Hateable characters alert! Most of these people are pretty shallow and despicable…just how I like them in this story! I always think it takes a lot of talent to make characters interesting and keep the reader engaged when the characters are so unlikeable. Think Jillian Medoff’s When We We’re Bright And Beautiful. Everyone here is using someone else for their own gain and yet, I was intrigued and needed to know what happened next.

Alex is on the grift with her latest older and rich boyfriend Simon, when she displeases him and he kicks her out. She has drug issues and a violent ex looking for her so she decides maybe this party in Simon’s community isn’t quite over yet. She knows how to fit in and blend into the background with the rich and self centered crowd she’s become accustomed to. I found myself feeling sorry for Alex in spite of her choices. The book is interestingly told in third person which I also liked. I’ve thought a lot about the ending and I’m good with it. Not a spoiler, but I’ll say that it makes sense to leave Alex’s world as abruptly as I entered it.

Thank you to @NetGalley and @Randomhouse for an early digital copy for an impartial review.

Expected Pub Date: May 16, 2023
Pages: 304

I was utterly fascinated with this book. A fairly simple story of a young woman who is out in the Hamptons with her rich boyfriend, when he kicks her out and she chooses to wander around and wait him out rather than head back to her disaster of a life in the city. I couldn't put it down until I knew how it would wrap up, and even now I'm still thinking about it, weeks after finishing it.

Cline has the ability to write main characters who are utterly imperfect and potentially even destructive and dangerous, but you find yourself strangely rooting for them in the end. This book may be small, but it has big ideas.

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group and Net Galley for the eARC. This book is set to publish in May of 2023.

While this next starts off interestingly enough, focusing on Alex's summer in a wealthy beach town (the Hamptons? Long Island?). She is twenty two, but she reads like 40. She's been around the block and she's a knowledgeable grifter, but she seemingly makes mistake after mistake (as a product of her age). You won't necessarily like this character, but we're invested in her survival. The statutory rape, however, is not a completely unnecessary plot device.

What's more disappointing about this text is that while it is a readable, and it builds to a conclusion, the climax never happens and the reader is left to determine the ending. BOO. It doesn't read as literarily ambiguous; it just reads as unfinished.

The Guest is a hazy and gripping novel following Alex, a twenty-two year old woman who finds herself aimlessly drifting around Long Island after ending things with the older man she’s spent the summer with. In typical Emma Cline fashion, the languid summer setting is written perfectly, and despite the slow pace and relative lack of plot, there is a vague sense of foreboding simmering beneath the surface of the book.

Emma Cline excels in tension endurance. The same suspense held throughout <em>The Girls</em> drew me to and was found successfully executed in her latest. I inhaled this book, mosquito to flame for the story’s antiheroine, Alex. However, Cline’s stylistic choice to offer readers bursts of plot buildup with no self- reflection or resolution left me saddled with a “What was the point?” reaction to an otherwise, well-written book.

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group and Net Galley for the eARC. This book is set to publish in May of 2023.
I loved The Girls by Emma Cline, so The Guest was highly anticipated for me. There’s no doubt Cline knows how to write a compelling female character. I was rooting for Alex, even though she was doing some shady things. Then again…some of the things she was doing—stealing from rich people—is probably at the very bottom of the list of worst things you can do. Alex is manipulative but also endearing, frustrating but also congenial—the complex humanity in her is something I found so relatable! It made her a well-rounded character.
Overall, I love Emma’s atmospheric prose and her character focused writing. However, I found the end of the book so abrupt and unsatisfactory. Perhaps this was on purpose? A representation of Alex’s nonchalant nature? Regardless, I was disappointed. Obviously, I enjoy Cline’s writing style so reading The Guest wasn’t time wasted, but the end did leave me feeling a little bit like “what was the point of the whole book?”
I love the little musings throughout the book like “She didn’t even want a cigarette, but now she was glad for it, something concrete to do with her hands, A time-waster perfectly contained.” And “Alex had the sudden feeling, for whatever reason, that she had been inside the white car. That she had died, here on the highway. It was a dumb thought, but she couldn't shake it. Maybe she was going crazy. At the same time, she knew she would never go crazy which was worse.”
Overall rating: 3.75/5 stars

Cline’s writing is what kept me engaged, but the plot was hollow with no follow through. The story follows a 22 year old woman named Alex who feels well developed as a character even though the reader does not know much about her. She scams her way through upper class families and after being ‘dumped’ by the older man, Simon, that she was seeing, she works her way through a group of rich kids. She plans on staying with Jack, the young son of a producer, until she can work her way back to Simon. Alex seems detached from her own life but the book is so closely tied to hers. She is probably a classic “unlikeable” character, but it felt impossible to know her other than her selfishness and recklessness. I felt overall neutral in her; it was hard to feel invested in if she failed or succeeded. The book was a quick read and takes place over a week, but still felt slow. Nothing much happens, which I don’t mind in a book, but the ending was unsatisfying and hollow. The book was great at building up tension but ends up fizzling into nothing with too many unknowns. I don’t need everything to be answered, but the overall bluntness of the ending makes the novel forgettable. It will not be something I think about further on, even if it was an easy read. The Guest has interesting characters and sharp writing, but overall it was overall a disappointing read for me.

In The Guest, Emma Cline grabs you by the throat and doesn’t let go, leaving you breathlessly turning the pages waiting to find what happens next. From page one, Cline expertly raises the tension as we watch Alex grift and maneuver her way through Long Island in a delusional attempt to buy herself both time and security. If there is one gripe that I have with this book, which stopped me from giving it a five star rating, it is the ending. It feels like a cop out because Cline leaves the story unresolved. We get the sense that nothing will end well for her but we’ve been waiting all this time to find out how and Cline doesn’t give us that. Pity. All the anticipation with no payoff.

This book was wild. I could not put it down. Alex's entire story had me hooked and I just needed to keep reading to find out what would happen next. Cline does an excellent job of portraying Alex as a terribly unlikeable character while also making the reader feel they are deeply connected to her and want things to turn out in her favour. This is my first time reading one of Cline's books so I wasn't sure what to expect, but I absolutely loved it and want to read more.


Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the e-arc.

I read this book in two days with my hackles up the entire time (in the best possible way). Alex’s behavior and thoughts made me so deeply uncomfortable, but at the same time I was absolutely rapt. Cline is such an excellent writer (one of my favorite working today) and while this didn’t quite live up to the promise of The Girls for me, I couldn’t put it down.

the novel is very character driven with no plot. the writing made it easy to follow through the story - it was extremely raw, rich in detail, and captivating. Alex's character was unlikable but at the same time I was intrigued with her decisions and how she's literally the queen of self sabotage and I still found myself rooting for her at the end. it was chaotic and this left me feeling incomplete with the ending! it's not a cozy read and definitely not everyone's cup of tea but if you decided to read it. I highly recommend looking up trigger warnings.

this is my first book by Emma Cline and I’m sure it won’t be my last! Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for the opportunity to review an e-ARC of this book.

I didn’t love this book. However I will say that I did enjoyed the development of the story, and the author’s writing style. This book just wasn’t for me

This book is A+++++ and it’s also creepy and weird. Thrilling without being a thriller, but too enjoyable to be literary. This is what smart people will be reading at the beach in 2023

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the Kindle ARC. I had read The Girls by Emma Cline and was impressed by her writing style and storytelling. The Guest is definitely up to par with The Girls with a completely different story line and new characters. Alex is a possible escort and most assuredly a grifter. She's in her early 20's and lives her life by taking from others, with nothing in return. She moves from man to man - any man who can provide her with stability, a place to stay and some of the finer things in life. Her downfall begins when she owes money to Dom and is unable to pay him back and the man she is with, Simon, loses interest, no longer providing the lifestyle she wants. Ms. Cline's book is a look at a life with no purpose, other than to get by without having to work for it. Alex has very few, if any redeeming qualities - many of the characters don't - but that's one of the things that makes The Guest so good.

Emma Cline is back with her first full-length novel since the smash THE GIRLS in 2016. I've been so excited to see what she would write next, and this slim but propulsive book is a slam-dunk. We are following Alex, a wispy 24 year old woman who gets by on scamming, and her good looks. She find herself stranded in the Hamptons after her older, rich boyfriend unexpectedly dumps her, but she can't go back to her apartment in the city because a former fling is after her for reasons we slowly realize.

Alex is both mysterious and unlikable. Is she a call girl? A grifter? Manipulative, or dumb? Perhaps she is all things, and Cline does a fantastic job in letting the reader in only in slivers to get to the heart of the matter. Her writing is at an all-time high, and her voice is still unique. One can argue that THE GIRLS launched a very specific brand of literary fiction, so it is interesting to go back to the source a bit (after all, I will read anything compared to an Emma Cline book). My only complaint is that the finale is abrupt and leaves much to be desired. I don't always need answers from novels, but this one really made me what a little more to the story.

This book left me hanging on the edge of my seat! While a fairly slow-paced read, Emma Cline still managed to captivate my interest with the constant danger looming over our protagonist Alex's head. After a few missteps with pseudo-boyfriend (sugar daddy?) Simon, Alex is kicked out of his house and forced to manipulate locals into giving her a place to stay. With budding anxiety over debts owed to a friend back home, Alex's charm wavers and threatens her ability to swindle.

I actually enjoyed the fact that we never see what happens once she reunites with Simon or how Dom reacts after being stood up. I would have liked to see more of Alex's backstory, though I can see the intention of having it withheld. However some of her internal monologue felt a bit repetitive.

The thread that connects the characters is the presence of loneliness and what they're willing to do to avoid confronting it. The Guest felt grimey but in the best way possible. Would make a perfect summer read.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for the ARC!

In Emma Cline's "The Guest," 22-year-old Alex attempts to scheme and charm her way to safety, networking through a series of rich weirdos in an unspecified oceanside community. She is determined to belong among these wealthy, worry-free people. The temporarily embarrassed millionaire. She moves with delusional confidence that she can always solve her problems because she can find and convince the right person to solve them.

In truth, Alex is always running from her problems, leaving destruction in her wake, eventually souring every relationship. Though she believes she knows how to massage every situation, can identify what each person she encounters wants her to be and then become it, she can't fully commit to abandoning her personhood - inevitably she lets the mask slip, allows herself to follow her own impulses, shatters the illusion.

I sped through this book, tense and hopeful that Alex could get what she needed. Should I be rooting for her, probably not - but I found myself understanding why she views all relationships as transactional.

There were many interesting ideas raised by this novel, and Cline's writing is sharp, sometimes painful. Alex felt so fleshed out, despite maybe even her own desire to remain a cipher.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for the opportunity to review an e-ARC of this book.

A slim volume that's basically a week in the life of a young woman as she scams her way through the Hamptons. We don't really get Alex's backstory so it's hard to know how much sympathy we should have for her as she makes mistake after mistake and bounces her way around the summer paradise. The novel is tight and compelling and she has an impressive ability to keep hustling. An elevated beach read.

The book take place over a few days during the summer so would make a good summer read. The story tells what Alex does during this time, Is a good slice of life story. Alex is a complex character who is mostly unlikeable. The conclusion of the book is very open ended and left me wanting more.

I liked this book, but I’m not sure I loved it. It definitely made me feel something, but that something was primarily discomfort, and a bit of disappointment at the open-ended conclusion. It has tastes of Succession or Revenge or other ridiculously wealthy Hamptonite stories, with the “you don’t belong here” feeling ramped up to 11. The protagonist is deeply flawed but you still just want her to be okay and everything feels extremely tenuous. She keeps convincing herself that everything will be fine if she can just get this one thing, but she also keeps misreading people and situations and fucking shit up, so that you know it’s not going to be fine, but even so you’re still anxious to at least see if she can at least get the one thing figured out. It’s extremely readable and I think I’d recommend it, but not to everyone.