We stan a messy woman! This story so so chaotic is the absolute best way. Every decision made me so uncomfortable, I was never sure how far Alex would go in her quest to remain on the island which kept me on edge from start to finish in only the way a really well written book can.

The Guest is reminiscent of Play it as it Lays in it's examination of a messy woman who refuses to conform to what society expects. Alex is not a particularly likeable or sympathetic character a first glance but I still found myself rooting for her and hoping she would find why she needed. A great book from start to finish.

Emma Cline is an author whose sentence level writing I adore, but whose previous books haven’t quite landed with me. The Guest takes place in a single week in which 22-year-old Alex makes a mistake that gets her exiled from her rich (much) older boyfriend Simon’s Hamptons house just before his annual Labor Day party. Rather than return to the city and have to deal with the consequences of another mistake with another man, Alex decides to float through the week, surviving as best she can before showing up at Simon’s party in an attempt to reconcile. The writing in this novel is hypnotic and I felt lulled by Cline’s shimmering prose, even as Alex’s antics horrified and baffled me. While I’m not sure what my final take on this book is, I found it to be stylish, engaging, and ultimately more successful than The Girls. Reading it in tandem with The Odyssey was also a fun experience, and I’m nurturing a half-baked theory that The Guest is a haze, millennial reimagining of Homer’s epic poem. Read this if you like exceptional prose and don’t mind frustrating characters. I found The Guest to be particularly compelling on audio.

Curious read. The writing was propulsive, even when nothing was really happening. It contained 2 things I personally dislike in books - descriptions of substance use and sex with a minor. A lot of this felt gross and overall I left feeling anxious. Neither a ringing endorsement nor an anti-recommendation… you’ll just have to decide for yourself.

It's rare for me to read a book about virtually nothing and still find myself flipping page after page, but that's exactly what happened when I read "The Guest" by Emma Cline. The story follows Alex, a drifter who moves from house to house on the beaches of Long Island, as she tries to figure out what she intends to do with her life. She is fleeing an ex and has no job and nowhere to live. As she wanders from situation to situation, she encounters people who have an impact on her life, good or bad.

Alex is a fascinating individual who thrives in the gray areas of life. She is lonely and must rely on the generosity of others to survive. Emma Cline's portrayal of her delightfully flawed character feels authentic. She writes with staggering empathy, which allows Alex to continue to be likable despite her many bad decisions. "The Guest" is definitely a book I would recommend to others.

The Guest follows Alex, a young woman who finds herself unwelcome on the East End of Long Island after a social blunder at a party with her older, wealthy boyfriend. With nothing to her name but a broken cell phone and mid-tier people skills, Alex goes on a journey that seems to float between reality and a ghostly haze. Cline's writing captures the sun-blasted dunes and the intense atmosphere of Long Island's elite, creating a stunning if not unnerving backdrop.

I found it super challenging to feel any sympathy for or connection to Alex. While her ability to move effortlessly through her world should have intrigued me, I was rolling my eyes. Alex seemed like a cipher, lacking emotional depth that would have made her more relatable.I just didn't understand this girl's motives at all and so I wasn't really invested in her journey. I also found this book to be a bit of a snooze at times, just drifting aimlessly. I wanted the stakes to be higher, the tension to be palpable, but instead, the narrative floated along just like Alex, occasionally punctuated by moments of destruction.

That being said, Cline is a talented writer and I did come around to the book by the end. While this was not my favorite read recently, it was a good summer book and made for good entertainment at the pool.

In the end, The Guest is a novel that offers glimpses of brilliance but just didn't fully hook me!

Thanks so much to Random House Publishing as well as NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest thoughts.

Deeply uncomfortable in a way that is really fascinating. I did not love The Girls so I went in cautious, having been intrigued by the synopsis. It's a really cool character study about folks whom I do not want to spend any time with.

Alex is a guest… to the many different people she encounters. Because she never stays for long. Most recently, she’s been mooching off a wealthy older man, Simon, who buys her fancy things and lets her enjoy his beautiful home and everything it has to offer. Alex is an expert at becoming exactly the type of girl a man desires, molding to their specific type. When Simon breaks things off with her because she has caused a few issues, Alex is in denial and hangs around, planning to win him back at his Labor Day party a week later.

She spends her time drifting among other people, blending in to seem like she belongs. Although she doesn’t have any money, she always seems to get what she needs, through manipulation, flirtation, and posing as someone she’s not. She’s avoiding other long standing issues, like owing money on an old apartment and stealing from a scary ex-boyfriend who keeps calling. You never know what move Alex is going to make next.

Just like Alex, this book is enthralling, people-smart, and innovative. I was quickly drawn in to Alex’s world and strongly pulled to return to the story when I had to put it down. I have almost nothing in common with Alex and what she fills her days with to get by (extreme lying, manipulation, prostitution) and yet her view of the world and astute observations ring so true and relatable.

Emma Cline is a master as writing such tiny, realistic details that caused me to lose myself in the story. So much of it feels like a dream, and I’m floating through the motions Alex sets into place with her decisions. Alex isn’t a particularly likable MC, but I really felt a kinship with her and rooted for her throughout. At times, the book feels like a slow motion train wreck because it feels impossible that things can keep working out for Alex-they have to go wrong at some point! And of course they do, but not always in the way I expected. I so enjoyed experiencing this book, written at a perfect pace to push things along.

That’s why I was incredibly let down by the ending. I’m not even sure I can rightfully call it an ending, the book just stops. The lack of any feeling of closure was (forgive me for saying it) so lame. My brilliant creative writing teacher at university (shout-out to Adam) told us to sometimes end our stories earlier than we thought we should because it created more intrigue and openness. This book was ended WAY earlier than it should have. I wanted drama, emotion, a blow up! As it is, this ending was really not for me and unfortunately negatively impacted my overall feelings towards The Guest.

Unfortunately this one was not for me.

I completed about 30% of this novel but found very little motivation to continue it.

Hoping I’ll be able to pick it up again in the future and complete it.

Included in this post https://www.instagram.com/p/Ct4JzzML719/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

I personally am not a fan. Not because there are no likeable characters, not because the skewering of the wealthy is repetitive and dull, not because everyone is bent on self-destruction by a thousand cuts, not because there is no real conclusion - because I have enjoyed many books with these elements. And I love an unreliable narrator. But this book, while well written, takes all these elements and somehow avoids any resolution of anything. Hard pass.

Fantastic read. I did not read Ms. Cline's wildly successful first novel, but I will have to now. She makes a very unlikable, entitled protagonist both compelling and relatable, which is a tough needle to thread. As a reader you are compelled to keep turning the page to see what she will do next, who she will harm and manipulate and how will her story end. It really is a fantastic novel and I highly recommend it.

A chaotic, highly unlikeable main character destroying everything she touches in the (mostly) immaculate world of summer in the Hamptons, as told by a ridiculously good observer of human behavior.

I’ll read anything that Emma Cline writes, but this one kept me flipping pages way into the night.

A summer out on Long Island is for the privileged few. Getting out of the stifling hot city Alex, a twenty two year old grifter follows her latest boyfriend Simon to his fancy house for a stay. At first Simon, an older successful man, seems like the perfect catch. He buys Alex new clothes and trinkets so she can fit in with his pretentious friends. One wrong move has Simon kicking her to the curb. Her latest plan is to use her few connections to string out the days until Labor Day weekend and show up at Simons big party so she can get back in his good graces. But Alex is complicated. She is truly alone in the world. Alex lies, steals and takes way too many pills. On the one hand she appears to be a character purely searching for attention and just trying to survive. On the other hand she repeatedly makes really bad decisions and has little care for the consequences of her actions. She is smart and resourceful and at the same time careless with no regard for societal rules. To say I enjoyed this read would be misleading but I definitely could not put it down. If you like grifter type stories, this may be the beach read for you!

By far this has been the most extraordinary novel I have read in years. From the first line of the book I was mesmerized by the character Alex. It is fascinating how Emma Clone brilliantly never tells us very much about Alex’s background. where was she was born,does she have a family? The only detail of the past we are briefly informed of is that at some point Alex had worked in a brothel-the house with Eastern European women which was run by a strange,very mysterious character named Dom. The manner in which Alex insinuates herself into men’s lives,the way Cline shows us how self-aware Alex is-always present the face her “partners” want to see,act demure but don’t give anything away so theywill see you as they want,to-Alex is a brilliant character not only for the way she so cleverly glides through life,but the way in which Emma Cline presents her to us the reader. As the book progresses there are so many passages that indicate how Alex has to work extra hard to keep her facade up. But really who is this woman and is she really 22? There is something about,her beauty,her sex appeal-that encourages-allows men to want to devour her. And of course all along she know the power of her guile. If one steps back one begins to wonder if this is only a book about high class prostitution,or some form of commentary on women’s forced place in society . I loved the book so much that I devoured each page like I hadn’t eaten anything in months. I wanted more and more of Cline’s description and insight and I wanted to read more and more of the way in which Alex so skillfully operates-until the end when she really hasn’t succeed,at all. I can’t remember the last time I read a book this quickly. I was never convinced when blurbs on the back covers of a book said-it will keep you up all night. This book did that to me,I had to keep reading,Alex was such a vivid and complex character beautifully,intelligently drawn by Emma Cline.
For me reading this novel was the ultimate treat of the past week. That confident authorial voice,that wisdom imbued to the main character,I have read a great deal throughout my life and I will certainly call this novel a masterpiece-and I will definitely recommend it to of my my reader friends.
Ironically I feel like I have been the most honoured and welcomed guest allowed to visit the world created by Emma Cline. Brilliant,heart-breaking,an exceptional,incredibly original work. Bravo!!

My first Emma Cline novel and now I will read anything she writes! I love a dark, confusing, atmospheric novel where you aren't totally sure what's happening but you are left with a feeling of dread. What a masterpiece!

While the writing is great and the setting superb, I was ultimately just sad and rather disappointed by this disturbing book that details a young woman's empty and desperate summer journey among the elite inhabitants of Long Island. I am not one of those readers who requires 'likeable' characters and happy endings but I do feel that good fiction provides some sort of insight or resolution that offers something uplifting, however slight it may be.

Perhaps that expectation or desire was why the abrupt ending really got me down. And, the unrelenting sadness simply saturated the entire narrative though I imagine that was part of the point. I appreciated the deep dive into a damaged and suffering psyche and there was a resonance with some of the loneliness and disconnected wanderings I experienced in my life as a young woman. But I was left with a sense of hopelessness that I didn't enjoy. Rating up from 2/12 stars because of the writing and wonderfully rendered setting.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Random House and the author for the opportunity to read this eARC.

got lucky enough to receive an arc of this book that came out in may.. I’ve read everything Emma Cline has put out so far with very good reason. The woman is so so talented.

I couldn’t put this down from start to finish (even though it derailed my plans for the day, whops). Serious thanks to @randomhouse for this one 🙌🏼

“Summer is coming to a close on the East End of Long Island, and Alex is no longer welcome.

A misstep at a dinner party, and the older man she’s been staying with dismisses her with a ride to the train station and a ticket back to the city.

With few resources and a waterlogged phone, but gifted with an ability to navigate the desires of others, Alex stays on Long Island and drifts like a ghost through the hedged lanes, gated driveways, and sun-blasted dunes of a rarefied world that is, at first, closed to her. Propelled by desperation and a mutable sense of morality, she spends the week leading up to Labor Day moving from one place to the next, a cipher leaving destruction in her wake.”

The Guest was incredibly fascinating, made me slightly anxious, and I was stressed out by the decisions made by the main character, Alex. I don’t know if I’ve ever read a book where the main character lies and manipulates so well. I couldn’t put it down! This left me with so many questions and thoughts, I’ve never read anything like it.
Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for sharing an advanced copy!

This a book for people who enjoyed the 2019 film, Parasite, but might prefer a more languid pace. The story unfolds in a summer daze that lulls the reader just as much as it creepingly disturbs. It's unclear how much the author is sympathetic to her morally gray protagonist. At times, I felt disdain in the writing for the twenty-something floating close to the edge of economic precarity in her wealthy boyfriend's infinity pool. At other times, the author drew parallels between her and a helpless wild animal. In fact, there may have been too many animalic references for my taste. Ultimately, it's up to the reader to decide who the sympathetic characters are, if any. I myself don't find any billionaire to be sympathetic.

I received a digital advance reader copy of this book from NetGalley and Random House in exchange for an honest review.

Emma Cline delivered, again.

It feels like the unreliable, unlikeable white woman protagonist is trendy right now, and for good reason. It’s an easy and entertaining, albeit obvious, way to make light social commentary by poking fun at these clueless characters.

The Guest doesn’t do that. It doesn’t necessarily condemn its protagonist, Alex, whose life of deception is rapidly crumbling, the house of cards she shoddily built for herself teetering. Instead, Alex, a ghost in her own life, provides readers with something of a mirror; she allows you to honestly examine yourself, your privilege, your choices. You won’t necessarily like her, even in moments where you’ll naturally extend her some empathy, but you might start to see yourself in her, for better or worse.

But it also doesn’t outright condemn the other side of the two-way mirror: the wealthy, wasteful elite summering in The Hamptons. It would have been so easy for Cline to make this a novel that screamed “eat the rich,” and it might have been equally entertaining and maybe more powerful that way.

But I think there’s something really powerful about how quiet this book is, what it says about wealth and deception and miscommunication in between its words. I was stressed nearly the whole time, and even that speaks loudly. The more I think about it, the more I’m impressed: The Guest’s volume is so deliberate. Everything about it is intentional, including the answers and explanations we never get.

This book also felt effortless, and it obviously wasn’t because no book is, but that’s how you know it’s well done — well written, well edited, well executed. Every part of it belongs as it is.

Thank you for the copy!