Heidi's Reviews > Stay Awake

There is a good reason why Megan Goldin is one of my favourite thriller writers. I think that THE ESCAPE ROOM is still one of my all-time-favourite books and one that stands out from the rest, but her latest book is not far behind. It only took a few pages into STAY AWAKE to find myself utterly absorbed by the disjointed reality of Liv’s world.

I love thrillers that rely strongly on the doubt cast on the main protagonist’s mental state. Liv, a traumatised woman who forgets everything that has happened to her as soon as she falls asleep, is a perfect candidate to star in that category of unreliable narrators. With every plot twist, I admired the author for being able to create such an intricate, multi-layered and challenging novel without ever losing credibility. Every time I was briefly concerned that a thread would be left hanging or would stretch credibility too far, I was soon reassured by the background detail that made it all perfectly plausible and tied things up nicely in the end.

Liv’s world is like a crazy kaleidoscope of disjointed images and unanswered questions that consumed me until I had reached the end and finally found out the answers. It was lucky that I read this book on holidays, because I was loathe to put it down. With a perfect blend between action and mystery, Goldin again delivers a psychological thriller so carefully constructed that I never had a chance to guess the culprit – all my theories were totally wrong. I loved every minute of this novel and can’t wait to see what Goldin will come up with next.


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