Review for "The Guest List" by Lucy Foley

Rating: ★★★☆☆ (3.07/5)

I feel pretty indifferent about this book; my reading experience was average for most of it. I ended up giving it 3 stars because I did actually like the twists in it and how everything is connected together. Part of me doesn't really believe it (find it believable), but the bigger part of me likes secret ties and connections too much to care about the lack of logic (extreme plot conveniences) in it.

I didn't like most of the characters, I found most of them bland or stereotypes/cliches so none of them were super compelling to me. Most people like this story because of the atmosphere, which was one of the better aspects of the writing. However, I found the constant flips between now and then to be distracting and not that helpful with setting the tone or building intrigue. I also should just mention I wasn't captivated by most of the plot, I would almost say I was bored and just waiting for something substantial to happen.

I also am disappointed by the ending. It felt very incomplete, both because it ends very abruptly and it feels like none of the characters gets closure at all except maybe Aoife? Like Hannah said, many of them went through things too terrible to heal completely from no matter what happens, but still it would have been nice to know how the story played out afterward. Like what about Johnno? Aoife? It just felt like the last few chapters/plot points were missing. The whole point of an epilogue is to wrap up the book and explain the characters' ending outcomes, and this epilogue did none of that for any of the characters.

I feel like this review is very negative for it being a 3 star book so I want to go back to some of the things I liked. The twists were pretty shocking, and despite me previously saying the plot bored me at points, the twists were what made the plot more good than bad. Also, I did get a feeling of creepiness at all the right moments. When Jules narrates the scene of finding seaweed in the bed I shivered a bit in my seat. I also generally liked the setup of the book - the fact that the whole thing takes place over 24 hours was interesting. I liked the fact that there were so many perspectives, although the fact that one of the main characters doesn't have a perspective chapter until the end of novel is kind of telling about who the bad guy is. Still, there were plenty of twists within that that I didn't see coming.

I would recommend this to people who love loads of twists/connections in their thrillers, and anyone who likes the secluded-setting murder mystery. I understand why people love this book; it just personally wasn't my idea of a 5-star book.