Based on Emma Cline's previous work The Girls, I came into The Guest with an idea of what to expect, but my expectations for this book were subverted in a good way. The book takes place in real-time over about a week and a half at the end of the summer in the Hamptons as the protagonist Alex makes increasingly irrational and sometimes outright bad decisions to try and get back together with her much older boyfriend/sugar daddy. Alex is a homeless 22-year-old who makes a living as a part-time-escort and full-time-grifter and much of her past is a mystery to the reader and the other characters. Some of Alex's choices made me feel physically ill, and I had to skim more than a couple parts to get past my extreme cringe. She is only looking out for herself and at times it is painful to see how others continually give her the benefit of the doubt that she hasn't earned and doesn't deserve. By the end, it's not entirely clear whether Alex has grown - she is self-aware and yet can't seem to stop herself from taking advantage of others' kindness right until the last page. I appreciated the deliberately ambiguous ending - it was much different from The Girls where the author's fate is known the entire time as the story is told through flashbacks. Overall, I would give it a 3.5/4 out of 5 stars - while I didn't always understand or enjoy reading about Alex's escapades, I was sucked into the narrative and I wanted to see what she would get herself into next.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for this great ARC! All opinions are my own.

The Guest is the story of Alex, a twenty-two year old grifter, who is staying with an older guy, Simon, hoping to get away from her shady past. After a falling out, she is sent away, but finds herself interacting with all sorts of people, each one telling her something about her life, as she prepares to be with Simon again.

From the first moment I read this book, I was pretty much hooked. The prose just flows and the diction is perfect! The pacing, the character development, the descriptions, the everything was just great. It was so refreshing to read a book as good as this one, with a plot that I’ve never really seen before.

For Alex, I would never be friends with this character, but I couldn’t help just loving this character even if I didn’t really support her choices—at all. The word I constantly thought of while reading this book was: self-destruction. She may not be conscious of what she’s doing at all times, but every path she crossed was doomed from the beginning. This character’s perspective was so enthralling and just kept me glued.

I love love loved this book! Definitely recommend this to anyone who can actually sit down and enjoy this kind of book.

This book was strangely mesmerizing; a can't-look-away commentary on gendered power, money, class, and what it means to have or not have agency. This is the second book I've read by Emma Cline, and the contrast between the sluggish, lazy summer setting and the main character's tense, desperate situation is perfect. While the novel does have a slower pace and relative lack of plot, I didn't want to put this down and found myself tense trying to determine what might happen next. I saw a few reviews that did not enjoy the ambiguous ending, but I personally love an abrupt ending, where the reader is forced to use their imagination as to the resolution. I highly recommend this one. Thanks to NetGalley for the early digital copy.

The Guest by Emma Cline was a quick read about a grifter making her way amongst the rich elite - I was eagerly turning the pages but the resolution left me wanting more.

I previously read The Girls so I was excited to get a chance to read Emma Cline's new book early. Emma's writing is engaging and her tone is perfect to align with the plot. I could really envision the drunk/drugged life Alex was leading, drifting from beginning to end. The only part of this book that I did not love was the lack of resolution. I didn't feel like we really saw Alex deal with her issues, nor did we see a big downfall. I would still definitely recommend this one as an intriguing read to friends.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House UK, Vintage for providing me with an ARC of The Guest.

This is the kind of book that you want to talk about when you finish so totally frustrated that I can’t ruin the ending! It felt like a story you somehow joined part way through but it sucked you in. I read this in less than two days as it crescendoed to the ending.

There is no background for the main character, Alex, but you learn a little bit about her throughout the book. She is not a highly likable character but she is just trying to survive. I got the impression she almost had Asperger’s as there was an awkwardness to her, but maybe that was desperation.

It is a simple enough premise for the book but it really does draw you in.

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House for a digital galley in exchange for my honest review.

The trials and tribulations of a sugar baby doing her damnedest to find herself back in the good graces of her benefactor after being sent away.

Alex’s latest boyfriend Simon, decades older than her, brings her along to cottage country in Long Island for the summer, but he quickly tires of her after a series of faux pas. Under the promise that they will speak soon, he buys her a train ticket back to the city. With nothing except a bag of expensive clothing, $400 in her account, and a broken phone, she decides not to return to the city where a dangerous former flame may be waiting for her. She decides to surprise Simon at his garden party in four days and apologize after he’s had some time to miss her.

The resulting novel is the ins and outs of surviving in cottage country with no place to go. From pretending to be a long lost friend on spring break, but accidentally sleeping with someone’s boyfriend to doing cocaine with Simon’s friends house-sitter and ruining a priceless painting, to pseudo-babysitting a random child to gain entrance to a country club and eat hamburgers on the parents tab. She manages to spend days near the beach without a car or a place to stay. But she keeps picking herself up at the expense of her dignity. Meanwhile, stealing and making judgments on the poor suckers she’s lying to for food or a ride.

This novel is a character study. It lacks plot. The writing is interesting, but it’s just writing. It doesn’t convey a story. It’s a snapshot of a life, but not an interesting one.

I loved The Girls when I read it, and still do. I think with a heavier plot, I would have enjoyed The Guest more than I did.

Despite my personal enjoyment, I think The Guest will become a kind of modern classic. It is to 2023 what The Catcher in the Rye was to the 1950s. It will find a home with fans of A24 films, Ottessa Moshfegh’s My Year of Rest and Relaxation, and Lisa Taddeo’s Animal.

Tense, palpable, and addictive.

Cline's writing is always a rare treat. I enjoyed her last two books, The Girls, being my favorite, and, Daddy, a book of short stories earlier this year, so I couldn't wait to get my hands on a copy of her second novel. The Guest isn't like anything I've read before. It's tense in a subtle way, leading the reader through a series of bad decisions as the protagonist, Alex, navigates the Hamptons one summer after being dumped and left at the train station by the older man she's been dating. Described as, “a cipher leaving destruction in her wake,” Alex lives a parasitic existence, bouncing from one person to the next, relying on the kindnesses of others to pass the time.

I felt somewhat conflicted reading this book, finding her detestable while at the same time completely hooked, curious how her story would turn out. The scenarios she found herself in where cringe-worthy but I couldn't put the book down, immersed in the affluent world described by Cline. I enjoyed the fast pace and unpredictability of the scenes as she met random people, using them until Simon's Labor Day party when she could make amends and he'd take her back. Hopefully. Adding to the tension was her last 'relationship' in which a man called Dom was actively stalking her, even threatening her, adding to the suspense until the cliff-hanger ending.

4/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

For readers who enjoy underlying suspense, complex characters, and addictive prose.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review. I previously read "The Girls" by Cline and I thought it was well-written, but it didn't make a big impact on me. This book, however, I couldn't put down. It was like watching a car crash in slow-motion. Alex is a great character - hard to love and hard to hate. By the end I felt like I was trying to will her to stop doing stupid things, and yet... I think the sort of amorphous existence of Alex is part of the appeal of this book - there's a lot unsaid here, but enough to make Alex feel very real.

I seriously considered DNFing this book for the first half of it. I was bored by the plot (or lack thereof), annoyed with the main character, and had no emotional connection to the story or anybody in it. While the book did pick up by the second half, I just couldn’t look past all of the things I disliked enough to enjoy it. For one, the main character, Alex, was insufferable. She was so incredibly selfish and kept justifying her actions while hurting everyone around her. And she had ZERO character development (if anything she had the opposite.) There were several parts of this book that were unnecessarily gross and disturbing, so I spent quite a bit of the book cringing. I was also very disappointed by the ending. I pushed through the entire book for none of my questions to be answered and for there to be absolutely no resolution to the story. One thing that I did appreciate about this book is that it was a fairly quick read and entertaining at times. Overall, I’m so sad that I didn’t like this, because it sounded so intriguing, but ultimately, this was not the book for me.

what this book feels like:

a midnight rerun you've already seen with that nagging blue light from the TV, but you're too irritated to go to sleep and too lazy and bored to move from the couch surf of a guy of a friend you met at a frat party that your friend was invited to because they're cute and somehow charming when they're drunk.

I received a copy of the guest from netgalley in exchange for an honest review.


This book will make an awesome indie tv show. The story: a young woman flees from her employer as she finds refuge with various men and female acquaintances within her former life as an escort on a small island.

While there is not much to the story, the writing is gripping, and as you follow the lead, you will find yourself on the edge of your seat.

Alex is an amoral twenty something thief, substance abuser, opportunist, liar and con artist. When her roommates kick her out of their shared New York City apartment she hooks up with Simon, a wealthy older man who lives on Long Island. She is on the run from a former boyfriend for something that she has done and while living with Simon Alex thinks she is safe. He lavishes her with gifts and takes her to posh parties When Simon kicks her out a week before his yearly party extravaganga Alex is on her own with a broken phone and no where to live. She is sure that Simon will take her back if she can only wait out the week to get to his party. She doesn’t use the train ticket her gave her to go back to New York City but instead stays on Long Island, living on the beach, conning people that she meets and hooking up with a much younger, troubled teenager.

Alex has the ability to transform herself to fit the situation and she uses it to her advantage while she tries to allude her angry ex and get through the week until Simon’s party. The reader knows that Simon doesn’t want her back but Alex believes he does.

I enjoyed this author’s book The Girls so I thought I would like this one too. Unfortunately, I didn’t. The characters aren’t likeable and the plot is her drifting around the wealthy beach area and conning people who are as unlikeable as she is I was only a little bit interested in seeing how the book ends but the ending, in my opinion, was a big letdown.

Other readers have loved this book so you might also like it even though I didn’t connect with it. Thanks to Penguin Random House and NetGalley for the ARC. The Guest will be published in May, 2023

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I couldn't bring myself to finish this book - it just did not captivate me with its lack of plot and slow pace. But I do think it has an audience. If you're a fan of the self-loathing cool girl think Ottessa Moshfegh - I think you will enjoy this book.

Alex is in her early 20s and just trying to get by. She's got a messy life, money problems, and aimless with her future.

This is an interesting story about a rather unlikable person. Cline handles the character well and illustrates her downward spiral. However I think this book was overwritten and I found myself skimming quite a bit, something I rarely do. I still recommend reading it because of the unusual character descriptions.

Following a woman in her early 20's grifting her way through a small, affluent beach town in NY. Very stream of consciousness with truly terrible characters. The late summer, coastal setting combined with Emma Cline’s stunning writing saved this from being a complete flop.

[3.5]
This book was really highly anticipated for me because "The Girls" by Emma Cline is one of my favorites. And though I really liked the writing style and was fascinated by the protagonist, this book didn't really quite do it for me.

This was very much a character study on Alex, a woman in her early 20's who is stuck in an affluent beach town after her older, rich boyfriend kicks her out. She literally wanders in and out of situations, in and out of people's lives showing the world of those who often go unnoticed in the lives of rich people.

I enjoyed the protagonist, though I could see her being polarizing for readers. She consistently makes terrible decisions that make you cringe and is so beyond avoidant (and that's coming from me, who also identifies as avoidant LOL). But you can't stop yourself from kind of rooting for her to find her way out of the mess she's made.

My issues with the book mostly are with pacing and the ending. At about halfway through the book, I was starting to lose momentum finishing it. It does feel a bit endless and droning (which I think is the point, since she has several open ended days to fill). It does start to pick up towards the end and the stakes start to ramp up, but then the ending left me wanting so much more. It has all these high tension situations coming to a head and then... nothing. I don't mind an open ending but this one felt almost like abandoning Alex just when it was getting interesting.

Emma Cline's writing is superb as always but ultimately, the structure and arc of the story left much to be desired.

There's no denying that Emma Cline is talented, and The Guest makes it even harder to try and deny. Alex is such an interesting character and, while I'm admittedly really interested in the scamming culture that pseudo rich white women typically participate in, this works so well. I'd imagine it would really work even if you aren't super interested in that!

Cline has something to say about people and their status as temporary figures in life, and that alone makes this worthwhile.

Book 16 of 2023 (4.25 ⭐️) The main character in Emma Cline’s latest book The Guest is a bit like Anna Delvey/Sorokin without the ambition. Alex - you don’t ever learn her last name - is a 22-year-old who has already burned more bridges at her young age than most people do in their entire lifetimes. She grifts, lies, and schemes without much of an end goal in mind besides living on the periphery of wealth and privilege.

When we first meet Alex, she is living the high life with her latest boyfriend in a locale that can only be the Hamptons. She’s an accessory, though, not an equal and not taken seriously by anyone in her boyfriend’s elite social circles. She spends her days lounging by the pool or on the beach, and her nights as her boyfriends arm candy at a series of dinner parties. She doesn’t have a job. She doesn’t have a backstory of any kind, except she’s avoiding an ex from whom she stole a sizable amount of money.

Then, she’s cut loose by her boyfriend and starts looking for another place to stay. She’s a professional ghoster, never making herself vulnerable to anyone or sticking around long enough than to get something she wants (money, food, a place to stay). True to the book title, she’s a guest - flitting from one home to another, a temporary presence in others’ lives, to disappear and never return. Suffice to say, she’s not likable. And yet…and yet, she’s a compelling character.

This, of course, is down to Emma Cline’s fantastic writing and the pacing, which starts languid like a late summer day and ramps up to a tense, desperate restlessness.

While Cline doesn’t give us Alex’s backstory, she does make readers privy to Alex’s thought processes, calculations, machinations, and her concessions to do what’s necessary to get back into the graces of the social elite. And, of course, her desire to have someone else clean up her messes (literally and figuratively).

A book that’s unique, cleverly-written, and paints a somewhat bleak picture of high society and the lengths some will go to breach it.

A great summer read! The Guest will be published May 16, 2023. Thanks to #netgalley and #RandomHouse for an advance copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

I was a big fan of The Girls, but have been unimpressed with Emma Cline’s works since then. Still, hope springs eternal so I was curious to read The Guest.
Alex is already on the ropes at age 22. She’s being tracked by an ex for something she’s done, she’s behind in her rent, stealing prescription drugs from her roomies and her income from prostitution is falling. She’s desperate. Then she meets Simon, 50, single and wealthy, and moves into his Long Island summer home with him. But she commits a major faux pas at a dinner party and Simon gives her a train ticket back to the city. But nothing says she actually has to go.
Alex is a grifter and a drifter. She lies easily, creating a character she knows a man will want. It wasn’t just that she lacked morals; she had no ability to realize what she’s doing will anger or damage someone. She’s not a character that I liked, but was intrigued by.
Cline captures the setting - the languid summer days of Long Island, the wealth. The book moves at a slow pace, in keeping with Alex’s lack of a plan and her stumbling through the days. But I felt it needed something more definitive; it was lacking for me. I especially didn’t like the ending, which felt like a cop out.
My thanks to Netgalley and Random House for an advance copy of this book.