Scan barcode
A review by nickoliver
The Guest List by Lucy Foley
dark
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Superficially speaking, there were a lot of similarities between this book and Foley's debut, The Hunting Party. Both had really secluded settings that weren't so easily accessible as, say, the middle of a city. Both had a big cast of (mostly) unlikeable characters. Both had two timelines - the present after the murder happened, and the past that explained how it could have come to that and what the relationships between characters looked like. Both focused more on the past than the present. Both didn't reveal the murder victims until almost the end.
On the one side, there were certain disadvantages to the format being so similar. For someone like me who'd read "The Hunting Party" before - even in the same year -, there was a predictability to the plot that might not have been there otherwise. For example, I suspected the right murder victim fairly quickly, because just like in the book's predecessor, there was a big focus on them throughout the book. There was one big difference - Will didn't have a POV except for one little chapter at the end -, but it didn't deter me from figuring it out early.
However, on the other hand, it didn't make reading the story any less fun. While I didn't really participate in a guessing game for the victim, I was still very invested in finding out who did it, and why they did it. Just like in "The Hunting Party", the victim was an extremely shitty person, so there were a lot of characters who had differing motive to kill them. The list of suspects was purposefully kept long so that it was harder to guess the murderer, even if it hurt the realistic aspect a little. There could only be so many people who realised the responsible party for a big trauma of their past was at the same event as them before you started to find to roll your eyes at the unlikeliness of it all.
"The Guest List" did offer a lot of interesting twists and turns, too. Especially in the last third of the story did it feel like I got slapped with a shocking reveal every other page, and it didn't really let up again. It wasn't that everything was entirely unexpected and unpredictable - you could blame Will for every horrible thing that happened and were pretty much always right , and a lot of things were obvious the first time they got hinted at - , but there were still moments that caught me off-guard. For example, the eventual murderer was a little surprising for me, particularly the lore behind it.
Like I said, the vast majority of the protagonists were extremely unlikeable - not always for the same reasons, but apart from Olivia, Aoife, and sometimes Hannah, everyone made you want to start fighting them. While nowadays, I don't really mind aggravating characters - depending on the story, they can be messy and entertaining -, I'm usually a bit too infuriated to really cackle at all their drama. So if you need your story to be told from someone who will never frustrate you or say some out of pocket bullshit, you won't get that here.
Plus, a lot of the men made me extremely uncomfortable with the way they acted. They kept saying "boys will be boys" no matter how terrible and traumatising their actions were, and while it wasn't really discussed, it was obvious they'd grown up on toxic masculinity. Especially the way they thought about women was horrific.
All of these things made me not want to pick the book up at times. However, due to the format of the story - the dual timeline, the concealing of the victim until late in the book, the rapid fire succession of plot twists -, I was still very much hooked a lot of the time. Additionally, despite their horribleness, none of the characters read like caricatures; they were still fleshed-out and realistic people, which I liked.
Overall, while there was a certain predictability to the plot and the characters didn't make my enjoyment all too easy sometimes, I was still very much immersed in the story and needed to know what happened. It was certainly entertaining.
On the one side, there were certain disadvantages to the format being so similar. For someone like me who'd read "The Hunting Party" before - even in the same year -, there was a predictability to the plot that might not have been there otherwise. For example, I suspected the right murder victim fairly quickly, because just like in the book's predecessor, there was a big focus on them throughout the book. There was one big difference -
However, on the other hand, it didn't make reading the story any less fun. While I didn't really participate in a guessing game for the victim, I was still very invested in finding out who did it, and why they did it. Just like in "The Hunting Party", the victim was an extremely shitty person, so there were a lot of characters who had differing motive to kill them. The list of suspects was purposefully kept long so that it was harder to guess the murderer, even if it hurt the realistic aspect a little. There could only be so many people who realised the responsible party for a big trauma of their past was at the same event as them before you started to find to roll your eyes at the unlikeliness of it all.
"The Guest List" did offer a lot of interesting twists and turns, too. Especially in the last third of the story did it feel like I got slapped with a shocking reveal every other page, and it didn't really let up again. It wasn't that everything was entirely unexpected and unpredictable -
Like I said, the vast majority of the protagonists were extremely unlikeable - not always for the same reasons, but apart from Olivia, Aoife, and sometimes Hannah, everyone made you want to start fighting them. While nowadays, I don't really mind aggravating characters - depending on the story, they can be messy and entertaining -, I'm usually a bit too infuriated to really cackle at all their drama. So if you need your story to be told from someone who will never frustrate you or say some out of pocket bullshit, you won't get that here.
Plus, a lot of the men made me extremely uncomfortable with the way they acted. They kept saying "boys will be boys" no matter how terrible and traumatising their actions were, and while it wasn't really discussed, it was obvious they'd grown up on toxic masculinity. Especially the way they thought about women was horrific.
All of these things made me not want to pick the book up at times. However, due to the format of the story - the dual timeline, the concealing of the victim until late in the book, the rapid fire succession of plot twists -, I was still very much hooked a lot of the time. Additionally, despite their horribleness, none of the characters read like caricatures; they were still fleshed-out and realistic people, which I liked.
Overall, while there was a certain predictability to the plot and the characters didn't make my enjoyment all too easy sometimes, I was still very much immersed in the story and needed to know what happened. It was certainly entertaining.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gaslighting, Alcohol, Body shaming, Murder, Self harm, Bullying, Infidelity, and Death
Moderate: Abortion, Vomit, Child death, and Sexual content
Minor: Suicide, Drug use, and Sexual harassment
CW for revenge porn