Elusive and beautiful. I was frustrated with the main character a lot, she was difficult to grasp and understand, but I liked her anyway. I think fans of the author will like this one.

So I honestly don't know how to review this book. I was very engaged, and read almost the entire thing in one day. And there were some bits I found really insightful and well-written. However, overall it was pretty stressful and dissatisfying. It kind of reminds me of The Catcher in the Rye in some ways, except I liked that book more.

I don't know. I did enjoy it in a way, and it was compelling, and I found myself rooting for Alex in spite of myself. But I don't think I'd recommend it to anyone. Maybe it's just not my kind of book. I'd love to hear someone argue for why it's good/what its purpose is beyond just being tense and stressful and somewhat entertaining.

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House for the chance to read and review this ARC.

The Guest by Emma Cline follows the life of Alex, a very confused young woman. She has floated through life stealing from the wealthy men he hooks up with until she goes too far and is kicked out by her wealthy, older lover. She convinces herself that she will be able to get back with him and fills her time until she feels she can go back. In the meantime, she leaves a path of destruction as she hooks up with a vulnerable young man. While things don’t work out the way Alex would have liked, I would have liked to see why she did some of the things she did. There was. Line saying she didn’t know, but I felt this could be explored further. Nevertheless, it was interesting to see what lengths she would go to to get what she wanted.

4 stars. I really enjoyed this book, despite my doubts. The premise of this book gives off similar vibes to My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Odessa Moshfegh, but better. The pacing of the book is much faster than MYORAR, and I found Alex to be a much more likable(while still unlikable) character.

E mma Cline always write such gritty, unlikeble (but yet I do!) main characters. I think at some point in every early adulthood we have all felt this way. Unsure of what to do or how to be. In this case we have a narrator who makes you want to scoop them up and protect them as well as sHake them to make better choices.

The Guest
A Novel
by Emma Cline
Ahhh, I just could not really see any Taut, propulsive, and impossible to look away from, Emma Cline’s The Guest is a spellbinding literary achievement.
It was pretty much a slow, and not very entertaining book for me. Alex was very used to using people for her own gain. It was slow and when I finished... I seemed to miss what the ending was.

I read this book in little more than one day. I usually don’t feel empathy for female characters who use their bodies and have sex to get their way, but Alex, our wayward protagonist, had me wholly on her side as she struggled to survive.
I think I know how the book ended, but I can’t wait to discuss the ending with others who have read this fast paced novel!

i really wanted to enjoy this because i appreciate the facade of listlessness that emma cline infuses into her female characters, but it turns out that without the captivating facet of historical fiction/cults, there's really not much substance :/

i wasn't quite sure what this story was trying to get at or what i'm supposed to take away from it. nothing is ever really explained or stated explicitly, it's a book built up of tiny rushes of rising action and no climax.

cover is sick though

After her sensational, provocative novel “Girls”, I was expecting something unique, intelligent, unconventional from Emma Cline and thankfully her new book satisfied my high expectations!

She achieved something impossible: I found myself get attached with a character I knew nothing about her past, her background, her motives, the reasonings of her actions. She may also considered as an anti heroine: numbing her mind with pills, hanging with the old men to get taken care of, not working at a decent job, not having a proper future plan! She’s even written through third person narration.

You can get frustrated how the lengths she may go to survive by manipulating, using people, taking advantage of them. But there’s also another side of the truth: the people she gets interacted are not blameless. They are privileged, snob people living their own worlds, are ruthless and selfish enough not to care anything about her. She is like a ghost, a parasite to them secretly existing a place in their beach houses. I don’t know which side was more despicable, Alex: 22, looking for a proper candidate to get financially attached but also looking for someone to care about her or the men who are dating with a girl in their half age and throwing her out as soon as they see something they don’t like about her.

Her last lover was Simon who seemed like a catch, in his mid fifties, taking her to his beach house, introducing her to his show off, elite, pretentiously rich friends circle. All of those so called friends look at her like a insect they want to crush under foot. Alex steals , lies, cheats, using sex as a weapon to get her way but the people she deals with are not innocent as well. Simon didn’t pity on her, telling her to return back to the city, charging his assistance to send her away with train ticket. Before judging the actions of Alex, you learn to look at the events from her perspective and after absorbing everything objectively you just feel sorry for her.

The ending of the book is foreseeable from the beginning and you just keep turning the pages to find out if there’s chance you might be wrong! You keep following how she self sabotaging, trying a way out but just like all the liars who believe in their own lies!

Overall: this is fascinating, smart and riveting reading! I loved story’s development and the author’s engaging writing style.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for sharing this amazing digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest opinions.

Since The Girls by Emma Cline has remained in my mind and one of my favorites since reading last year, my hopes for the Guest were tremendous. This book follows Alex, a twenty-two-year-old solely dependent financially and emotionally on her much older boyfriend, Simon. When she is suddenly kicked out of his beach home, Alex has to find a way to fend for herself by attaching herself to anyone she finds on the way. She morphs into different friend groups and families by lying her way out of everything to survive this beach town and a crazed friend to whom she owes a large chunk of money. Alex is determined to right her wrongs and find her way back to Simon at any cost necessary, which means taking advantage of those trying to help.

I read this book from start to finish without putting it down. It was an addicting read that felt almost claustrophobic to get through in the best possible way. Emma Cline describes Alex as a distant and detached character shown through the third-person narration while still being able to connect the reader to her struggles. Alex is entertaining herself in random citizen's lives to stay close to her boyfriend, who she may or may not know secretly hates her. You see the lengths she will go to hold onto something she thought was unique.

I absolutely loved this book, constantly craving more but understanding the intentional purpose of being held at arm's length with the main character. It's the perfect quick and addicting read that any unhinged women's literature fan would devour and enjoy. I need this in my physical possession to read over and over again.

Thank you Penguin Random House and Netgalley for this ARC.
The review will post posted on https://www.instagram.com/cherryreads/
Mid November to early December

This was my favourite of Emma Cline's books. It perfectly captured the feelings of chaos and listlessness of being a young woman without a home. Of scraping by using your wits and your beauty and the generosity of bad men.

My heart was pounding the entire time, the desire to protect Alex was real and overwhelming.

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

Was my copy missing a real ending? I don’t know what to do with this book. I feel like another person Alex has played. We learn nothing about her and she learns nothing about herself.

This was my first book by Emma Cline and I thought it was interesting. I did find it a bit hard to empathize with Alex because I didn’t like her. Overall, a solid read. Thanks for letting me check it out!

Sometimes I read a book and it’s good, but I find myself asking what the point of it was. That, and, I have to sit with it for awhile to really take it all in. That is the case with The Guest, by Emma Cline.
Carrying the same dark tone as her previous works, the same ability to write about strange and unlikeable people, I found TG to be closer to her short story collection than her debut novel.
We follow Alex, who is in a financially beneficial relationship with a man named Simon. The story opens with Alex making a mistake, which costs her this relationship. Rather than leaving the town that she was staying in, she decides to try and find her way back to him, whatever it takes.
There is both more to it than that, and not. I would almost describe this as a character study, because we spend the entirety of the book following Alex, as she weaves through one complicated situation to the next.
I liked my time with this book, though it often felt like the beginning of a panic attack. I think I’d revisit it, too.
Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

As a fan of Emma Cline's The Girls, you could imagine my excitement when I heard she was coming out with a new novel. I devoured this in one sitting. in true fashion. Thank you netgalley & the publisher for the ARC!

A wild, captivating story full of energy and told with restraint. Alex is 22 and is currently enjoying being the arm candy of a wealthy older man, Simon, while they spend the summer at his estate in Long Island. After Simon sees Alex "misbehaving" at a dinner party, he kicks her to the curb. Alex, however, is undeterred in her quest to get others to fund her desired lifestyle. She gives herself until Labor Day to make it back into Simon's good graces. How far is she willing to go? With her bizarre combination of apathy and determination, the answer is: pretty far.

Alex joins a growing list of literary cool girl scammers and simultaneously manages to be repulsive and yet someone you want to see succeed. The writing pulled me in immediately and it was very entertaining to see how far Alex would get with her one bag of clothes and broken phone. Highly recommend if you are in the mood for a tense, stylish, and buzzy read.

Thank you very much to Random House and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advance copy.