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wickedcanine69 's review for:

The Guest List by Lucy Foley
2.0
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

incredibly quick novel artificially slowed by shifting POVs that all read quite similarly. 

i like the premise of the format, switching between the time of the murder & the day prior, but i don’t think the story was effectively served by not revealing the victim until the end (especially since it’s… kind of obvious who it is). whodunnit is infinitely more interesting a question than who was killed, & considering that large portions of the story were about how awful a person the victim secretly was, the connections between characters would have been just as well, if not better, suited to a more classical mystery format. 

i enjoyed the character drama, though i was moderately annoyed by Jules & Hannah being so frequently self-pitying. i wish there was more space for the actual killer & their motivation to have some room to breathe, though. i also wish there was more of Hannah having her good for her moment, or of Jules & Olivia at the end. Hannah & Olivia are the only classically likable characters, though there were a number of bit parts i liked. 

ultimately this was better suited to either a different format or a different genre & suffers for it. also, what happened to paul?