Quick read. This book started out promising, with an interesting mystery setup and details slowly revealed. The narrator is somewhat unsympathetic, and at times motif, a concept that should have been played with more. However, the plot ended up being unsatisfying to digest. This could be because the chapters spent more time with moving the story along, rather than allowing for emotional connections to the characters. We did not get character depth, which might have made this a better short story than a novel. As such, the book felt both too long and too short at the same time. I was left thinking "ok so what?" at the end.

This has been sitting there looking at me, waiting to be read, but I just can't get into it. I found I am just not interested in the premise and was hoping to be more interested. Thank you for the opportunity, but this one wasn't for me.

I'm not sure if I was the right reader for this book.
It was ok but wasn't quite what I expected.
I really liked Mary, though!

This book was not what I expected and not really my " cup of tea" I did read entire book but never really got invested into it. I think writing and plot fine if your thing just not really mine. Thank you to Net Galley for the ARC and opertunity to read it and find out. This was my honest opinion and hope you love it.

I’m not sure how I feel about this one. A housewarming party in 1999 takes an unexpected, tragic turn. I thought it dragged a bunch especially while talking about Y2K.

Steve and John have been frenemies since they met at work. John’s proposal lands him a promotion and Steve grows resentful. Eventually John leaves the company and meets and marries Mary. Steve developed a relationship with Mary roommate Lauren and the couples hang out frequently.

There’s definite tension and resentment within the group and all of the secrets and lies come out during John and Mary’s housewarming party.

Many Are Invited is available now.

Thank you to netgalley and celestialeyespress for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

"Many Are Invited" by Dennis Cuesta is one of those novels that is more art than entertainment. Though I enjoyed reading it, and loved the parallels to my favorite classic, "The Great Gatsby," it's a very character driven book and not much happens until the end. All of the characters are simply awful people. This is a short, though smart, read and I finished it in just one afternoon.

Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for the opportunity to read an advanced digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Did not like. I couldn't get past the first few pages. I didn't like the writing style at all, Nothing intrigued me to continue reading. Will try again later.

Having lived during the hectic era of the 90's and the dot com bubble, this was a well written re-telling of the era and I enjoyed the quick pace and the focus on friendships and the actions we take within our relationships. I found the characters well developed and the novel was quite accurate in terms of the time..

Thanks to NetGalley for providing me access to an early copy of the book, this is my unbiased review.

Note: Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to review an advanced copy of this book.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Publishes 10.06.22

Summary:

Review: Many Are Invited is kind of like the Y2K version of Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying. I just kind of liked Faulkner’s more.

I’m not sure if we’re supposed to like any of the characters in Cuesta’s book. The narrator/main character, Steve, is jealous and petty. His best friend and the women the two surround themselves with are very much the same. No one is happy for anyone else’s success, and, ultimately, it’s their inability to reconcile their flaws, stop lying, and establish healthier relationships that leads to their downfall.

Cuesta is a good writer. He had a genuinely interesting premise, the characters were three-dimensional, and it was a quick and easy read. The only cons throughout were the unlikeable characters, consistent “locker room” talk, Steve’s pettiness, and the rushed ending.

We spend so much time reading about Y2K, what companies needed to do to prep for it, and Steve’s jealousy of, and petty revenge towards, his (seemingly only) friend, John, that when we finally get to what happened at the party it feels almost like a quick “and this happened.” But leading up to all of that were genuine moments of excellent foreshadowing and dramatic irony. The insight to certain characters created a clever tie to aspects of the climax that I loved. I just wished those nuances had more time to shine when we got to the party scene.

The party scene, though. By the time we see what’s going to happen, we know how each character is going to react and it’s beautifully crafted. There’s drama, irony, and general dysfunction that worked, and would have been awesome to see less condensed.

Overall, I don’t think I’d recommend this one.

Special thanks to Celestial Press and Netgalley for the ARC of this book.

Gosh I'm having a bad streak. Probably my fault for picking a book about technology. I hardly knew the jargon and had to skip some parts because I'm 50 not 20, and was lost in a technological K-hole.

This book is about one man's narration of a party that he went to in December 1999, with Y2k looming ahead and the world changing on 1/1/2000, that never came to be.

I did like the writing style but the chapters were short and Steve, the narrator being envious of his old partner's success. I couldn't relate at all, to the characters or the plot.

Wanted to love this book but it felt slow right into the end. I wish we would’ve been able to see more of John and Mary’s relationship as well as what Mary decided to do after the end of the book.

Silicon Valley in the early 90's was a very competitive market, just waiting for the right man or woman to launch the next digital milestone. Two young men, Steve and John, meet while working for the same company. A company that encourages competition among co-workers as an incentive to succeed. The story of their competition is told to us by Steve. John quickly moves up in the always changing digital market, a rise that Steve feels is undeserved. When John succeeds in his personal life, it adds more fuel to Steve's jealous views of John and their "friendship". The story builds to a head during a housewarming party. When the dust settles, we are left with a crime worthy of the evening news.

This was a fast read but seemed to miss some pieces to the story. Like the author was just trying to finish the book any way he could. I'll still recommend to me reading circle as it truly has some great chapters moxed in with those that are just good.

Many Are Invited is one man’s narration of a party that occurred many years before, December 1999. Certain events happened at the party that affected the narrator, Steve, for many years after.

Steve recounts parts of his life leading up to the party, especially those that involved the others who attended. Much revolves around the Y2K fear of the world drastically changing for the worse on 1/1/2000 (a whole lot of nothing that turned out to be).

I really enjoyed the writing. The chapters were short and provided background while moving the story forward. However, I didn’t connect with Steve or any of the other characters. Steve was envious of his friend John and his life, but never made any decisions to improve his own life.

I will definitely read more by this author. Thanks to NetGalley for an advanced digital copy.

This book was extremely difficult to get through. Between the nonexistent plot, the underdeveloped characters, the technical jargon that made me skip paragraphs on several different pages and the conversational sexism randomly thrown in (because at that point in the story, why the hell not add another subtle theme to the story?), I truly almost did not finish this book. The storyline had too many inconsistencies, and it became too convoluted with random events that I thought I’d never be able to finish this book.

The year is 1999 and A house warming party ends in tragic circumstances. Y2K plays a huge roll in this one and that added a unique twist to this book.
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Steve and John met as colleagues during the dot com bubble and became friends. This story relives their friendship and their relationships with Mary and Lauren from the beginning to the fateful night in 1999.

Huge thank you to #celestialeyes @netgalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
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Many Are Invited is written from the POV of main character John who has a very similar voice of Patrick Bateman but without the exercise or killing.  The story timeline leads up to Y2K and the fears associated with computers during that time is a main plot point.  The references to The Great Gatsby are obvious but respectful.  Overall not a bad story but not sure who I would suggest this book to.

“No,” Megan said. “I mean, marketing could do a budget transfer, but corporate isn’t going to approve that. Not for that amount.”

If that little bit of dialogue makes you want to learn more, this book is for you. Unfortunately it just made me think of work.

This is the story of IT (male) professionals working on the Y2K problem in the late 90s in the Bay Area. Something earth shattering happens at a party in the future and corporate speak interactions like the one above are what you need to read through to get there. The backdrop doesn't ring true. I was an IT professional working on the Y2K problem in the late 90s in the Bay Area. There were a lot of female programmers working on it. In this book, however, women aren't technical. They only hold HR, marketing, admin or secretarial roles. Oh, and the guys have a pretty offensive rating system they apply to women.

With stilted dialogue, insider "knowledge" that is just wrong (a townhouse in Pleasanton would not be the object of envy, commuting was as bad in the 90s as it is now), too much boring work stuff and the misogyny.... this was not the book for me.

My thanks to NetGalley and Celestial Eyes Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a quick read that I was able to finish in a few hours. The pacing was incredibly slow despite that.

I liked the idea of a Gatsby retelling in the Y2K timeframe, but aside from the idea, this story fell flat. The men in this were misogynistic, and lacked any redeeming qualities while the women were shallow and jealous. The story got off to a slow start with John and Steve discussing work and reducing women to numbers in their made up collection. I was hoping that the characters would have had some likeable quality or even something dark and unsettling. Unfortunately they remained sad, and one dimensional.

The bulk of the "action" happens in the last 10% of the book.

I would have DNF if this wasn't an ARC, but I wanted to give this a fair chance.

You can easily read this book in a day because the story is interesting enough and the writing is crisp and it’s just that easy. But the plot is slow moving with characters that were not relatable.

Thank you for this opportunity!

The most difficult reviews to write are those where you want to write a longer synopsis but don't want to spoil the suspense. This is one of those. A short thrilling novel set against the backdrop of the Y2K problem of the 90's. The story, however, mainly deals with the drama surrounding co-workers and friends Steven and John and their love interests. I delved into it thinking that the story would be more tech-based but it turned to be otherwise. Worth a one-time read if you are looking for something easy quick and not too heavy.

Thank you Netgalley, Celestial Eyes Press and author Dennis Cuesta for the ARC.