When we first meet Alex, we know she is an imposter. We equally know that her reflections on this are simply an observer measuring the success of her disguise. Cline’s incisive narrative will dig into Alex’s head, exposing for us the sociopath within, a chancer who will manipulate and exploit without so much as a blink at conscience. Survival. A woman who can outwit a riptide.

The mystery of Alex, slowing unfolding, taps into our negativity bias, our hope for a dopamine fix as we puzzle out who this woman is, why she behaves as she does—the Pavlov dog that salivates when an opportunity to make a bad decision confronts her. We fear for her safety, that ever-looming Dom threat, indulge a morbid interest in watching someone self destruct.

The narrative will maintain a hum of tension as Alex works her way through Simon’s pill stash, until she snaps the end of her tether by disrespecting the fragile bubble in which May-December romances dwell. Where aging rich buys young love and will not suffer mockery. We cannot sympathize with either of them, Simon or Alex. They are both users.They differ in one way: he is the one with money. But let us resist the temptation to elevate this work to social commentary—wealth inequality, power imbalance. We must bookmark in our minds how they meet. Alex studies Simon, thinking he is not a good use of her energy. He is a civilian, she decides, a man whose self-conception embraces casual sex, not the kind for which he pays. She will have a change of heart when she realizes he can offer protection, give her some breathing room to turn things around. He is merely a mark. He happens to be a rich one, and that serves Alex’s purposes.

Alex is dispassionately aware that she burns every bridge she crosses. With a shrug, she knows there are always more bridges. This time, her self-delusion, the other devil on her shoulder, will convince her that Simon will cave. This is the point in her story when the vortex that began in her hometown, the one that etched the arc of her life, begins to lose momentum. She will circle a drain in this rarified beach enclave, with each loop a rerun of the prior con. At some point, we’ll tire of her, of her indecency, moral blankness. The swindle will wear thin, no matter how beautifully Cline writes it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for providing this eARC.

Despite there not being a traditional plot, it was easy to get sucked into this book. The Guest was an interesting and quick psychological thriller. Alex is a fascinating character who could fit in with anyone. If you liked Cline’s other book, The Girls, you will like this book!

The Most Anticipated Mystery and Thriller Books of 2023

This year’s psychological thrillers and suspenseful mysteries are really going places—literally.

There are villas and chalets and boarding schools and writing retreats and cooking competition tents. Cat-and-mouse chases span small-town Virginia to the far edges of Long Island, trekking up and down the Alps and across Italy. The inspiration for these page-turners is also wonderfully rich, from Great British Bake Off to Frankenstein to slasher films, postpartum anxiety to diversity fails to grifter culture. These Final Girls and anti-hero(ine)s are nearly killing themselves to confront the past, or just get through the next five days. And, if you can believe it, these books represent only the first half of 2023!

The Guest by Emma Cline

Release Date: May 16 from Random House

After her take on the Manson Family in The Girls, Emma Cline turns her eye to our current favorite guilty pleasure in the grifter. Alex is young enough, pretty enough, shrewd enough—and, most importantly, self-deceiving enough—to attach herself to wealthy older men for long enough to wear their gifted gowns and sleep in their Long Island mansions all summer. But after her self-destructive tendencies cause her latest beau Simon to detach himself from her, Alex has nowhere to go, and a vindictive ex back in the city.

But this Gen Z scam artist is convinced that she just has to make it to Simon’s Labor Day party to beg forgiveness. The only problem is, she needs to waste a week on the East End. While not a traditional thriller, the sheer anxiety level of watching Alex lure each new stranger (from the help to lonely rich teenagers), filling the endless hours until the next morning, will keep your blood pressure as high as if you were following a serial killer stalking their next victim.

I needed a few days after finishing this book to decide how I felt about it. What I liked: It was well-written. The constellation of characters were interesting. She captures the time/place very well.
What didn't work for me: The snapshot view of a narcissistic and self-destructive person that does not evolve one bit throughout the story. We just see Alex at one moment in her life with very little else. She is not a good person, though she's not really supposed to be. Is this a character study? I would have liked to know more about Alex but she's pretty one-dimensional with no history. We see everything from her perspective but without knowing her, if that makes sense. I pretty much cringed through the entire book and kept thinking, "Girl, get your shit together!". She is someone who could own the world if she actually tried but instead just moves from one self-destructive episode to the next, not giving a shit about herself or anyone else for that matter. Zero evolution of character or circumstance, if anything it just gets worse with each page turn. Overall, it was depressing and sad. But, like I said, it was well-written. I think I just wanted *more* but I also think the snapshot story was the point.

The Guest, Emma Cline's latest novel, is about 22-year-old Alex and how she functions as a guest in various people's lives. As she jumps from person to person as a means of survival, the reader is compulsively turning the page to learn how each interaction will end.

I felt pangs of anxiety when I read this book. Alex is manipulative, selfish, and unlikeable. One thing that struck me about her interactions with other characters was that they mostly walked blindly into a relationship with her. Nearly everyone was so desperate for a connection, like they were trying to fill this gnawing existential void in their lives. It's hard to say that Alex was "good" at it when an affinity with someone else was a tease, like in the case of Margaret. Alex has a metaphorical "itch" to scratch, as she's frequently thinking about a pulsating sty or scratching at an ingrown hair. She later scratched an expensive painting. She can be distracted from the itch, but the thoughts return.

I think Cline captured the corrosive sense of dread and emptiness rather well, although I wish the reader were granted some information about Alex's backstory. Who exactly was Dom? How did she get mixed up with him? Why is she so good at self-sabotage? I imagine that Alex and her story are just a vehicle for Cline to write about the emotions and feelings described above. If that's the case, this book nails it. If it's not, I wish there were a few more chapters to illustrate how and why Alex found herself in her situation and if she ever finds redemption.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for the ARC!

After reading The Girls I was thrilled to get an arc of The Guest. I think if you enjoyed The Girls then you will enjoy this as well. You have to be a fan of what Emma creates…and that sometimes is characters that don’t have a lot of redeeming qualities. Ones that find themselves in situations that may make you feel uncomfortable and don’t end with the happy ending that some people crave.

Emma creates a great character in Alex…you will at times hate how horrible she is but you do become invested in the outcome of her story. I overall enjoyed it, and if you are a fan of Emma’s you will too.

A beautifully well-written, character-driven story about Alex, a manipulative and desperate drifter who constantly takes from those around her while she spends her summer in the Hamptons. Alex is unlikable, mysterious, and complex, but we unfortunately never really find out why she is the way that she is. As someone who enjoys a messy main character, I would have loved to know more about her backstory.

As the story went on, I felt more and more anxious every time she used another person, and I couldn't wait to get to the end to see what it was building up to. However, the ending left me with more questions than answers, but I don't necessarily think that's a negative thing. I thought it was a bold choice to end the story the way that Cline did, and although I'm selfishly curious about what happened to Alex and the others after that, I still really enjoyed the book overall.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House!

3.5 stars, rounded down.

After reading The Girls, I definitely wanted to check out Emma Cline’s newest. Beautifully written, Cline successfully captures the aura of privilege, sun, beach, and lies that permeates rich summer towns. Instead of being plot-driven, it is wholly character driven as we follow Alex drift throughout the Hamptons becoming more and more desperate. Cline made an intriguing novel, but it felt a bit lackluster and it made me feel extremely uneasy. Rather than feeling cohesive, it was like mini-stories each time she jumped to manipulate someone else. I would have enjoyed getting to know the backstory of Alex more, maybe see some growth, but instead we see the desperation and her started to crumble. That being said - I devoured this novel and just had to keep reading because I had to know when the facade would shatter.

Thank you to Random House and Netgalley for the e-arc.

Just loved this book! Despite the fact that Alex is a total train wreck, you're rooting for her all the way! I pushing for a part 2. The story is a bit sad but appreciate her creativity...what a survivor. Emma, love the way you write! All, Read this one!

The Guest is a difficult book to pin down. I wanted to love it, but ultimately found it lackluster- a steep departure from Cline's highly celebrated novel, The Girls. The main character, Alex, is a vagabond and a parasite. Shifting from man to man, she tries to make it as a sugar baby, but she's not especially talented at it. She manages to burn every bridge and uses people until she drains them dry.

The plot, a term which I use loosely here, goes like this: Alex is dating silver fox Simon, lazing the summer days away poolside in Long Island. But as Labor Day approaches, things hit a snag and Alex's carefree vacation is cut short. Having no place to stay and little money to speak of, she begins couch-surfing whilst devising a plan to win Simon back.

The overarching feeling or image that The Guest conjures is existential angst and a yawning void of emptiness. It explores the transactional nature of relationships and time as a burden or obstacle to be overcome. We spend all our time with the unlikeable energy vampire Alex, but there is no backstory or psychological insight that would help explain her morally questionable behavior or allow the reader to sympathize with her. And while she happens to be a sugar baby- a career path that I find absolutely fascinating- this aspect of her life is barely expanded upon at all. What a missed opportunity! I also felt put off by the way the book abruptly ends without any resolution, begging the question- why did the author choose to write this particular story?

And yet, despite these qualms, I was still unwittingly entertained by The Guest, finishing it a mere 24 hours after picking it up. That rarely happens to me and it speaks to Cline's hypnotic writing and ability to draw people in. While The Guest wasn't what I was hoping for, I will still read anything this author writes. The potential was certainly there. It's quite possible that I simply wasn't the right reader for this book.

*3.5*
This is an... interesting one. So first off, it's very character focused rather than plot-focused (which typically isn't my thing). However, the character, this messy, sad 22(?) year old, is certainly an intriguing one. I found myself going back and forth between finding her relatable and finding her despicable. She's undoubtedly a reckless character and it's hard not to just drop your jaw at just HOW careless she is at times. While I do find her intriguing, I don't know though if she's as developed as I would have wanted her to be. For example, while there are a few moments where her vulnerability and *humanness* is revealed, I felt like I needed a lot more of it!
Pacing: I will say that I didn't feel that invested in the story until about the 50 or 60% mark, and it's the last quarter of the book that really picks things up and where it's at its most suspenseful.
The ending: I can't say too much about the type of ending this is. All I'll all say though is that while I can understand how the ending is powerful and a little unsettling -- which it is -- I don't know if I found it satisfying. It left with more questions than answers, but not necessarily in an enjoyable way. There's just so much more that I needed from the character and so much more I needed to know about her! Nonetheless, I do think that for what the book is trying to accomplish, it does it fairly well.

Aghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. This was so close to being a 5 star read for me. But that ending...Emma Cline played me with that ending. (Don't worry, I will not be spoiling anything)

The synopsis was intriguing, but also vague enough that when I got to reading, I didn't know what to expect. This novel felt like a puzzle; every new detail meant getting closer to figuring out what the hell was going on, and if our mc would suffer the consequences of her unruly actions.

The writing was incredibly addicting. I am surprised that this kind of novel captivated me the way it did because tbh, this is one of those "no plot, just vibes" kind of books. And the "vibes" are not super pleasant, but I was still incredibly immersed. I was never bored, and I was actually quite anxious when I got to the last chapter because I didn't want to part with this story—not until all my questions were answered. Alas, I was not completely satisfied once it was over.

BUT...did Cline need to spell everything out for me to enjoy this?
No.

I love how this novel flipped the well known narrative of men as predators. And not that we didn't know women could be predators/abusers/crooks/etc., and with this whole epidemic of "unhinged women" in fiction, we have seen more and more depictions of "female rage," but The Guest was slightly different.
The argument could be made that our mc, Alex, is not mentally sound, but Cline brilliantly presented why it doesn't matter if Alex (or any woman) attempts to play the role of predator, of deceiver—she will still feel fear deep in her bones the second a man tries to seek revenge. She will still be hunted, mere prey once again. Now, this doesn't excuse Alex of her decisions. I enjoyed how Cline depicted male vulnerability, as well as the reminder that true kindness does exist, even if you're someone that rather continue denying it.

All in all, this worked for me. I have my qualms, but I know I won't stop thinking about this book for a good while.

Thanks so much to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I didn't love this, but I admire how professional and smooth it is. Extremely buzzy too. I think folks will love this.

I have not had a book make me feel this consistently uneasy in a long time.

This was such a fast 5 star read for me, and a much anticipated book. Alex's tension and choices haunt me still!!!

I absolutely loved reading this book. I was completely drawn into the topic and could not stop reading it.

Alex is running away from a mystery man called Dom, using her youth, looks, and savvy about what men and people want, to con unsuspecting males into taking her in and thus hiding her. She pretends love and affection for those she uses, but only wants to get back to a wealthy lover Simon, who had sent her away before.

The novel is character driven. I have not read about such a personality before in such depth - a drug using manipulative young woman looking for someone to give her a life she couldn't normally afford.

I was intrigued by her, her actions and motives, and this kept me reading to the end, wondering what would finally happen to her. I'm not sure, even after finishing the book, exactly what happens to Alex, whether physically or mentally or both. But at least, I thought, she finally found herself among the people who might possibly give her the help she would need.

Love Emma Kline and her latest is excellent! The guest follows a grifter type as she navigates her way through life. Lying, stealing, and everything in between to get what she wants. The only thing somewhat confusing was the ending. It was intentionally vague but I want more haha!!

I gave this book 2 stars simply because it was someone’s art and work, which takes effort.
This book wasn’t for me. I don’t need to say much more, except it was a nothing burger. The ending was welcomed. I would have loved to see character development, less teenagers, and more details where they matter!! This book felt like it was written in a rush and I don’t believe it was, but it was hard to follow. This book has potential to be better. I appreciate the author's art and time on her writing.
Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for providing an advanced reader's copy in exchange for my honest review.

Emma Cline does it again! THE GUEST is a gripping, enigmatic read. Alex is down on her luck, yet seems to make the most of any situation, primarily through looks and seduction. She's a drifter, hopping from the kindness of one stranger after another, and alienating just about anyone in her warpath. Present are Cline's usual concerns with girlhood and intimacy and power. Though this is a novel that doesn't give its reader any easy answers. Told in close third, we still really aren't fully let into Alex's consciousness. There are gaps to what we know about her background. And this works. It most reminded me of Marcy Dermansky's Hurricane Girl, though stylistically both are doing their own thing. 

THE GUEST is an odd, enthralling read. I can't wait to read whatever Cline writes next.

Thanks to the publisher for the e-galley!

Emma Cline is so good at crafting sentences. Like, so so good. On a line level, everything she’s put out—her 2016 debut novel, The Girls; 2020 short story collection, Daddy; various Paris Review and New Yorker stories, including the 2020 Weinstein scandal satire, “White Noise”—have been incredible. Her writing scratches an itch in my brain. She is the author who has me rereading sentences five times in a row going, “How did she come up with that description? What made her land on that particular word, and why does it work so well in this context?” Her latest novel, out in May, is no less satisfying to read. A story about a week in the life of a young grifter who goes by Alex, The Guest is an episodic, compelling journey. I admit that it took me a chapter to get into, but once it hooked me (i.e. when the inciting incident takes place and the ball starts rolling), I was hooked to the end. As with The Girls, Cline adds an air of suspense to situations that may not warrant it, keeping us on our toes for the duration of a scene, even if nothing bad ends up happening. I found myself holding my breath even after the potential for danger had subsided; even when Alex was “safe”. Though both are similar stylistically, I preferred The Guest to The Girls—which I already liked a lot. That being said, I’ll read anything with her name on it!