As usual, Bohjalian surprises his readers with his topic. He's given us a look into human trafficking and I won't soon forget this story.

I am a big Chris Bohjalian fan. I have read most of his books and listen to him when he is interviewed. This novel was engrossing and kept my attention. Still the subject matter was difficult to read (sex trade, underage sex trade, and ruthless characters) and I was frustrated with the many poor decisions the characters made.

I finished this one maybe a month ago, and it still haunts me - what a fascinating topic to write on! I tried to read it about a year ago, but it didn't catch at the time. I picked it up as an audiobook and that was what worked, and boy am I glad it did! It definitely stuck. And struck a nerve! I was totally drawn in both to the main storyline - watching how the men's lives, particularly Richard's, unfolded in the wake of such a surreal event - but also the back stories of everyone were so intriguing, and so pertinent, and oh man so often appalling! But necessary to read about, I think. I do wonder how much research Bohjalian did to write this story. Either way, though, I won't soon forget Nadia's story, or that of the affluent family whose lives were thrown into disarray from what one might expect would have been a (relatively) innocuous and mundane bachelor party.

I find I always love and get totally dragged into Bohjalian's books, so he's an author I'll never refuse to read, especially on a recommendation!

I didn't care for this book but I think that was because of the subject and doesn't reflect on the author. The sex slave stuff just makes me uncomfortable so I flipped through

My feedback comments have gone missing! I reviewed this title previously yet it still appears in my list, "GIVE REVIEWS"

I tried to read this when I first requested it, but couldn't get into the he story. So I picked up the audio version from my library and only made it one CD. I just couldn't deal with the way the story telling was going.

'The Guest Room' sheds light on a horrific world problem. A husband thought he would have a night of fun that led to deaths, debauchery and his life turning upside down. This was a page turning fast paced read. I hadn't read a book by Chris bohjalian before this one. In the future, I will definitely be picking up more by this author.

The Guest Room by Chris Bohjalian is a novel that seems to come at the reader from so many different angles that you end up wondering at the end of the tale, if you were suppose to like it at all. Or instead are simply suppose to recognize it. It is in fact, two stories in one. That of a marriage and a family derailed by a single terrible mistake. Then that of the horrific victims of sex slaves and the people who traffic them.

When Richard and Kristin Chapman agree to hold Richard's younger brother's bachelor party in their home, they expect a certain amount of drinking and bad behavior. But what they could not expect is that the night would end in murder.

Richard is the good son. The older brother who always makes the right decisions. A beautiful wife. A lovely young daughter and a successful career in investment banking that has allowed him to move his family into a rather upscale neighborhood. His younger brother has always been immature and rakish and his friends are much the same. Young men in their thirties but still living as if they were in a fraternity. Tonight it would be no different. Kristin and their daughter go to her mother's for the night and Richard is left in charge. There is a torrent of drinking and it is not long before the night's entertainment arrives. Two strippers and their burly Russian bodyguards. But these girls are not just strippers and it doesn't take long for the night to sink into a cesspool of sex and debauchery and then, suddenly, one of the girls take a knife and cuts open the throat of one of the bodyguards. Quickly, before anyone could react there are gunshots and the other Russian lays dead in Richard's house.

What comes next is the slow erosion and destruction of Richard's life. His wife convinced yet trying not to believe that he had been unfaithful. The news of what happened is quickly on the news and his home is invaded by police and media alike. His career is frozen and his employer must decide what to do and the sickening realization that these girls were not just strippers. They were not hookers or escorts. That the girls who were in his house were in fact sex slaves. Girls who were kidnapped and raped and beaten and tortured and brought to America to work for their masters. They were slaves and worse is the real possibility that may have been underage as well.

Alexandra was a teenage girl who dreamed of being a ballerina when she was taken from her home and raped by her handlers. They brutalized her and used her until she was ready to become a commodity they could sell. Now in America, on the run from the police and the Russian mobsters who will want her dead, she doesn't know where to turn. No one had ever been kind to her, except for the older man in the nice house where her and Sonya killed their guards. The man named Richard.

This novel is told in several voices, that of Richard and Kristin and their young daughter as they come to terms with what happened in their home. How they as a family can move forward or even if they should. The truth that no matter what happens they will always be looked at, at their schools and their jobs and their neighborhood as that family. A scandal that will always stain them.

The other voice is that of Alexandra as we learn directly from her how she came to be a courtesan, as she refers to herself. It is brutal and heart-wrenching and if you are shocked by the truth of what sex trafficking is, then perhaps this is not your book. but perhaps that is all the more reason it should be. Prostitution, like gambling is often called a victim less crime. The story Alexandra tells will tear that lie apart.

What I found somewhat disturbing about The Guest Room is that there is not a single male character that is a good guy. Not one. Not even Richard who in his attempt to right a wrong simply makes everything worse and pays the price for it. From the men who stole Alexandra and the ones who keep her, to the frat boys that are the party goers. They are all, in a word, assholes. Not a single one that can be painted in a good light. Not a single one who shows outrage at the plight of the girls. No not one. All of them trying to deflect responsibility, all of them looking to cover their asses now that the word has gotten out.

The theme of this story is that sex trafficking is a horrible crime and that is true and told very well here.

The other theme is that men are pigs. All men. Seriously, to tell this story you had to make all men into a single caricature? No, that part is just lazy.

The Guest Room is a well written book about the horrors of sex trafficking and the impact that infidelity and scandal, even if it didn't happen like everyone thinks it did, can destroy a family. Not only between husband and wife, but more so between father and daughter.

Oh and that men are pigs.

Really.

This story of a night that went out of control and ruined lives is very compelling. I was drawn in immediately and kept interested throughout the book. There were characters I liked and some I disliked, but I was on edge to see what would happen to them next. Another great one by this author!

I can now depend on Bohjalian to somehow always evoke strong emotions in me. I started out this book trying to be cool about it, a well-done book about a historical horror (with a nice new twist) with well-developed characters that nevertheless I didn't really relate to and don't really get their connection to each other (didn't always "buy it"). Yet I keep coming back to them again and again, like a whiff of someone else's perfume evoking half-realized feelings with just the barest of signals.