The Guest List: A Reese's Book Club Pick and New York Times Bestseller
Don't miss Lucy Foley's latest book, The Midnight Feast!
A REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK
THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES BEST THRILLERS OF THE YEAR
“I loved this book. It gave me the same waves of happiness I get from curling up with a classic Christie...The alternating points of view keep you guessing, and guessing wrong.” — Alex Michaelides, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Silent Patient
"Evok[es] the great Agatha Christie classics…Pay close attention to seemingly throwaway details about the characters’ pasts. They are all clues.” — New York Times Book Review
A wedding celebration turns dark and deadly in this deliciously wicked and atmospheric psychological thriller reminiscent of Agatha Christie from the New York Times bestselling author of The Hunting Party.
The bride – The plus one – The best man – The wedding planner – The bridesmaid – The body
On an island off the coast of Ireland, guests gather for a remote wedding to celebrate two people joining their lives together as one. The groom: handsome and charming, a rising television star. The bride: smart and ambitious, a magazine publisher. It’s a wedding for a magazine, or for a celebrity: the designer dress, the remote location, the luxe party favors, the boutique whiskey. The cell phone service may be spotty and the waves may be rough, but every detail has been expertly planned and will be expertly executed in this gripping whodunit.
But perfection is for plans, and people are all too human. As the champagne is popped and the festivities begin, resentments and petty jealousies begin to mingle with the reminiscences and well wishes. The groomsmen begin the drinking game from their school days. The bridesmaid not-so-accidentally ruins her dress. The bride’s oldest (male) friend gives an uncomfortably caring toast.
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Community Reviews
What Bookclubbers are saying about this book
✨ Summarized by Bookclubs AI
Readers say *The Guest List* is a well-written, atmospheric thriller with a compelling, isolated wedding setting. Many appreciate Lucy Foley’s skillfu...
I blew through this one! It’s a quick read and it kept me invested guessing throughout. Lucy Foley really said “lemme put a bunch of insufferable characters on an island to celebrate the wedding of two wealthy and famous and equally insufferable lovers and see how all the characters pasts connect together and unravel.”
The story is about an exclusive wedding on an island off the coast of Ireland that results in the murder of one of the characters there for the wedding. We see the events leading up to the murder play out from the POV’s of:
Jules, the Bride
Aoife, Wedding Planner
Olivia, the Bride’s half sister/bridesmaid
Johnno, the Best Man
and Hannah, the wife and plus-one of Jules’ childhood best friend, Charlie.
I initially found myself not liking the sheer amount of varying POV’s the story was told from at first, but when all the paths crossed and the major climax came to the forefront, the payoff of it all changed my mind. Some of the twists were predictable and easier for me to figure out, but the biggest plot twist of all came out of left field and was very well executed. I read the Paris Apartment earlier this year, and I vastly preferred the Guest List over it. It felt almost like a modern Agatha Christie mystery and it was a quick read for me. I liked it!
The story is about an exclusive wedding on an island off the coast of Ireland that results in the murder of one of the characters there for the wedding. We see the events leading up to the murder play out from the POV’s of:
Jules, the Bride
Aoife, Wedding Planner
Olivia, the Bride’s half sister/bridesmaid
Johnno, the Best Man
and Hannah, the wife and plus-one of Jules’ childhood best friend, Charlie.
I initially found myself not liking the sheer amount of varying POV’s the story was told from at first, but when all the paths crossed and the major climax came to the forefront, the payoff of it all changed my mind. Some of the twists were predictable and easier for me to figure out, but the biggest plot twist of all came out of left field and was very well executed. I read the Paris Apartment earlier this year, and I vastly preferred the Guest List over it. It felt almost like a modern Agatha Christie mystery and it was a quick read for me. I liked it!
I enjoyed the setting and the characters’ backstories but overall this book didn’t really keep me engaged. There were too many POVs and the pacing felt very slow. A lot of the story was made up of conversations and people thinking about past events rather than things actually happening or characters actively trying to solve problems.
I also saw some of the twists coming, which took away from the suspense. The reactions from the characters who supposedly wanted revenge on Will felt underwhelming too
At about the 20% mark, I stopped reading this book b/c none of the characters seemed to have any redeeming traits. When I finished a different book, I picked this one back up just to see if I'd like to continue, and this time it held my interest. By about the halfway mark I started to care for some of the characters and to see how they're all more complex than standard good or bad guys. But ultimately, this is a thriller, and what kept me going was the page-turning suspense that kicked into high gear! I predicted who would die but not who did it, and while I'd prefer that justice be dealt through the proper channels, I totally understand the killer's motivation (and why the person blamed accepted the blame).
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