The Guest - Emma Cline

The Guest

By Emma Cline

  • Release Date: 2023-05-16
  • Genre: Literary Fiction
Score: 3.5
3.5
From 473 Ratings

Description

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A young woman pretends to be someone she isn’t in this “spellbinding” (Vogue), “smoldering” (The Washington Post) novel by the New York Times bestselling author of The Girls.
 
“Under Cline’s command, every sentence as sharp as a scalpel, a woman toeing the line between welcome and unwelcome guest becomes a fully destabilizing force.”—The New York Times

LONGLISTED FOR THE PEN/FAULKNER AWARD • A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New Yorker, Time, NPR, The Washington Post, Financial Times, Harper’s Bazaar, Elle, Vogue, Glamour, Newsweek, Good Housekeeping, Slate, Time Out, Chicago Public Library, Electric Lit, Bookreporter

“Alex drained her wineglass, then her water glass. The ocean looked calm, a black darker than the sky. A ripple of anxiety made her palms go damp. It seemed suddenly very tenuous to believe that anything would stay hidden, that she could successfully pass from one world to another.”

Summer is coming to a close on the East End of Long Island, and Alex is no longer welcome.

A misstep at a dinner party, and the older man she’s been staying with dismisses her with a ride to the train station and a ticket back to the city.

With few resources and a waterlogged phone, but gifted with an ability to navigate the desires of others, Alex stays on Long Island and drifts like a ghost through the hedged lanes, gated driveways, and sun-blasted dunes of a rarefied world that is, at first, closed to her. Propelled by desperation and a mutable sense of morality, she spends the week leading up to Labor Day moving from one place to the next, a cipher leaving destruction in her wake.

Taut, propulsive, and impossible to look away from, Emma Cline’s The Guest is a spellbinding literary achievement.

Reviews

  • Meh

    3
    By akpowerplay
    This book never really took off. I kept waiting for the big twist that never happened.
  • Boring

    2
    By Needs Starbucks
    For young audience
  • Anti- heroine

    3
    By youcallmesomething
    The main character is not likable so how can you be on her side?
  • Did not care for book

    1
    By Dana 220
    I thought it would be a fun read with some twists. It had none of that. It is boring with no character development. There was hardly a plot. I had to force myself to finish, thinking it might get better towards the end but the ending was just as terrible as the rest.
  • Loved

    4
    By brock_zahler
    I liked this a lot! I can see the points of other reviews in saying it sort of doesn’t have a great ending, but I feel like it definitely fits the vibe of the book. The structure almost feels like a short story to me. I definitely loved the descriptions the author included of people and things, and I’d be intrigued to read more. Would recommend to mystery or drama fans.
  • Fantastic thriller!

    5
    By lifeisgood001
    What a page turner! Really enjoyed this.
  • Perfect End of Summer Read

    5
    By sunaugs
    Pour an iced tea and freak yourself out over Alex’s path through the Hamptons.
  • Wasn’t As Good As Hoped

    3
    By cakEbabY1989
    I like this author’s previous books; however, this one was a bit of a let down. The constant repetition of “Dom” got annoying after awhile. I don’t know…just wasn’t as edgy as I’d expected but still a good read.
  • Seems unfinished

    2
    By 54789754
    This kept my attention but the ending was so deeply unsatisfying. My instinct was to give it one star but since it held my attention for so long I had to give it credit for that.
  • Waste of time and money

    1
    By FriscoDeb1970
    No ending. No closure.