As a fan of Emma Cline's work, I was excited to read The Guest. It is a story about 22 year old Alex, a grifter, a thief, a likely call girl, who was kicked out of her latest partner Simon's home after a faux pas at a high-class evening party. She spends the next week using manipulation, street-smarts, and an acute ability to read people to cause havoc, despite her plan to force her way back into Simon's life.

Emma Cline is a master at writing a story without really telling it, enabling the reader to grasp what is happening through description and dialogue. And, she certainly does it again in this book.

If it were not for the writing style, I likely would not have finished it. It is not easy to read a novel that moves slowly, feels cold with largely unlikeable characters, and still maintains interest. A true testament to an author's gift.

Thank you Net Galley and Random House for the ARC.

I would read 'The Guest' for Emma Cline's tone and writing alone. I was glued to the page and engulfed in the story before knowing much about our main character at all and even when she wasn't doing much of anything. It was interesting simply to be an onlooker in her world.

In fact, the feeling of looking in onto an unseasonably melancholy beachside summer fits perfectly with what the main character is going through. She's hiding in plain sight and pretending to be whomever she needs to be to get by. Even when she really is making things happen for herself, it feels passive because of her lack of connection to any wider motivation that we know about. It's fascinating and kind of heartbreaking to watch her do it and to watch her exist in a community without any meaningful connections to it, and only even attempted connections in precarious ways to meet her own basic needs. There's no real sense of urgency in moving towards anything - only hiding away.

If you like reading books for vibes alone, you'll find an intriguing albeit melancholy story here. There's not a ton of character growth or resolution to the plot, but I found myself drawn to the page nonetheless.

**Thanks to Netgalley and Random House for providing an arc in exchange for an honest review**

(will post on @__joyreads and tygreperl.com for pub day or am happy to post earlier if you'd prefer)

Alex is the definition of an unhinged female narrator: she’s young and hot, cool and emotionless, she gets out of messes by creating even bigger ones, she uses men and lies and cheats and steals and deludes herself into thinking all of this is okay. But what set this book apart from other hot girl lit/unhinged female narratives wasn’t necessarily a great plot twist or a jaw-dropping ending or a completely reinvented premise: what this book nails is tension, slow and steady, that makes your shoulders tense and your eyes race to the next page.

In this book, we follow Alex through a scorching week at the end of summer as she tries desperately to stay floating around the affluent East End of Long Island, even though she’s been asked by the older man she was staying with to leave and go back to the city. But she can’t go back to the city… she has no choice but to drift around and find a way to stay, regardless of what it might take.

The contrast between the languid, slow suburbs that Alex navigates through and her desperate situation is pure gold — picture being under a blazing sun, woozy from heat, edges of your vision blurry, hair knotted and salty, yet trying to stay sharp and cool and collected. Also, whether intentional or not, the nod to John Cheever’s The Swimmer was genius… from her endless dips through endless pools on endless, massive properties to the warped sense of time to her slow but steady disillusionment with the myth of suburban bliss.

This comes out in May and I’m counting down the days until I can buy my own copy and walk to the beach and re-read this in the SUN which is 100% how it deserves to be read

I finished The Guest although in some parts reluctantly. I was intrigued by the characters especially Alex, but I could not get to like her. I assume this is the point of her character and she is well written.
I read through the book wondering what might happen and in the end not much did, but the snapshot of a life with the flaws and decisions (usually bad or terrible) made for an interesting read.

Really enjoyed this book. it's set on Long Island- and I always like reading books that are set in my area. I read this first before reading the Girls, and I think she topped herself in this one. My only complaint is that the ending was so vague.

Emma Cline always sucks me into the story quickly and leaves me deeply immersed. You don't read her stories you live inside of them. Vivid and compelling. I have a book hangover. Thank You NetGalley and Random House for the Arc of this wonderful book

Sad that I finished this. I wish I were still reading it. Empathetic and exacting, a real vivid look inside the mind of someone whose identity is in flux, by design.

Emma cline has done it again I absolutely love the girls so much and her short story collection daddy and the guest was no different I wait for may so I can get my own physical copy thank you net gallery for the review coby

Alex is a young woman, living with her very wealthy boyfriend on Long Island for the summer, escaping an ex boyfriend and life of near poverty as an escort in NYC. She's an unlikable character, and unreliable narrator from the beginning. In The Guest, we see how she hops from situation to situation, attempting to manipulate others to allow her safe places to stay after her boyfriend kicks her out of his home shortly before his big end of season Labor Day Party. Illogically, she is convinced that crashing his party will convince him to allow her back into his life.

I don't mind an unlikable narrator, and certainly don't need to like the main character to enjoy a book, and for a good bit of the book I was curious how Alex managed to successfully con person after person, if only for brief periods of time, in her scheme to stay on Long Island. That said, eventually the book lost steam for me, and I was left questioning what the message behind this book was, what was the point of all the trouble Alex went through. The ending comes on rather abruptly and very unsatisfactorily as well. Which left me with my rating of 3 stars overall, it was a strong beginning to middle, but the end severely detracted from my overall enjoyment of the novel.

Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for the electronic ARC of this novel for review.

This is hard to get into. I feel like there’s no anchor point. This could be a short story? I feel very adrift in this and could tell from the beginning that the point of this is there is no point. Hard pass for me.

Told solely from a third person point of view, this story of the homeless 'grifter' and chancer, in her 20s, Alex, who had a really good thing with an older rich dude on the island (a US mainland retreat for the elite), when a faux pas results in him summarily dismissing her. Alex does not - want to give up on the 'relationship' / leave the island / accept reality; the book follows her time on the island as she tries to carve out some sort of existence, creating different tailored personas to be 'the guest' in the lives of people that maybe able support or protect her, while she decides her next steps. Alex is a young woman teetering on the edge, but one who is very capable at using her experiences, intelligence and guile to survive.

Like in The Girls Cline creates a unique (female) voice and despite obviously not being particularly a nice or rational individual, still had me the reader, completely immersed in her stories of survival, being an outlier and being a guest in others' lives. Some parts psychological thriller, some parts sensual suspense, for me this book meets one of the most critical criteria for a good read, it's genuinely 'fresh' and innovative, and at no point did I have any idea where the story was going, yet every twist and turn sat well with the protagonist and her reality.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book.
Alex is a drifter looking for the easy, rich life. She will do just about anything to get money’. She has someone after her for money she owes and he is dangerous. I couldn’t believe the ways she seemed to find something here and there to keep her going. It was a little silly but I did want to see how it ended. It was just Ok to me.

The Guest is the story of Alex, a 22 year old who finds herself spending the summer in an upscale beach community with her boyfriend Simon, an older man who she met recently at a bar. She's living the perfect life until she makes a couple small but serious missteps, which cause Simon to give her a train ticket back to the city. The problem is that Alex has burned every possible bridge back in the city, and the ex-boyfriend she stole from is frantically searching for her in the city, so she can't go back there and has nowhere else to go.

Alex refuses to believe that Simon is really done with her, so she convinces herself that she just needs to get through 6 days until his big Labor Day party. Her plan is to show up at the party and when Simon sees her, he'll sweep her into his arms and all will be well. But she has no plan on how to survive the next 6 days - nowhere to go, no money, and still hiding from her angry ex.

Alex isn't a likeable character. She lies, manipulates and steals her way through the lives of the people she comes across during the 6 days leading up to Simon's party. There's a sense of her desperation, but never enough desperation - she truly believes she can drift through the week, taking whatever she needs from whoever comes across her path. She is good at it though, which makes me question her past and what led her to where she finds herself now. But we never get answers to those questions.

What we do know is that the people she's using are also not very likeable. They're using Alex as much as she's using them. They just have more money and more power. It's disturbing to watch these privileged people use her and discard her, even after she shares some of her situation with them.

The story is dream-like and gauzy and you feel like you're floating through the 6 days along with Alex. The ending was abrupt - even though it's pretty clear what's going to happen, I would have like a concrete ending. I enjoyed The Guest even with the abrupt ending.

I requested this book after seeing touted as a Best new Fiction book of 2023 by Hapers Bazzar and previously loving Cline's last book, The Girls.

While many may love her newest read, this took a lot of willpower to get through and was not one that I especially enjoyed.

The story follows Alex, a drifter, who stays in Long Island in the days leading up to Labor Day. Alex has no ties and has no problem latching onto those who have something to offer. She will take advantage of their homes, their money, and anything else she can take, only leaving when resources run out.

At the start of the story, Alex is latched onto a wealthy man almost twice her age, Simon, when she is caught in an undesirable situation and is given a train ticket home and told to leave. Instead, Alex drifts waiting until a large event on Labor Day.

This book felt like it has NO plot and we are drifting as aimlessly as Alex. throughout almost the entire thing. While everything does seem to come together in the end and it begins to make more sense, it didn't make it worth the read for me.

This book was a wild ride. Like Cline’s other novel, there isn’t much plot, but she renders her characters in such a three dimensional way, you’re caught up in the story of their choices. I liked The Guest and appreciated how Cline dropped me right in the middle of the setting. I did, however, feel like it lost its way in the middle, but it found itself again by the end.

Very very very good. The dread I felt building higher and higher while reading this was almost palpable. My favorite by Emma Cline yet!

The Guest by Emma Cline
Publication Date May 16, 2023

Alex has spent the summer on Long Island mingling among the upper echelon of the East End. An older wealthy man by her side and ritzy parties to attend. All is well until she messes up and is no longer accepted in this prominent circle. Alex can’t accept this. Now on a mission to fix this mistake because she can’t go back to the city. Her past is closing in and it’s easier to avoid it. Grifting from one situation to the next, trying to figure out her place in society.

Review
Emma Cline always creates a great cast of characters. I was invested in them, yet the story only gives the reader a slight insight to the problems that caused their internal conflict. The Guest was well written and descriptive, which kept me wanting to continue. There were times where the pace was a bit slow. Overall, I admire a character driven story with an unconventional ending.

Rating: 3.5

Thank you Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group for the ARC ebook in exchange for an honest review.

This is the first Emma Cline title I've read and I'm in love! Alex's exploits were engaging throughout. The reader knew exactly what they needed to know about her life. No more, no less. I'm looking forward to reading more from Cline.

After being forced to leave her older boyfriend's beach house, Alex has nowhere to go. For six days she drifts from place to place, leeching off others in exchange for sex and/or companionship... i.e. their unmet desires.

Alex is quite delusional and this really begins to shine through as the novel progresses. Her morals are questionable, but the people she uses to get by aren't blameless either. It's quite fascinating to read how she floats through life leeching off others. She is malleable and able to contort herself to fit into many settings, but this means her sense of self is hazy and undefined.

One huge disappointment for me was the ending, which was left quite ambiguous. After building so much suspense, I was looking for a bigger payoff, but the ambiguity made it feel anti-climatic and unresolved.

Still, though, this is worth the read for those who enjoyed the dizzying suspense of The Girls, which is on display here on a smaller, more subtle scale.

Rating: 3.75/5

This book was amazing! I couldn’t put it down. Absolutely terrifying and thrilling at the same time. One of my favorite books!!