The narrator, Steve Galanos recounts his memories of a housewarming party that occurred in 1999, at the height of the Y2K problem and the dot com bubble. He developed a friendship with co-worker John, John’s wife Mary, and her friend Lauren. However he was intensely jealous of John and there was tension in their relationship. The novel drags until the night of the housewarming finally happens and tragedy ensues. All of the characters were unlikeable, and the mens’ actions were extremely sexist. Some curiosity about the mysterious event at the party kept me reading, but I didn’t enjoy the book.

Set in the late 1990s, Many Are Invited starts as a sort of buddy story. The two male leads, Steve and John, both in their mid thirties, work for the phone company, trying to resolve the Y2K problem of what will happen to the world’s computer systems when 12/31/1999 shifts to 01/01/2000. They become fairly close until John leaves the company and joins a dot-com. He becomes wealthy, meets his future wife, Mary, and lives a prosperous life. Steve stays in the same old phone company job, dates around without meeting a significant other, and develops such an envy of John’s life that Steve ultimately falls in love with Mary but doesn’t act upon it.

This book is supposedly a retelling of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and there are a number of mentions of Gatsby and other characters, and there is even a Many Are Invited character named somewhat after Fitzgerald because of his very vague distant relationship to F. Scott. That said, the characters are not particularly likable. Steve is envious of John and always feels out-classed. The women are archetypal “good” or “bad” women without much substance. The more lush the body, the worse the personality.

The title, Many Are Invited, refers to an invitation to an open house party given by John and Mary as they settle into their first house. The story is fairly slow until the tragedy set up in the first few pages finally strikes at the open house. The denouement seems overly long in proportion to the rest of the novel, and the ending feels rather abrupt.

Many Are Invited has been on my TBR list for a while and I'm not sure what drew me to it in the first place. Perhaps I thought it would be like The Beauty of the Fall by Rich Marcello which was also involved technology. Or maybe it was to experience through another person a piece of history that I lived through.

I was working as a zoo keeper and worked both New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. I remember prepping extra water buckets in case there wasn't any electricity when the calendar rolled over. It was all a waster of course and January 1, 2020 was like any other start of the new year.

We know from the summary that a tragedy occurs at the party but we don't know any details so I thought perhaps this is a mystery novel. But it really isn't. The actual plot actually matters very little as the book is all about the characters. If you enjoy character-driven stories or "people watching", then this is your kind of book.

For me, the 1990s don't feel that long ago but according to the calendar, it's been more than a minute. Reading this novel put the time more in perspective. A few readers have mentioned the sexism in the novel. I felt like the author captured the culture on the 1990s pretty well. The way the male characters talk about women is pretty spot on.

I'm not sure I actually liked any of the characters. The story is told from Steve Galons's POV so some of it might have been seeing the characters through his eyes. But the conversations he had with Mary and Lauren individually had me disliking both of the main female characters.

A lot of reviews mention that this is a retelling of The Great Gatsby. I'm not sure if this was part fo the marketing materials when the book first came out - if so, it might be the reason I picked up the book. While reading the book, I didn't see the parallel but now that it's been mentioned I can see some similarities.

The story begins and ends at the housewarming party, but in the middle, the reader is taken back to the mid-1990s when IT people first became aware of what would become known as the Y2K bug. It was kind of interesting to get the background on an issue that dominated the last year of the 1990s.

The book is a short, quick read. So if you are still trying to meet your reading goal for the year, think about picking up this book.

My review will be published at Girl Who Reads on Friday - https://www.girl-who-reads.com/2023/12/many-are-invited-by-dennis-cuesta-review.html

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! No spoilers. Beyond amazing I enjoyed this book so very much. The characters and storyline were fantastic. The ending I did not see coming Could not put down nor did I want to. Truly Amazing and appreciated the whole story. This is going to be a must read for many many readers. Maybe even a book club pick.

In other reviews I read after finishing this novel, I saw that other readers noted it was a retelling of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. Seen through that lens, I think I appreciate the novel a bit more than I did as I was reading it. However, I struggled to connect to it and could not figure out where the story was going. Was it a story about Y2K? A corporate rivalry story? A crime story? Something else? There were hints at all of these and the author dangled tantalizing clues along the way, but I didn't really feel like it gelled for me.

The narrator, Steve, seemed to be meandering through life, insecure and off-kilter. I wondered more than once how reliable of a narrator he was and what his motivations were for many of his actions and behavior. There was a bit of barrier between me and the other characters, who he didn't seem to particularly like even though he stayed in their orbits. This made it hard for me to like or care about them myself. I can't say I enjoyed spending time with them very much. Once the big reveal of what happened at the fateful party was made, the ending seemed rushed compared to the earlier pacing of the story. I also felt like the book ended somewhat abruptly even though the tale had clearly come to an end.

Many thanks to the Celestial Eyes Press and the author for providing a NetGalley copy of this title. I hope it finds the right reader, but sadly that was not me.

I do not think that I can recommend this one. I did not like the characters and was totally annoyed with all the political talk. For whatever reason this one rubbed me the wrong way.

Plot was interesting, but there we some jumps that didn’t make sense. I did not connect with the characters at all.

Thank you NetGalley for the chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to the publisher for the #gifted copy.

I hd been told that this was a retelling of the Great Gatsby, but set in the early 90s. I am not sure where this book exactly went wrong, but I was disappointed from the beginning. I was not a fan of how women were treated in this book and stopped reading after that.

Thank you to Celestial Eyes Press and Netgalley for a copy of this e-book in exchange for an honest review.

I will start by saying I made it 80% through the book and I simply could not read any more. I just couldn't do it.

I simply don't understand what the point of this book was at all. Or what it's even about, besides really uninteresting babble between some coworkers awaiting the Y2K change on their computers.

I read somewhere that this was supposed to be like "Great Gatsby" but I didn't see that at all. The description of the book and the beginning almost make it seem like this will be some type of murder mystery. It is not:

Unfortunately, there's really nothing positive I can say about this book.

A 3.5 round up to a 4. A quick read, easily read in an afternoon. Irony upon irony. Mostly written as the memory of an event in the life of 'Steve'. A lot of characters to keep up with and a lot if chatter at a fateful party but push on through. I didn't like this as much as one of his other books but it's an ok read. I was provided an advanced reader copy and was under no obligation to write a review. The opinions expressed are my own. Thanks to the author publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read the book.

Good book and well written. Not too long and not too short. I liked the Scott Fitzgerald references. We’ve forgotten about the Y2K concerns so this book reminded me of a lot of those. Thank you to net galley and the publisher for an ARC of this book

I didn't ask for this book and has no plans intentions or reading it. The re idea currently sound like it's not a book I would want to finish.

This book about a team put in place to prevent catastrophe with Y2K looking, started off promising. Who doesn’t love a book set in the 90’s? But the two main characters, Steve and John are so unlikeable that I found it distracting. I didn’t love the overt sexism and misogyny, even considering that the setting was the 90’s. Overall I wasn’t a fan, the story dragged in most parts and I honestly couldn’t wait until it ended. 2.5 stars rounded up. *thank you to NetGalley for providing me with this free book in exchange for an honest review’

I really apologize to the author and all who worked on the book - but I had to DNF this one. It just included a tad too much sexism, unlikeable characters, and the writing just was not my style. I hope others find this book enjoyable and it could just be the wrong book for the wrong reader in my case. I believe the synopsis on this one was more entertaining that the book - I was excited to read about Y2K and the perspective of those during that time and it felt like maybe it would be a thrilling book, but it just wasn't for me. I hope it finds the right audience and readers.

I enjoyed the plot line, it was a nostalgic trip back to the 90s and the Y2K times, but the sexism and writing style was NOT for me. It was almost a DNF, but I made it through to mainly see if anything could be redeemed. Sadly, this is a 1 star for me, and the plot idea had alot of potential.

Net Galley Arc
It took me awhile to get thru this one.
Story starts in late 90s early 2000s during the tech, dot.com, Y2K era. Two colleagues Steve and John develop a friendship that is competitive. John is more successful, comes up with some innovations to deal with Y2K which results in a promotion. Resentments and jealousy begin to grow reaching a pinnacle at a housewarming party.
Story is told in Steve’s POV. His character comes off petulant and whiny which made for a hard read because he was so unlikeable. The story had potential and I was able to keep up with tech talk. It was an interesting time albeit a sexist time which some cringe moments when women were commented about in a degrading manner.
Lots of political and religious talk that felt like fillers and unnecessary.
I did hang in there wanting to know what happened but was left disappointed in the end.

Ⓑⓞⓞⓚ Ⓡⓔⓥⓘⓔⓦ⭐⭐⭐

𝕄𝕒𝕟𝕪 𝔸𝕣𝕖 𝕀𝕟𝕧𝕚𝕥𝕖𝕕
𝗗𝗲𝗻𝗻𝗶𝘀 𝗖𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗮
Psychological Fiction
254 pages

Sʜᴏᴿᴛ Sʏɴᴏᴘsɪs

This is a story about friends working to figure out the Y2K problem before it came to fruition. John and Steve move on with their lives, one changing jobs. They find each other again, and issues arise.

Mʸ Tᴴᴼᵁᴳᴴᵀs

I had trouble getting into this story. The characters weren’t likable, and it was a bit of a downer. Greed and jealousy were a big part of the story. The ending was pretty good though.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for providing this ebook for me to read and review.

This book wasn't my favorite. I felt like the pacing was incredibly slow and the plot was all over the place. I was also not a big fan of the writing. This was a no go for me.

Many Are Invited by Cuesta. Entertaining throughout. I haven’t seen this one around much but think everyone should take a dive into this read. You won’t be disappointed. Greed and jealousy abounds. Pre Y2K read, great for book clubs!

Back in the shadow of Y2K Steve meets John. They quickly become friends, but there is jealousy and resentment. Or, at least there is on Steve's side and that is who's POV this story is told. The book begins long after "the event" and then goes back to the beginning. I read the reviews on this one before I started this book and I was expecting it to be awful. It wasn't. The characters are unlikable. But unlikable characters can still tell a good story. Steve is incredibly self absorbed. Both Steve and John demonstrate some toxic masculinity and the way they talk about women is less than ideal. But they felt like a guy you got asked out by once that when you turned them down told you that they were just being nice and that you're actually ugly. So, they felt like actual people. Not ones you want to spend time with outside of a book but people. This is a retelling of The Great Gatsby and there are some references in the book. I haven't read The Great Gatsby, so I can't compare the two. The book was a quick read and keeps the reader interested. The author does not try to explain away or justify anyone's bad behavior, so I did not find it problematic.