A review by ashlynmanley
The Guest List by Lucy Foley

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

This book has me so conflicted. Part of me loved the way it was done and part of me hated it. Let me explain. 
I began reading the book extremely intrigued by the different POVs. If you don’t know, every single chapter the POV changes. It’s a very interesting concept. So the book begins with a chapter set in real time where the mystery begins. But then you jump back to POVs from the day before for at least 5-6 chapters before you return to the mystery. Originally, I thought this was going to just be a way to introduce the characters but then I realized the entire book was like that. So throughout the entire story you have no idea who died or who did it… until like the last 25 pages. It was a MASSIVE build up to a really intense but crazy quick ending. Not sure how I felt about that. 
I also just think that so much of the book was completely unnecessary. There were plenty of POVs where it felt like the entire chapter could be taken out because it just didn’t help the plot in any way. 
Now was the twists and turns predictable? I’d say I guessed 5/8s of them. Some were so blatantly obvious to me and then others were like jaw drop moments. And those of course felt good. However, the chances of what happened happening in real life… EXTREMELY slim. So if you want a semi realistic thriller/mystery… this is not the one for you. 
Now if you like a ton of background info and love a slow build with an abrupt, jaw drop ending, then I think you will like this one a lot. Even though I am conflicted about it, I definitely don’t regret reading it. It was very well written and the style was quite unique which I found intriguing. 
I will, however, add my little trigger warning. I normally try to steer from things that have talk of abortion in it, but I never read anything about this book before I picked it up. I definetly should have. I could sense where the story was going with one character quite easily but even knowing what was going to happen wasn’t enough for me. I still bawled my eyes out and hated the way they described certain things involving this girls abortion. It’s a touchy topic for me and I certainly don’t enjoy reading about it. So if you are like me in that sense… maybe don’t pick this one up. 
And then I’ll just wrap up saying that the sexual nature of it was just too much for me. I don’t pick up a thriller to read about sex, nor would I ever want to. Not only was it a HIGHLY talked about topic, but there were a few times were the book got super descriptive on what they were doing in the bedroom and it was just gross. Hated that. 
BUT! Overall, it did hold my attention and I was able to finish the book while still processing the ending for a while (which is a good feeling). So while I had my issues with it, I know that it’s still a good read and one that many will probably enjoy. 
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