Lucy Foley

A REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER "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 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 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. 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. And then someone turns up dead. Who didn't wish the happy couple well? And perhaps more important, why?

The Guest List

Tina ok

Life is messy, We all know this. Terrible things happen, I learned that while I was still a child. But no matter what happens, life is only a series of days. You can't control more than a single day. But you can control one of them.

I can’t afford to fall apart, not today. 

Julie had made out that it was all a stunt, that Olivia was being a drama queen. I suspect it was the opposite. I think she was trying to disappear.

I want to cry like a kid as I stumble down to the beach, because it should hurt, my whole body should hurt, but no tears will come -I haven't been able to make them come for a long time. If I could cry it might all be better, but I can't. It's like an ability I've lost, like a language I've forgotten.

I wonder what it would feel like to have the ground suddenly fall away under me, suddenly disappear so I'd have no choice but to go down with it. For a moment I realise I'm standing here almost hoping for it to happen.

Just because the rest of us don't wear our hearts on our sleeves, just because we have found a way of managing our feelings - it doesn't mean they're not there.

. I do not want to talk about any of this with anyone. 

I believe she’s used to having the best of everything. 

*Waterstones Thriller of the Month* *A Reese's Book Club pick for 2020* *The Times Best Crime Fiction of the Year pick* *Longlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger Award*

Emerson Clute

It started promising, but I didn’t like the ending. I was expecting something greater, but I enjoyed it anyway. I liked the development of the character of Will, from what everyone, including me, thought of him to how his story is revealed at the end.

It was a really quick reading because the book keeps you hooked in every chapter.

Luis Letelier

It started promising, but I didn’t like the ending. I was expecting something greater, but I enjoyed it anyway. I liked the development of the character of Will, from what everyone, including me, thought of him to how his story is revealed at the end.

It was a really quick reading because the book keeps you hooked in every chapter.

LUCY. FOLEY

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 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 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. 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. And then someone turns up dead. Who didn't wish the happy couple well? And perhaps more important, why?

the british isles cannot be this small @ lucy foley!!!!

this was a fun read, and i'm glad i made it to the end, but i'm ngl i almost gave up just bc there were so many hints of like "i'm horrible for what i've done" "i can never forget what we've done" etc etc but bc there were so many perspectives, foley would just switch perspectives to keep the suspense going. at some points it was almost a let down to find out what had actually happened bc the suspense had been built up so dramatically + in such a cliche manner... BUT i did still gasp at some reveals, and it was fun to recognize the hints and clues that were dropped prior to these reveals. i thought it was so fun to listen to this as an audiobook bc they got several different people to read each character's perspective. i looooved hannah's accent, and olivia's voice was so sweet and timid in a way that really matched her storyline. at the same time, i felt like will and jules's relationship still didn't quite make sense to me -- like, why did they decide to marry after such a short amount of time? what really drew jules to will? they did address a bit what drew will to jules, but i wasn't quite satisfied just bc he seemed so psychopathic that i just couldn't get my head around him actually having real, strong emotions about her. slightly curious about foley's other books, so i might try one more just to see if this is really for me or not.

lucia

the british isles cannot be this small @ lucy foley!!!!

this was a fun read, and i'm glad i made it to the end, but i'm ngl i almost gave up just bc there were so many hints of like "i'm horrible for what i've done" "i can never forget what we've done" etc etc but bc there were so many perspectives, foley would just switch perspectives to keep the suspense going. at some points it was almost a let down to find out what had actually happened bc the suspense had been built up so dramatically + in such a cliche manner... BUT i did still gasp at some reveals, and it was fun to recognize the hints and clues that were dropped prior to these reveals. i thought it was so fun to listen to this as an audiobook bc they got several different people to read each character's perspective. i looooved hannah's accent, and olivia's voice was so sweet and timid in a way that really matched her storyline. at the same time, i felt like will and jules's relationship still didn't quite make sense to me -- like, why did they decide to marry after such a short amount of time? what really drew jules to will? they did address a bit what drew will to jules, but i wasn't quite satisfied just bc he seemed so psychopathic that i just couldn't get my head around him actually having real, strong emotions about her. slightly curious about foley's other books, so i might try one more just to see if this is really for me or not.

Eva Ströberg

It's a clever "Who did it" murder mystery, only that we didn't know what happened until halfway of the book. It was all very interesting before that until it fell flat halfway, hence the 3 stars.

Will and Jules are high-profile couple who wanted to hold a wedding on an isolated island on the west coast of Ireland. It would be fancy and they spared no expenses, but some of the guests were entangled to each other's timeline without them knowing beforehand. 

All in all, a good summer / beach read.

Rebecca Hurd

This was so freaking well done!! Everyone had a very strong motive to kill and it had me seriously wondering...who done it?? I love it!!!!

Kath

Dang! I wish there was more to the story towards the end. The build-up was insane. I thought I wouldn't be able to get used to the multiple POVs, but I liked how my brain was challenged to stay on track with what's happening to every character. However, as I've mentioned, I think the build-up was kind of too much, and I wanted to read the ending halfway through the book. Something that I like about the mystery in this book though is that the readers won't just have to know or watch out for who the suspect is, but who the victim(s) would be as well.

Ainsley Jeffery

This book is how I imagine Knives Out would be written as a book, plot twist after plot twist, greatly puzzle-pieced together, and multiple character POV's. Loved this book and read in one sitting.

Sandhya

This is a classic whodunit and you'll be guessing the entire time. I especially loved the setting of the book, an isolated and supposedly haunted island. The whole story gave off a creepy vibe, which was fun. My biggest struggle with this book is that I felt like there were too many character perspectives and timelines, making it just feel like too much was going on at once. I found myself constantly turning back to remind myself where I was in the story. 

Hannah Colbert

Kaitlin Simpson

I’m not a huge fan of thrillers, but this was alright. It was a quick read and I like that. The one thing I will say that every one of these characters in this book are awful.

thought about dnf at the beggining, but i'm glad i kept reading because i saw what the book was addressing: that toxic masculinity and misogyny destroy lives. i'm crazy about this subject.

Slow beginning, but well wrapped up with a bow at the end. Plot twists that shock and lots of relatability and questioning that keep you reading. 

Estelle Fernandez 

Literally so slow in the beginning but it picked up towards the end and I thought it was entertaining. I think there were definitely some things that I wish were different in the end but overall it was okay. 

Grace Hevey 

Kaylee Ray

A bit slow for most of the book, but I did like how everything connected in the end!

Luke Harkness

Highly intrigued the whole way through

I was trying to decide whether to give this 4 or 5* after recently thinking I give 5* away too easily. This book had me fully enveloped the whole way and had me trying to work out where it was going and constantly being surprised when I got it wrong. It's smartly.written with the different first person views giving different angles to the setting and events. It very much feels like a modern Agatha Christie. Great story with some great moments in the final third.

Oliver Magnanimous

Isabella 

a let down. i love reading multiple pov, but i didn't like the structure of this book; the characters were all the same and indistinguishable and the multiple pov didn't add to the excitement of the story. it was so slow and there were no thrilling/exciting part because it was too predictable. too much coincidence honestly can ruin a good plot imo. personally, i think that there are better thriller books than this hence the rating.

This is my first Lucy Foley book that I decided to read. For me in my opinion, it just seemed slow at first for about 80% of the book and the last 20% seemed rushed. Would I recommend this to my friends?....eh I don't think so. The characters were based on their past struggles and that was the entire point of the book. The only thing that was a current problem with the characters was the end when they found the body. 

Angel 🖤

A REMOTE ISLAND. AN INVITATION TO DIE FOR. A gripping, twisty murder mystery thriller from the No.1 bestselling author of The Hunting Party. 'Lucy Foley is really very clever' Anthony Horowitz 'Thrilling' The Times 'A classic whodunnit' Kate Mosse 'Sharp and atmospheric and addictive' Louise Candlish 'A furiously twisty thriller' Clare Mackintosh 'Secrets and lies at every turn' Sarah Pinborough On an island off the windswept Irish coast, guests gather for the wedding of the year - the marriage of Jules Keegan and Will Slater. Old friends. Past grudges. Happy families. Hidden jealousies. Thirteen guests. One body. The wedding cake has barely been cut when one of the guests is found dead. And as a storm unleashes its fury on the island, everyone is trapped. All have a secret. All have a motive. One guest won't leave this wedding alive . . .

Suyash Goylit

When the lights went out, (view spoiler)[she (hide spoiler)] raised hell 

An absolute gem of writing. I've always been a fan of the closed room, atmospheric, whodunnits, but this took it to a completely different level. Where in the classic murder mysteries, the murder is the inciting incident and the rest of the story focuses on finding the culprit and the tension caused by it; The Guest List rejects the traditional structure and gave something better. Surprisingly, the murder in the story serves as the climax and the whole tension stems from the actions and interactions of the characters well before the wedding. This unique kind of writing seems very much the embodiment of 'show, not tell', when compared to the former.

Multiple POV writing is another thing that I love. It makes information revelation all the more intriguing and it is executed here perfectly. The way timelines are handles makes the story even more interesting. Furthermore, the slow-burn style of writing is at full display here. It is taken to a point where the aftermath of the murder is totally ignored in favor of the development and the build-up to it. Although that might sound a little negative, it certainly isn't. It rather elevates the tension and character-driven nature of the story, making the whole thing even more effective.

(view spoiler)[Finally, I believe the best mysteries aren't those that make the readers feel totally surprised at the climax, rather ones which makes them feel that everything was right in front of them all along, they were just too occupied otherwise to notice it. The Guest List is the epitome of the latter. The whole idea of the invisible wedding planner feels completely natural and pretty irrelevant in all the havoc that was being caused on the island. Furthermore, the author did a wonderful job of making Aoife the least interesting character (again something that might sound negative but believe me it isn't), which makes her seem completely harmless among the sea of guests that had all the reason to kill the groom. This, along with the culmination of her backstory that was being hinted at throughout the length of the novel, made her the perfect killer. (hide spoiler)]

In conclusion, I feel like although I still like the whole idea of a group of individuals searching the killer in a closed space, all the while doubting if the person next to them is it. From now on, this distinguished style of mystery writing is probably what I'm going to look for, every time I read this genre.

“In my experience, those who have the greatest respect for the rules also take the most enjoyment in breaking them.”
--------------------
The Guest List is not really a whodunit, as much as it is a why-hasn't-anyone-done-it-before-this-moment. Set on a weather-beaten and isolated island with the perfect atmosphere for a thriller, the plot is full of petty jealousies, ulterior motives, sinister secrets and issues galore (ranging from eating disorders to toxic masculinity, mom issues, dad issues, and self-harm) revolving around a wide cast of characters that are enjoyable to hate.
I am aware that this is shaping up to a whiplash kind of a review, where it is uncertain whether it is good or bad. It is very much on purpose. This is a book full of stereotypical characters and heavy-handed foreshadowing that I actually saw all the plot twists and reveals coming a mile ahead, but it was just so entertaining. Plain old fun.
I feel like this is a modern twist on the Agatha Christie type of murder mysteries, which makes me even more motivated to dive into the classics of the genre very soon.
3.5/5

it was predictable but also not? i did like how things connected near the end but i could see why it would be boring haha

chloe

Kelly mooney

Page turner! Couldn’t put the book down when I picked it up also major plot twist at the end didn’t see that coming!

Maikah Sabrina

It didn't feel like I was reading a thriller/mystery. The ending was also pretty weak.

lexie

i really love how men are such assholes in this book and they got what they deserved.

Laura Mauler

I read the first 200 pages in one sitting, which I think says all that needs to be said.

The Guest List

Reviews

Highlights