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A review by lrb0135
The Guest by Emma Cline
challenging
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
Emma Cline delivers again exactly what you get from The Girls, and I loved it. It's moody, and strange, and like a fever-dream. It's an accessible book, but I don't recommend listening to it on audio because it's also a book that "makes you work for it."
Alex, the protagonist moves through the world as an unreliable narrator, sans background on a past trauma that makes her the way she is; it's unnecessary. Instead, Alex is a vehicle the author uses to explore and experiment with the world around her. After all, she is--and the book is called-- the guest. We learn a lot about society (men, particularly in this book) by observing their reactions to Alex's actions, good or bad. The open ending allows us to draw our own conclusions about Alex's fate based on what we've seen throughout the novel.
Although the book doesn't have a beginning-middle-end plot, it's completely asinine to say that nothing happens. The plot is Aristotelian in nature, but the big question is: will the hero be welcomed home? Everything meaningful happens in the subtext, thankfully without the tired method of past trauma-dumping. Readers saying that Alex is flat and lacks background aren't focusing on the right places.
Looking forward to Cline's next work. After reading this and The Girls, it's clear that Cline puts a lot of thought into her writing.
Alex, the protagonist moves through the world as an unreliable narrator, sans background on a past trauma that makes her the way she is; it's unnecessary. Instead, Alex is a vehicle the author uses to explore and experiment with the world around her. After all, she is--and the book is called-- the guest. We learn a lot about society (men, particularly in this book) by observing their reactions to Alex's actions, good or bad. The open ending allows us to draw our own conclusions about Alex's fate based on what we've seen throughout the novel.
Although the book doesn't have a beginning-middle-end plot, it's completely asinine to say that nothing happens. The plot is Aristotelian in nature, but the big question is: will the hero be welcomed home? Everything meaningful happens in the subtext, thankfully without the tired method of past trauma-dumping. Readers saying that Alex is flat and lacks background aren't focusing on the right places.
Looking forward to Cline's next work. After reading this and The Girls, it's clear that Cline puts a lot of thought into her writing.