Stay Awake

“Wake up! Stay awake! Don’t go to sleep!” Liv Reese sees these messages scrawled on her hands and arms, but she can’t recall why. As she goes through her day, she can’t help but remain confused when nothing is as she remembered it. Simple things like returning to her apartment and her workplace remind Liv that she is no longer living the life she remembers. Liv is startled when she can’t get a hold of her boyfriend or roommate, whom she hoped could give her answers. As she tries to piece together the events she has forgotten, she is entrenched in a murder investigation. Liv wonders if she may have actually killed someone, without any memory of it…

Megan Goldin’s Stay Awake has an interesting premise, yet the execution was unremarkable. Liv’s failing memory gets to be irksome as the book progresses, which left me frustrated waiting for tiny pieces of the plot to be revealed. None of the characters were especially likable, and I hoped for more intensity in the plot. The novel did pick in the second half, yet the ending was lackluster. Overall, Stay Awake was entertaining but not propulsive.