The Lost Night

Score: 4/5 Bookmarks

Thank you to the author Andrea Bartz for sending me a copy of her book The Lost Night!

This story is a tantalizing mix of the past and present as the main character (Lindsey) tries to uncover the truth of what happened, a decade ago, when her best friend died.

It took me back to my own days of being 23, the feelings that we had it all figured out when hindsight has revealed that we clearly had no idea about anything, least of all ourselves.

We get to know each of the characters, hear their own views on what really went on back then, and who they themselves were, which is often in contrast with what Lindsey remembers.

Lindsey struggles with alcohol and has frequent blackouts when she’s younger, making it even more difficult for her to piece together the past and determine what really happened.

The book is written in perfectly-sized chapters that keep the book moving along at a tension-inducing pace and there is a delicious twist towards the end, which I won’t spoil for you here.

Oh, and the novel has been optioned for development as a limited series, produced by Mila Kunis' company. Stay tuned for release dates!

Synopsis:

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.