Andrea Bartz | THE LOST NIGHT

Plot (via Goodreads):

What really happened the night Edie died? Ten years later, her best friend Lindsay will learn how unprepared she is for the truth.

In 2009, Edie had New York’s social world in her thrall. Mercurial and beguiling, she was the shining star of a group of recent graduates living in a Brooklyn loft and treating the city like their playground. When Edie’s body was found near a suicide note at the end of a long, drunken night, no one could believe it. Grief, shock, and resentment scattered the group and brought the era to an abrupt end.

A decade later, Lindsay has come a long way from the drug-addled world of Calhoun Lofts. She has devoted best friends, a cozy apartment, and a thriving career as a magazine’s head fact-checker. But when a chance reunion leads Lindsay to discover an unsettling video from that hazy night, she starts to wonder if Edie was actually murdered—and, worse, if she herself was involved. As she rifles through those months in 2009—combing through case files, old technology, and her fractured memories—Lindsay is forced to confront the demons of her own violent history to bring the truth to light.

Review:

Every now and then, you come across a book that just exceeds expectations and is so much more than you originally thought it would be or give it credit for. Going into The Lost Night, I was kind of expecting just your typical thriller that featured a lot of red herrings, a cold case murder, and a group of friends that hadn't changed much in the ten years between the death of their friend and the present time. What I got was so much different - The Lost Night is a uniquely written thriller that doesn't rely on cliches or feature an abundance of overly used traits for its plot points.

I loved how this novel started. It was realistic and set the tone for the remainder of the novel. I really enjoyed how the unreliable narrator aspect was introduced. Have we read a book about characters abusing alcohol and making their memories fuzzy or nonexistent? Yes. But, was it because they were just partying in their 20's and was it every single character that was around the night in question? Bingo. What an excellent detail! I was completely engrossed with this novel when I got to experience different character perspectives and each one dealing with the same sense of alcohol induced amnesia as their friends. The mystery wasn't over-the-top or unrealistic and what I enjoyed the most about that was that this could have been a murder and it could have simply been a suicide. Sometimes the most realistic answers are the ones that terrify us the most.

Lindsay Bach is one of the most enjoyable characters I've yet to read. She us unapologetic, flawed, unreliable, and completely lovable. Getting to experience the contrast between her and her friends in their 20s and then now in their 30s was exceptionally entertaining and added another layer to the plot that really made this one stand out for me.

Special thanks to Crown Publishing for this copy in exchange for my honest review.

Rating: 4.5/5