After reading The Girls I was intrigued about Emma Cline's latest novel and I wasn't disappointed. I found myself drawn to Alex even as she behaved more callously and selfishly; a sleepy summer novel , slow burn of a novel that left me wanting more.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of the novel in exchange for an honest review

I stopped and started reading this book several times and feel bad that I didn’t enjoy it as much as I had hoped I would. I struggled to warm to any of the characters (although I think with Alex that was the point) but did feel they were very well written. The author captured well the kind of hopelessness and aimlessness of the main character, especially as her actions became increasingly desperate towards the end of the book.
I have read another book by the same author which I really liked and will keep on with her others but this wasn’t the book for me.
Read through netgalley for an honest review.

This is a stylishly written book with a strong sense of discomfort right from the start. Alex is a great anti-heroine. Indolent, manipulative, fake, she's hard to like. But her situation is so grim and the people she is surrounded by, so entitled that her grifting starts to make sense and the flashes of humanity she shows endear her to you. As Alex spins into a chaotic drink and drug fuelled downward spiral, she reminds me of Patrick Melrose in Bad News and Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in the Rye. I've marked it down because it ended with a bit of a whimper and although I rocketed through it, I'm not sure it had much of a message or that it will leave much of a long-term impression. A stylish but ultimately shallow beach read.

I was hooked and couldn't stop reading! Following Alex on her week of waiting around for that party was quite a ride! I couldn't believe the things she could do, and how she managed to get away of all the situations she got into. Loved it!

A great idea for a story. Loved walking along with Alex around Long Island as she avoids the very real problems of her past and tries to get herself back to Simon. Alex is likeable, despite some terrible flaws and you do hope she sorts herself out. I've marked it down as the end felt rushed but it's a highly descriptive story conjuring memories of beach days and hot summers.

The Guest by Emma Cline makes you feel tense and stressed out reading it but in a good way as you wonder how the protagonist will mess up next and how far she will go.

Incredible novel. I hadn't read The Girls so came to this one anew. I was instantly hooked even though I didn't really like Alex but you feel for her. It seems that she is running from someone but the fact that you don't know why adds to the tension. There are themes of observations and trust - as the narrative builds you are not sure who to trust, and Alex becomes more and more invisible, a glass wall, perhaps representing her depression. Such a clever and gripping novel!

Absolutely packed with tension, wondering how far Alex will go to stay where she wants to be.
Fascinating as she weaves herself into people's lives being exactly who they think she is.
Those last few pages made me sit up and hold my breath, not knowing what to expect.
In the best way.

HUGE fan of Emma's writing. She manages sparse yet richly embroidered narratives that entangles the reader into knots of appreciation and anxiety. From the first page of The Guest, I knew that all was not well and that Alex was a deeply disturbed young woman. I could relate to her on so many levels. Her desperate attempts to do the right thing as opposed to her painful, neurotic lived her experience that was generally framed around the 'wrong thing'. Alex is vulnerable, messy, baffled, frozen yet fluid. She has so much to offer but hasn't found a way to give it on a level that functional people can relate to. She is a character who is both blessed and damned. A woman who juggles two distinct personalities within herself. Jumpy, hypersexual, risk taker and a second glacial, dissociated woman who watcher her life dismantle from a place of greater safety - a slow-motion breakdown.

This is a genuine page-turner and I read the book in about 4 hours. Highly recommended - I loved it.

This feels stylised and slightly opaque, especially by the end, as drifter Alex becomes layered with the deer of the cover - a can't-look-away commentary on gendered power, money, class, and what it means to have or not have agency. Something about this reminded me of The Talented Mr Ripley though Alex has nothing of Ripley's cool brain and ability to plot. Strangely mesmerising.