The heart-stopping new page-turner from the Australian author who has taken the world by storm. A complex thriller that unfolds at a breakneck speed, Stay Awake will keep you up all night.
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, 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. But there’s someone who does know exactly what she did, and they’ll do anything to make her forget – permanently.
In the vein of Jacqueline Bublitz’s Before You Knew My Name and Christopher Nolan’s cult classic Memento, Megan Goldin’s Stay Awake is an electrifying novel that plays with memory and murder.
Megan Goldin’s last book, The Night Swim was an original and gripping novel that brought Goldin to the top of my auto-buy list. Now with her latest novel, Stay Awake, she’s cemented herself as one of my favourite crime fiction authors.
I pride myself on my ability to spot plot twists, but Goldin is one of those rare writers that kept me on my toes until the very last page. I absolutely loved reading every chilling reveal surrounding Liv, her amnesia, the strange messages on her hands and the gritty crime she’s been implicated in. Every page is filled to the brim with suspense and tension, making you second guess everyone – including Liv. It’s a gripping take on the unreliable narrator trope, one Goldin executes brilliantly.
If you’re looking for a novel to get your heart racing, Megan Goldin’s Stay Awake is the perfect book for you. A superb read right to the gripping, unforgettable end.
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