Book Review: The Guest List
Author: Lucy Foley
Genre: Mystery/Thriller
Publisher: William Morrow
Publish Date: February 20, 2020
Format: eBook
★★★☆☆
This book is perfect for those that like: Closed Circle Mysteries, Secret Past Lives, and Atmospheric Writing.
You might not like this book if you aren’t into: Stories with Self-Harm, Various Type of Abuse, or Pregnancy Termination.
Purchase: Barnes & Noble / Amazon
From Goodreads: The bride ‧ The plus one ‧ The best man ‧ The wedding planner The bridesmaid ‧ The body
On an island off the coast of Ireland, guests gather to celebrate two people joining their lives together as one. The groom: handsome and charming, a rising television star. The bride: smart and ambitious, a magazine publisher. It’s a wedding for a magazine, or for a celebrity: the designer dress, the remote location, the luxe party favors, the boutique whiskey. The cell phone service may be spotty and the waves may be rough, but every detail has been expertly planned and will be expertly executed.
But perfection is for plans, and people are all too human. As the champagne is popped and the festivities begin, resentments and petty jealousies begin to mingle with the reminiscences and well wishes. The groomsmen begin the drinking game from their school days. The bridesmaid not-so-accidentally ruins her dress. The bride’s oldest (male) friend gives an uncomfortably caring toast.
And then someone turns up dead. Who didn’t wish the happy couple well? And perhaps more important, why?
By all accounts, this should have been a home-run for me. A five-star read. These Big House, Secluded Whodunits are my Mystery Jam and yet, this one didn't quite hit for me.
Don't get me wrong, this was a page-turner for sure, but I found myself skimming passages to get to the end and see if my suspicions were right as opposed to really savoring the story and letting the answer unfold. I think part of this has to do with the characters themselves. In these types of stories, where I get to "meet" each of the people involved layer by layer in each chapter, many times through the lens of an unreliable narrator, I can usually find at least one person to "cheer" on and hope that they come out alright in the end. In this book? Other than Olivia, whom I really just wanted to grab out of this story and take care of her (my god her life), I didn't really like any of them. No one had any redeeming qualities and I didn't find myself caring about them beyond how they fit in the conclusion to the mystery.
That being said, the story did stay with me for a few days after finishing it, which is always a sign that I enjoyed it more than I thought I did. Maybe I need to revisit this one again and read it knowing the ending to see if it changes my perspective/feelings about it.
Have you read this one?? What did you think about it?