Book Review: The Guest List by Lucy Foley
The Guest List by Lucy Foley a fun and quick read that I devoured in a two-day reading spree last week. The plot centers on Jules and Wills’s wedding weekend on a remote island in Ireland. The bride, Jules, is the editor of an online magazine-a very type A, trend-setting woman with a complicated family. The groom, Will, is the star of a new and popular survival show and he brings his own family dynamics as well as a group of friends from his boarding school days that have big personalities and even bigger secrets. In the first few pages, a waitress at the wedding reception stumbles into one of the tents, hysterical because she has found a possibly dead body outside the wedding tent. From there, we rewind to the beginning of the weekend to watch the mystery unfold.
The story is told from the point of view of several different people at the wedding, and we see pieces of their pasts, their relationships with each other, and their current troubles all come in to play. The author does a great job of creating a mysterious and creepy vibe, without it being too scary or unrealistic. I spent the whole book in suspense, trying to guess who was going to end up being the killer and victim. It was a very satisfying ending too, but I don’t want to say more and give it away!
Good for:
People who like mysteries or thrillers that aren’t too scary or creepy (while this was suspenseful, it wasn’t the kind of thing that made you afraid to let your dog out at night!), People who like books about unhappy families or boarding schools-there’s a lot of that!
People who like books about castles and ruins and very scenic adventures
Note: I got this title through my Book of the Month subscription, but it isn’t widely available until June.
Related Classic Reads:
The classic book that came most to mind when I was reading this was Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, as they both feature dark family mysteries with danger and deception in a mysterious and and scenic castle. The boarding school and university flashbacks also made me want to go back and read The Secret History by Donna Tartt, which is another classic that centers on of a group of friends at an elite New England liberal arts college and what happens when they explore some dark and dangerous dynamics.