The Guest List by Lucy Foley

“The rage is growing inside me, overtaking the shock and grief. I can feel it blossoming up behind my ribs. It’s almost a relief, how it obliterates every other feeling in its path.” 

An exclusive event. An isolated location. A creepy, foreboding atmosphere.

An island off the coast of Ireland is the perfect location for the wedding of a charismatic television celebrity and an ambitious magazine publisher. The guests consist of new acquaintances and old friends. As the wedding party assembles it becomes all too clear that there are layers to every relationship and a history of deep-seated resentment. The circumstances of the unsettling events of the wedding day are gradually revealed through flashbacks to past interactions, bringing to light past secrets.

If there is one genre in which I will pick up a much-hyped book every time, it is absolutely the mystery/thriller. In recent months, The Guest List has been that book that was a must-read in new releases, and needless to say I had to give it a read. As is the case with a lot of hyped books, for me, this one fell below expectations. Having read the author’s previous mystery novel, The Hunting Party, in anticipation of the new release, I feel that the format and characters just simply doesn’t click with me. While I have absolutely no issue with unlikeable characters in stories, many characters presented here are next level unlikeable and wholly unsympathetic. This is to the point that I was less intrigued by the story unfolding and more annoyed. The use of different perspectives does work well and I had no problem keeping track of characters. However, because I found many of the characters quite awful, I did not want to spend a lot of time on their perspective. The story does really take off around 250 pages in and becomes a true page-turner. I found myself completely immersed and eager to see how everything would unfold and wrap-up. The way the twists are revealed is especially well done, and although I did see one of them coming it still had an impact. And when it is all said and done, the ending was quite satisfying. I only wish it was as exciting getting there.