But you fell asleep and your dreaming brought the nightmares: STAY AWAKE.

Stay Awake by Megan Goldin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When Liv wakes up in a taxi, she has no idea where she is or how she got there. As she arrives at her apartment, she realizes strangers are living there. She finds a bloody knife in her pocket and writing scribbled all over her hands with phrases like, "STAY AWAKE." Confused and afraid in New York City, she sees reports of a murder on the news with the same phrase, "STAY AWAKE" written at the scene. Liv starts to fear that she was somehow involved, but how can she figure out what happened when she forgets everything when she falls asleep?

"The last thing I remember before opening my eyes was working at my sun-drenched desk by the office window until I was startled by the sudden ring of my desk phone... Everything after that is a blank, until now."

This is a really exciting read that moves at a fairly breakneck pace so that you feel as if you too are not sleeping and racing around in New York high on multiple caffeine drinks. Liz forgets the last two years of her life every time she falls asleep. The forgotten memory piece can get a little old (as Liz wakes up yet again and makes the same discovery over and over) and Liz can drive you a bit wild with her poor decisions. But this is a really fast-paced and thrilling book filled with fun twists. It's necessary to keep with the then and now timeline, which can get a bit confusing from time to time.

I loved the police in STAY AWAKE--Halliday and detective Lavelle. I think Halliday was probably my favorite character, a cop trying to get a place on the detective squad with Lavelle. I would truly love to see those two in another book. Halliday's portions gave the book a police procedural sort of feel, which is always a plus for me.

There's a ton of false lines and red herrings in AWAKE and it will certainly keep you flipping the pages. It covers timely topics such as female stalking being ignored by the police, which was a nice serious aspect to a slightly bizarre plot. 4 stars.

I received a copy of this book from St. Martin's Press and Netgalley in return for an unbiased review.

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