
Adam Hamdy | The Other Side of Night

The Book:
The Other Side of Night by Adam Hamdy
Published October 11, 2022 by Atria Books
Date read: October 14, 2022
The Characters:
David Asha and his son Elliot
Harri
Ben, Elliot’s guardian
Buy it on Bookshop.org | Amazon
The Plot (from Goodreads):
The Other Side of Night begins with a man named David Asha writing about his biggest regret: his sudden separation from his son, Elliot. In his grief, David tells a story.
Next, we step into the life of Harriet Kealty, a police officer trying to clear her name after a lapse of judgment. She discovers a curious inscription in a secondhand book—a plea: Help me, he’s trying to kill me. Who wrote this note? Who is “he”?
This note leads Harri to David Asha, who was last seen stepping off a cliff. Police suspect he couldn’t cope after his wife’s sudden death. Still, why would this man jump and leave behind his young son? Quickly, Harri’s attention zeroes in on a person she knows all too well.
Ben Elmys: once the love of her life. A surrogate father to Elliot Asha and trusted friend to the Ashas.
Ben may also be a murderer.
The Review:
Friends, I have absolutely no clue how to write a review for this book without spoilers. Nearly anything I can think to say about it spoils something. The synopsis is intentionally vague. I do believe that there is a very specific group of readers that will love this book and a group that will hate it, but I can’t say which is which, and even saying which group I am in will be a spoiler.
It definitely kept me interested. I was confused at the beginning about who was narrating, but once I got it figured out, I was hooked by the plot.
One thing I didn’t love was this weird fixation Harriet had on her lack of love life. She spent an inordinate amount of time whining about being single for a thriller, and while it made sense why in the end, those passages very much gave “men writing women” vibes. Most women don’t mope around waiting for a man or constantly bemoan their lack of partner!
Audio Review: I needed clarification at the beginning of the audiobook as far as who was who, especially when it got to the passage of the book that Harriet picked up. I stopped listening and re-read the beginning of my physical copy until I got the characters and timeline straight, and then I was able to resume the audio.
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