The Guest List: A Novel

i like when everyone is a mess

this is what happens when you peak in highschool.

Not a big fan. I hated every character, was hoping they'd all get killed. Very farfetched plot lines and big stretches to try to make it all make sense, which it didn't. But it was engaging in spite of all that.

This book was...alright. I mean, it wasn't anything revelatory or particularly memorable, but I didn't expect it to be, since it's just a typical murder mystery. I wanted to find out what happened, but I also didn't really care too much about any of the characters or want to know that much more about them. Most of the characters were pretty shitty people anyway, so I wanted most of them to die lol, since they were all terrible and toxic people who deserved to die. I think even the people who I felt were supposed to be sympathetic annoyed me quite a bit. I was mostly like "omg go to therapy and shut up" rather than actually feeling bad for any of them. Also everyone needs to stop drinking and start talking more.

I do think that the ending was too rushed, and I also felt like there were too many coincidences that felt unrealistic. Perhaps that is why I felt like I couldn't connect to this book, since it just felt contrived rather than natural. A plot twist still needs to make sense, and these didn't because it was too much of a coincidence. There was a lot of build up about some ~secret events that people kept referring to, but when one of them was revealed (the stuff with Charlie), I was just like "oh that's it?" and when the other was revealed (Jonno and Will's secret), I was like "well fucking duh, that was obvious"), so neither were really very exciting or anything I cared about by that point.

The book was fine. That's all I can say about it, really.

The Guest List is one of few thrillers that I enjoyed. This book was well written and engaging enough that I didn't look up the ending in advance (which I almost always do - it is my worst trait). I did not see the ending coming and enjoyed the character development and thickly woven connections between characters even when you least expect it

What a page turner! I was equally drawn to and repelled by this book. It was fascinating to hear different perspectives of the people and situations identified in the book, as shared through chapters told-in each one’s voice. Another effective device was the varying temporal placement of the chapters, each revealing a bit more of the story, going back and forth in time quite fluidly. Very well crafted.