My heart was in my mouth by the time I finished reading - a fascinating portrait of a young woman teetering on the edge and the misguided chain of events she sets into motion over the course of the dying days of summer.

This was a very hyped book, and although a suitable tense read it didn't quite hit the mark. Would still recommend for fans of contemporary literary fiction.

This is a very well written book that is also mysterious, we never know much about the girl telling the story except she is desperate to stay away from the city. and will do almost anything to that end: it is def not a typical 'psych thriller'. I enjoyed it though it is also quite dark and a little depressing

"𝑨𝒏𝒅 𝒊𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒈𝒐𝒐𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒆𝒍𝒔𝒆. 𝑻𝒐 𝒃𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒆𝒗𝒆, 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒏 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒉𝒂𝒍𝒇 𝒂 𝒎𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕, 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒚 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒅𝒊𝒇𝒇𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒏𝒕."

Alex, a 22 year old outsider working as an escort or a sugar baby is hiding from the ugly reality of her life while she leeches off its ultra-rich, yet oblivious residents. With a premise like this and a compelling and unpredictable main character, I was hooked to the audiobook.

On the surface, The Guest appears to be a seemingly simple story with Alex's sheer need for survival but in reality it is so much more. While I was sold on the promising pIot and the strength of the prose, I would have liked a more definitive ending but it seriously felt like the author just cut off the remainder of the book. The ending was anticlimactic and I wasn't ready for that.

I received an early advance copy from @netgalley to read and review.

Really enjoyed this meandering read with a kind of grifter lead character that you somehow still root for (or do you?)
I liked the fresh, provocative honesty of the character and her desires and opinions - her little tips & tricks and candid opinions on relationships were very funny and sometimes thought provoking. The setting was well drawn, with the experience of being basically homeless somewhere wealthy brought to life viscerally - I could feel the heat, the boredom, the sand, the sensation of living one moment to the next.
Tight and interesting ending. Recommended - felt like a holiday read (very readable) but actually more interesting, unsettling, unusual.

I love this writer and I love this book. The main character is multi layered and peels back parts of herself with every interaction. You will be rooting for her as she meanders through interactions with a variety of people. These other characters are either awful or kind of awful. But they are really believable. I invested a lot in this book and have savoured it. Totally recommend.

I absolutely loved the author's debut The Girls and so had high hopes for The Guest.
I found it difficult to get into the novel, the writing didn't flow well for me and I wasn't drawn to Alex, the main character. I felt that the novel meandered and lacked a tight plot and I found the ending unsatisfactory. This didn't feel like it was written by the same author as The Girls which was so beautifully written and atmospheric. A disappointing read but I look forward to what the author writes next.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this digital ARC.

I found this to be a pretty dark and disturbing read. Compulsive and entertaining. The second book I've read by Emma Cline.

A great thriller without being silly, far fetched or with the usual gimmicks that tend to appear .
This book is addictive ! It made for the perfect holiday read , as soon as I stopped reading I wanted more ! The ending did leave me feeling slightly deflated but overall a good one to get lost in for a few hours .

I put off reading The Guest because the cover and description made me think it was going to be just another glossy mainstream beach read. I was so wrong!

Alex is a young woman trying to make it in New York City, leaving behind a past for reasons which are unclear (perhaps even to her). Rather than juggling gig work, though, she subsists by acting as an escort to older, wealthy men.

At the start of the novel, she is spending the summer with Simon at his beautiful beach house in Long Island. Simon is, she thinks, a “civilian” – he is not paying her for sex, they have a relationship of sorts. He provides materially and in return she is the ideal companion at all times, even wearing the clothes he chooses. However, when she lapses from that ideal, he throws her out.

Meanwhile, Dom, a threatening figure from her New York life, is trying to track her down. Over the next few days Alex struggles to keep afloat in the hope that she can win Simon back at his Labor Day party.

That’s the setup. Alex is a clever and resourceful scammer, who also can’t resist self-sabotaging. If you’re addicted to scam podcasts (guilty) then you will enjoy the tropes. The ways she reads people, gives them what they want, allows them to assume – and the ways she trips up. These alone would make The Guest a great page-turner, but it’s so much more.

The writing is hypnotically gorgeous. You are drawn into a world which is at once beautiful and idyllic and false and empty. Alex’s heightened mood, fuelled by drug use and desperation, flows through every word.

Then there is the commentary as the privilege of the summer visitors is contrasted with the people whose role is is to wait on them. They play their part just as Alex does. She is hyper-alert to cues from everyone around her, with a hardwired sense of the hierarchies of power – of wealth, gender, social connections, physical beauty. Arguably none of the characters is being authentic, but it is when Alex is unable to keep to her script that chaos ensues.

The Guest has a defiantly ambiguous ending which has generated howls of fury from many readers. I love it. I came quite quickly to a view of what I thought it meant, but images and elements of the story kept coming back to me, making me view it in a whole new light. A novel that stays with you.

There is just something about this author that is totally unique. Filled with taught tension about a young woman. This book will have you sitting on the edge.

Wow, this book was no ordinary summer read! I would describe it as something that goes a lot deeper and makes the reader connect with the flawed main character, while she travels throughout the world of the rich and leaves her trail. Highly recommended!

Readers are sure to enjoy this sharp and twisted take on the conventional thriller. It’s truly page-turning drama and deceit at its best with characters you’ll love to hate.

WARNING: Rant incoming.

I liked THE GIRLS. I liked the short story collection DADDY.

But this? No. It had no plot. Plotless character studies are OK for short stories, but not for novels.

There were hints that a plot could happen, or big confrontations with Dom and Simon. With 50 pages to go, it seemed like the story finally remembered that something should happen with those characters. But they don't. (Does that count as a spoiler?) Those flashes of potential plots fizzled.

So what actually happens in the nearly 300 pages? Alex floats along with various groups, using sex to keep her temporarily housed. She drinks a lot. Takes some drugs. She pops the bacne of a seventeen-year-old boy, which sums up the novel in one word: gross. (Also ill-advised, in that skincare experts say not to do that, and also because best advice would be to actually have a plot.)

So this is it, a gross fizzler. Highly anticipated, but a major bummer.

I'll return to the author again for future reads, but with less enthusiasm.

I feel like this was a somewhat clever book, in that it kept me pretty gripped despite very little happening. But I found the ending (or lack thereof) very frustrating; in direct opposition to my reaction to Cline's use of ambiguity in 'The Girls'. I think she's probably suffering from the intense pressure that comes from having such a successful and highly-anticipated first novel, but this wasn't a great read for me and I hope she settles into a more comfortable (perhaps less self-conscious?) rhythm soon.

I absolutely adored this book, I mean, like 95% of it was pure literary magic! It had me completely enthralled on a sunny Sunday afternoon, and I devoured the pages in my quest to discover Alex's fate. The way the author portrayed this young girl, who seemed to be used and discarded by almost everyone she crossed paths with, was simply captivating.

But let's get real - the ending, oh, the ending, it's the one that left me feeling like I'd been thrown a curveball. I was riding this exhilarating rollercoaster of emotions, and then suddenly, I found myself plummeting down a steep drop. It's one of those books where the author leaves the fate of the characters up in the air, and honestly, I'm not a huge fan of that style. I went from this beautiful literary high to a crushing low in the blink of an eye.

What truly stings is how much I connected with Alex. It's remarkable how little we actually know about her, yet I was so invested in her journey. She was this enigmatic character, and I genuinely cared about what would happen to her. And then, bam! The ending just left me scratching my head, wondering why the author chose to wrap it up that way. It was like my excitement and anticipation had been unceremoniously deflated.

In a nutshell, "The Guest" by Emma Cline was an incredible read up until those final pages. It had me on the edge of my seat, my heart racing for Alex. I would have undoubtedly given it a solid five-star rating if not for the puzzling ending. I wish I could fathom the author's reasoning behind it because it left me yearning for a more satisfying conclusion, aching for more closure and resolution. Nevertheless, I won't deny that this book was a whirlwind of emotions, and despite my disappointment with the ending, it's a story that will stick with me for quite some time.

I should have not waited so long to review this as it seems that The Guest failed to leave a lasting impression on me. It had its moments, and early on in the narrative Emma Cline’s storytelling carried echoes of authors like Shirley Jackson and Patricia Highsmith. Alex is in her twenties, and for the past few years, she has been drifting along, using people around her to make ends meet. She doesn’t want or, or doesn’t even consider, the possibility of working a job like her peers, rather she manages to get by dating older men. These transactional relationships are not a reliable source of income, as the men in question either find a younger more attractive girl or begin to see cracks in Alex’s acting. After a fall-out with an on-again-off-again boyfriend and becoming persona non grata in her shared flat, Alex jumps at the opportunity to get out of New York. She tags along her latest man who is going for a break at his place on Long Island. There Alex makes a misstep that sees her falling out of his ‘graces’. Unwilling to return to her old place and knowing that her ex is out to get her, Alex decides that she will win this latest guy over by showing up to this guy's party (was it for the 4th of july? i can't recall), which is a week away. In the meantime she drifts, insinuating herself at parties, willing to deceive whoever so she can just stay in Long Island till the following week.

Prepare for a night of tossing and turning after diving into this bone-chilling thriller, where each chapter had me teetering on the edge of my seat. Great book, will read more from the author.

The Guest by Emma Cline was my first read of the year. I already loved The Girls so I could not wait to give this book a read.

As the summer comes to an end and after a faux pas at a dinner party Alex is not longer welcome at her much older boyfriend's house in Long Island. He dismisses her all while she does not want to give up on the 'relationship'. Alex struggles to accept the reality and she now practically is homeless. The book follows her along while she creates tailored personas to be the guest in the lives of the people she meets along the way. Meanwhile she decides her next steps to return to her former home.

Like in The Girls Emma Cline creates a very unique voice and character that is not particularly easy to emphasize with, but still has the reader completely immersed in the story. I loved the idea of being the guest in other peoples lives as this was not something I came across before in a book. Following along Alex on her journey and her next steps never felt predictable and was always a surprise that perfectly matched the character. I would take a wild guess that The Guest could be the summer read of the year! I only wish I read it laying under the sun instead of in grey January :)

I've been a huge fan of Emma Cline since THE GIRLS, and I adored the stories in DADDY. Her darkness, her turns of phrase, her insight in the minds and hearts of young women: I'm always keen for whatever she writes. I found this book absorbing, haunting, and riddled with suspense. It wasn't quite up there with a previous books for me, but I thoroughly enjoyed being back in Cline's world/brain.