"Centred on a twenty-something grifter and drifter who infiltrates the lives of rich Long Islanders, this reels with suspense, deception, and insights into what makes people tick."
Super addictive, Emma Cline’s The Guest is a dream of a summer read. Achieving a sweet spot between offering an escape into its sun-drenched Long Island setting (think lavish parties in luxury beach houses), and laying bare dubious human behaviours (among them manipulation and dodgy sugar daddies), it’s edgily compelling.
From the off, The Guest is shot-thought with suspense, with its protagonist inviting a bunch of questions — what’s Alex’s deal? Why is Dom leaving her all those desperate messages? What’s she doing with that fifty-year-old rich guy?
Alex’s summer of (transactional) sex and expensive gifts looks set to be cut short when Simon (said fifty-year-old rich guy) tells her to leave his fancy beach house. With no money, nowhere to go, and past errors snapping at her heels, Alex decides to stick around the area until Simon’s Labor Day party is in full swing – he’s bound to take her back, right?
Though she has no money, Alex does have plenty of power when it comes to knowing how to play people. She’s a born grifter. A mistress of manipulation who’s smart at assessing how to win the trust of her well-picked targets, for however fleeting a time. But, with her past catching up with her at a quickening pace as she counts down to the party, Alex takes greater and greater risks, and becomes increasingly desperate, deluded and disturbed. All of which adds up to a fabulously thrilling story for fans of fiction featuring unreliable, off-the-wall narrators.
| Primary Genre | Crime and Mystery |
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