Reviews with content warning for Mental illness - The Guest List

Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

The Guest List by Lucy Foley

131 reviews

mikitiale's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I don't normally read mystery books but this one was fine. I'm not well read enough in the genre to judge whether it was a well written murder mystery but I will say I wasn't suspecting the culprit.
The audiobook was great because each point of view was narrated by a different reader which helped differentiate characters more easily.
It should be made known that there is a lot of potentially triggering content involving self harm, suicide, and abortion as well as content warnings for alcohol and drug use.

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tabea1409's review

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adventurous mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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gagal96's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

What a great murder mystery! I don't know how others figured the ending out with all the twists the author was throwing at us. I had guesses as to who was killed and who did it but I was way off each time. The only things I wasn't a big fan of was the bouncing back and forth in the timelines, which was confusing at times for me, and the pacing felt a little slow for me at the beginning. Overall, a great story! I'd definitely like to read more from this author in the future.

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ginnyroberts2's review

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mysterious sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Fun! I thought each character had an interesting little story to tell, although I expected the ways those stories intersected to be a bit more nuanced/interesting. Even though the ending was a bit boring I had fun reading and would recommend to someone looking for something simple and enjoyable, or any fans of mysteries. The Agatha Christie comparisons are deserved!
But at the same time there's something about Foley that just bothers me. While the genre might be best enjoyed by turning some parts of my brain off, I do think this and the Paris Apartment had endings that are sorta suburban girl panic... In this one there are very flat charicatures of topics that irl are more complicated than

one irredeemable man so evil so terrible that we can all agree he DESERVES to be stabbed BY women and FOR women !

there's like a Facebook viral post quality to the topics Foley chooses for these books and not in a very self-aware or critical kind of way. It's like these books play to the same anxieties fed to us by social media algorithms and then offer the fantasy of violent catharsis, but ultimately that reinforces anxiety and a heartless worldview where everyone is out to get you, where there are bad evil people around every corner, and the only thing that can heal you is righteous violence against the dehumanized.
Don't think too hard

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bethaniesherwood's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I don’t like how neatly some of the plot threads are wrapped up. It’s almost too neat. It feels akin to “plot armor” but I genuinely don’t think that’s the case. To an extent, I think all the “coincidences” are fine at an event like a wedding — which would bring everyone you know together — but there’s two “coincidence”s that shouldn’t fit and feel forced. It takes you out of it.

That said, the writing itself is very good. Gripping. Even though all these characters are terrible people, I was hooked. Foley has a way of crafting a narrative that’s hard to get out of your head. She seems to gravitate toward mysteries but if she ever wrote a psychological thriller, I’d buy several copies.

Anyway, I “read” this as an audiobook. The narrators did a fantastic job, each character had its own voice — which paid homage to their roots and personality.

I think the editor screwed Foley over a bit on this one. When I read through reviews and saw people citing repetition as an undesirable trait, I just assumed they meant the revolving narratives. That was premature. The narratives and timelines are orchestrated quite well. In my opinion, the word choice was redundant in a lot of ways. Again, excusable through their linked pasts and culture. The foreshadowing didn’t help either — too heavy handed.

Still a great read. Would recommend.

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