Reviews with content warning for Alcoholism - The Guest List

Reviews tagging 'Alcoholism'

The Guest List by Lucy Foley

132 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.

Content Warnings

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

Content Warnings

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

Content Warnings

natalie027's review

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I love that the narrative jumped back and forth between the events leading up to the murder and as they unraveled what had happened. I expected to get annoyed at the characters hiding things even when they were the narrator, but it was cleverly set up so that they either were hiding things from themselves/trying not to think about things or were focused on the conversations they were having and it made sense for them to keep things secret.

Some of the plot twists were hinted at and paid off in a satisfying way, but some of them thoroughly bamboozled me, and I was so impressed by both!

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atsundarsingh's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

Totally didn't see the end coming, and it managed to be layered surprises past the initial one. I liked the multiple POVs despite myself; author really managed to make each charcter have their own voice and make sense. Pretty suspenseful, and I was interested for the most part. Occasionally fell off, particularly Johnno in the first 2/3 but otherwise largely good.

Content Warnings

chemistreader's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

This thriller/murder mystery definitely kept me guessing until the end - I had some inklings of what may have happened here and there but definitely didn’t put it all together. It was intriguing not knowing whodunit or the victim until the very end. Early on the book was slow with poor character development. I really wish there had been one more chapter to tie up the loose ends with the characters. The ending felt rushed. Also some of the “trigger warning content” was annoying and not necessary and thrown in for the shock factor.

Content Warnings