Great return to form after the short story collection. Was very excited to read this. Can't wait to hear what other people have to say about it.

Following an anti-hero seeking to capitalize on the wealthy class, this tale captures the intimacy and anxiety of a young woman and her wiles. Exploring the landscape of class and privilege, as a reader you'll find yourself invested in the unraveling of this complex lead.

Posted to GoodReads also @KAT

If you don't care that the main character has zero redeeming qualities and you're good with a book that disintegrates as you go, this is for you!

I put those caveats bc some folks aren't really ok with unlikeable leads and uncomfortable plots. Don't read an Emma Cline book 📚 bc you will inevitably hate it.

If you liked The Girls, you'll enjoy this. Alex is horrible but you become invested in the outcome of her story. I'm straight down the middle on this, didn't love it, didn't hate it but do adore Clines writing style.

This was a fascinating novel, close in on the mind and thoughts of Alex, an aimless twenty two year old woman who grifts, cons, and sleeps with people to sustain herself. This story follows just a week in Alex’s life, a week where she drifts from opportunity to opportunity, her life and lifestyle slowly deteriorating as she scams and takes advantage of different people each day to stay in a wealthy beach town. Even as she gets deeper and deeper into trouble, I couldn’t look away or put the book down. Another marvelous novel by Emma Cline.

The writing in the story was ok and it kept me entertained, but the main character had zero redeeming qualities and I had a hard time enjoying her journey. There was zero climax or ending and I was left wanting some character development or growth.

This book is probably going to be in everyone’s summer reading list. It’s a very summery and breezy book. We follow Alex as she spends a summer in a beach town outside of New York. There are a lot of abuse and suicide triggers in the book. Other than that, it’s a truly entertaining book where drama follows Alex everywhere she goes. She has a delusional relationship with Simon which unfolds as the story progresses. There are a deluge of characters and everything somehow leads back ti Alex. I would absolutely recommend this book.

This ended so abruptly, that I am still confused about it. I can only give this three stars because the cliffhanger was so strange and abrupt. Even though this was not my favorite read, and I didn't find the characters likable, the writing was well done and I am still looking forward to reading "Girls." Thank you Netgalley and Random House for the free preview copy.

I devoured this book. Couldn’t put it down. I read for five hours straight.

Alex, Alex. Alex. What a frustrating, enthralling mess. She’s an anti-hero, but my goodness, did I find myself rooting for her. I learned next to nothing about her and yet I became attached to her. I wanted her to be better and stop hurting people, but to also continue to do what she was doing. How confusing and delightful. A deeper, more literary review would examine Alex and her relationship with water, but I’ll save that for my own time.

The Guest gets 4/5 for me. It isn’t the type of book I would normally read, but I was unable to stop consuming it. Thank you for the opportunity to read and review The Guest by Emma Cline.

i absolutely adored Emma Cline's writing and i will definitely be reading some of her other work, however, the story left me wanting more. i enjoyed the beginning, but i felt there was no climax and by the end i wasn't fully satisfied. i will, however, be recommending this to customers, as i could see others enjoying this title more than i did.

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.