A review by bookedbymadeline
The Guest List by Lucy Foley

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

5.0

I love Foley’s writing! The way she tells the story alternating between past and present, revealing little chunks of the murder details at a time rather than giving too much away at the start. That definitely kept me from knowing/guessing with absolute certainty what had happened and who was involved. I also loved the switching POVs and slow reveals of each secret over the course of the novel. I enjoyed Foley’s first novel, The Hunting Party, and with this book she’s officially become one of my favorites for the genre and an auto read author!

I stayed up way too late reading this and finished in just 2 days! One of the secrets I predicted pretty early on but the others were shocking and I didn’t see them coming. The final twist especially was jaw dropping!!

All the characters are complicated with both likable and unlikeable qualities. One thing I didn’t like however was all the body shaming and fatphobia. It just felt completely unnecessary to include.

Overall it was a quick and enjoyable classic murder mystery. These types of thrillers with the switching POVs and group of people trapped together resulting in a murder are my favorite kind of thriller novel honestly! Highly recommend if you also enjoy classic murder mysteries involving a group of friends/acquaintances, isolated setting, and dark secrets coming to the surface. Please do pay attention of the trigger warnings though because there’s A LOT
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