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A review by yak_attak
The Guest by Emma Cline
3.5
in The Guest, Emma Cline deftly submerges you into the fully transitory life of Alex, an aimless nobody who wheels and deals her way into the good graces of person after person, hanging on and using them for food, shelter, drugs... The graceful flowing from situation to situation is so well done, each rich bozo we're introduced to is well realized as the sole thing important in their horribly vapid world, and the ways Alex plays on (or fails to) their insecurities is great to watch. You root for her well, even if her ultimate goal is clearly a mistake.
Thing is, as well done as this aspect is - Great Gatsby as done by Eliza Clark, if you'll permit me the dumb blurb - I just wanted a little more? A heightening of tension, an explosion of debauchery, a horrific finale driving everything home, but instead it floats along, pushed and pulled by the tides until it just kinda... ends, little resolved, and Alex clearly continuing her unstable ways ad infinitum. It's a powerful ending, but one that will make this book disappear in the rearview mirror in the long run. Alex will disappear from my mind the same as she tries to disappear from others lives.
Thing is, as well done as this aspect is - Great Gatsby as done by Eliza Clark, if you'll permit me the dumb blurb - I just wanted a little more? A heightening of tension, an explosion of debauchery, a horrific finale driving everything home, but instead it floats along, pushed and pulled by the tides until it just kinda... ends, little resolved, and Alex clearly continuing her unstable ways ad infinitum. It's a powerful ending, but one that will make this book disappear in the rearview mirror in the long run. Alex will disappear from my mind the same as she tries to disappear from others lives.