept me hooked.

WOW. I mean WOW.
Megan Goldin is a genius - I have nothing else to say.
I think I knew where the plot was going but I was wrong BIG TIME.
This was sooooo good!!!

Liv Reese wakes up in the back of a taxi with no idea where she is or how she got there. She is dropped off at her apartment, but is confronted by a stranger who claims to live there. Confused, she reaches for her phone to call for help only to find that in its place is a bloodstained knife. That’s when she sees that her hands are covered in scribbles repeating the same two words: STAY AWAKE.
Last she recalls, Liv was a successful writer for a New York magazine. Now, she’s lost and disoriented in the city. She is horrified to see news reports of a crime scene where the victim’s blood has been used to scrawl a message: the same message that’s inked on her hands. What did she do last night before waking in a moving car?
Liv finds herself on the run for a crime she doesn’t remember committing and trying to piece together the fragments of her life. But there’s someone who knows exactly what she did, and they’ll do anything to make her forget permanently.
Really enjoyed this book totally gripping and totally recommend
Thank You NetGalley and Canelo
I just reviewed Stay Awake by Megan Goldin. #StayAwake #NetGalley

Megan Goldin has created another high intensity thriller. Absolutely loved this book and it’s heart palpitating plot. All booklovers will absolutely be enthralled.