User Reviews
Rating: really liked it
Hell yeah! My choice as best thriller won big again! 🥳💜🎈
This book is a rule breaker for me because I hate two things throughout my readings:
1) Too many POVS: I got confused easily and I don’t like to go back to remember which character was the post man rang twice or which character had some irrelevant back story, blablas, unnecessary yadayadas
2) Slow burning story telling: I’m impatient person, I like to go straight and cut to the chase. So I don’t like stalling around facts, I just like to dive in!
BUT… this book is an exception. I loved its slow building tension, I loved the notorious, immature, childish boys club (I’m talking about groom’s friends who are acting like wedding crashers and stayed in their teenage years), I loved variety of interesting, rich, attention taker characterization. And wonderful part is till the end of the book we are left in the dark and we have no idea who is death or the identity of perpetrator.
You have to focus so carefully when you read the chapters because any small detail turns out a big clue for you to solve the puzzle and not to get shocked when you face the surprising, twisty revelations and the connections between the characters. Yes, I have to stop that but I have to admit, at the end of the book my mouth was wide open, my eyes popped out and I stayed like this position for one hour. The neighborhood kids thought their dreams finally came true and I turned into a sculpture. Even the crows thought I was not a human and they left some gifts to my head( Yes, I washed ten times)But when I got rid of my first shock and started to move, they screamed and cried in pain. Yes, the witch was back!
Let’s talk about the blurb a little bit: Jules, successful, glamorous and too ambitious magazine publisher, suffering from her anger management issues, selfish, focusing on perfection, giving orders, controlling the people, the worst bridezilla marries with charming, rising star of television, cocky, flirting Will at an island off the coast of Ireland, in the middle of nowhere, limited phone reception, giving you nightmarish vibes, with dark woods, caves, making you feel like somebody sneaking behind you. (Perfect place to low budget independent horror movie but not so preferable wedding place. Bridezilla doesn’t care, she knows the best!)
Our other characters: Helen (plus 1) married with bride’s oldest and best male friend Charlie, having doubts about their so intense and secluded relationship, mother, graphic designer at long maternity leave, suffering from traumatic family drama, having her own secrets, befriending bridesmaid Olivia.
Yes Olivia is 19 years old bridesmaid, half-sister of bridezilla, suffering from a big secret makes her lose weight, cutting herself. The secret is gnawing her. She needs to talk someone before she gets hurt herself. Could Helen be her confidante?
Best man Johnno, seems confused what he’s doing about his life, sharing a really big secret with Will from their high school times, giving him nightmares and making him fell like chasing by the past time ghosts. And he learns something crucial to change his life forever and gives him a motive to do something dangerous…
'
Let’s not forget Aoife, wedding planner, working her ass off to organize the entire ceremony, achieving a complex and challenging job but she observes everyone, looking agitated, seems like waiting for the shoe drop. Why is she so frustrated? What is she worried about?
The lies, secrets, resentments and big revelations start to fall into her laps like bombs over and over again. And during the ceremony lights go out, screams, pitch black, lights come out, somebody is death….na na na… Welcome to the bridezilla zone! Do you want to know who killed who?
Guess what, I already told you so much, you gotta read the rest of it.
I hate to admit, I am not fan of Hunting Party. That book disappointed me a lot. But this one is surprisingly good, I couldn’t’ decide if I gave 4 or 5 stars. I decided 4 slow burn, intriguing, smart, entertaining, riveting stars!
OVERALL: SURPRISINGLY ENJOYABLE!
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Rating: really liked it
This book should be renamed The Never. Ever. Ending. Wedding.
Sorry friends who loved and praised this one! It was a perfectly fine book, and it has all the right ingredients for a good murder mystery whodunnit - creepy and claustrophobic atmosphere, multiple suspects with motive to kill, loads of secrets threatening to be revealed, and five intriguing narrators to move the story along, all wrapped up in a big festive occasion.
What’s not to love?
Well, for starters, the characters. You have Jules, the bride: an attractive, ambitious publisher of online magazine, The Download, whose driven, always aware of the optics, self-centered personality bores me. Next up Will, the groom: an exceedingly attractive, self-assured TV star with enough plastered-on humblebrag charm to get his way on just about anything. Add to the mix Charlie, Jules’ best mate, who goes from mild-mannered school teacher to obnoxious turd in the course of one weekend, his wife Hannah, an ex-party girl turned good wife/mom who seems tempted by every hot guy/girl at the wedding, Jules’ half-sister Olivia, who is just an unstable hot mess, and a hodge-podge of a**hole groomsmen/ushers - Johnno, Duncan, Femi, Pete, and Angus - school friends of Will’s who were toxic bullies as children who grew into drunk toxic bullies as adults.
These are miserable people. Miserable people aren’t fun to read about. Even Mother Nature herself looked at these people and cried miserable gales of gloomy tears at the wedding.
The other thing that didn’t sit well for me was simply the utter convenience and unbelievability of the plot and how some of these characters were connected to the murder victim. It didn’t elicit that “OMG, I didn’t see that coming!” Rather, for me, it just elicited eye-rolls. On top of that, it took forever to reveal the murder victim, due to the time jump, rotating narrators style of the chapters. I understand this is to build intrigue and suspense - good mysteries do that - but since I didn’t like any of the characters, by the time the victim was revealed, I just didn’t really care.
I’m sure coming off two very uplifting, lighthearted reads affected my overall feelings about this book, which was so moody and depressing by comparison, so I’ll blame the timing for some of this. That said, although it’s a perfectly good book, I’m just not sure I understand the hype.
★★ 1/2
Rating: really liked it
Whenever I come across a murder mystery on an island, I just can't resist. The setting is positively atmospheric and who doesn't love a good locked-island mystery? There's something immensely appealing about a small group of people being stuck together with no escape while knowing that a murderer is among them.
(And it takes place at a wedding! I love weddings!)
So I put on my detective hat and get ready to puzzle this out, with much glee. But here is the first problem: not only do we not know the murderer, we don't know who the victim is either. So right off the bat, some of the fun is taken out of the whole thing.
The story also suffers from a few other issues that seem to plague most books of this genre. The characters are, unfortunately, all unlikable and dumb. They have trouble saying simple things to each other that would clear up much confusion. They make mistake after mistake, and then ruminate at length about each. And they all drink themselves into stupors at the first sign of discomfort, instead of just... talking.
There is so much buildup for this story. For 200+ pages, we are treated to nothing but petty drama between all the participants. There is a constant feeling of anticipation and foreboding, as if something bad is going to happen, but nothing actually does. It was exhausting. And when we finally get to the good stuff, the twists are fine, but they weren't surprising. I figured this was the direction the story was going, and it indeed went there.
Overall, it was a passable way to spend a few hours, but it doesn't quite rise above all the other modern thrillers in this over-saturated genre. It's just if you're going to build up an entire story on nothing but anticipation and petty drama, when it finally gets to the payoff, it better blow me away. And this just didn't.
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See also, my thoughts on:The Hunting Party
The Paris Apartment
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Rating: really liked it
Hells to the yes!! This is the thriller I have been waiting for! Lately I admit, thrillers have not been..well thrilling me. I have had a problem with them all being, meh...They either are one of these three things...1. not really a thriller...2. Start out with a bang and then the ending is just..plain ridiculous...3. super boring until the last couple of chapters. Not this one! This one delivered from page one!
Jules and Will are the couple I love to hate. They are gorgeous and they know it. Nobody loves Jules and Will more than- you guessed it Jules and Will. Leave it to Jules to insist on dragging her entire wedding party to a remote island. She claims it is for privacy, I though wondered if it were some publicity stunt. The island has a wicked reputation and sketchy past. Umm...sounds like a fantastic place for a wedding, right??!!
I absolutely loved the creepy atmosphere, I wouldn't have spent one night there no matter how much Jules insisted- because she would insist. Everything is all about Jules. The book revolves around multiple POV's which all are members of the wedding party. Yet the author did a superb job of making it really easy to follow along. The chapters were clearly labeled for each POV and if you didn't get it, she even had a description- wedding planner, etc...Yesss! I loved it!
Although admittedly I wasn't a huge fan of The Hunting Party, that is clearly not the case here. Her previous novel was a bit too slow of a burn for me. This one was ON FIRE. This book was a super quick read, with short chapters that I flew through in less than 24 hours. That is my kind of thriller. There were several big twists that I never in a million years saw coming. Yet, they weren't insane. I knew something was off with each of the characters, yet for the life of me I couldn't figure out what they were hiding. Trust me- they were hiding alot!
Rating: really liked it
solidly entertaining 3.75
Rating: really liked it
never felt so good to be single
Rating: really liked it
I was really pleasantly surprised by The Guest List. Loads of people I know have read and enjoyed it, but I was putting it off because of the five different perspectives. This almost never works for me. I just don't end up caring enough about the characters to be concerned about their fate.
Oddly, that wasn't a problem here.
The Guest List is a fast-paced, gossipy, dramatic thriller, whose five main narrators are all clearly hiding something. Foley made me warm to three of the four perspectives very quickly, and while I didn't really
like the other two (Jules and Johnno), I did find myself invested in their stories, and I understood their insecurities and self-doubts.
Basically, everyone turns up for Jules and Will's lavish wedding, taking place on a small island off the coast of Ireland. Pretty much immediately, it becomes obvious that all is not well. Some of the guests are suppressing secrets and nursing old grievances that could probably shatter this marriage before it's even begun. Then, in the "now" of the novel, a body is found out in the storm.
In the snippets of the present, guests venture out of the marquee to determine who it is lying dead, while the other chapters detail the events of the day before, building up to the final reveal. I think it is quite clever that the mystery is not only about who the culprit is, but also who the victim is. You can easily believe it could be any one of them, victim or culprit.
Also, there is just something very compelling about being privy to all this shittalk and gossip about people and watching to see how the whole mess is going to blow up. And blow up it surely does.
Rating: really liked it
**4.5-stars rounded up**The Guest List is a fun, fast-paced, guessing game of a read; perfect for fans of Dame Agatha Christie, or Ruth Ware.
Weddings are memorable occasions but, as we all know, there's frequently some level of drama simmering just under the pristine surface.
That's certainly the case for Jules and Will's wedding, taking place on a remote Irish island that the grumbling guests agree to congregate on for a 48-hour period.
This story is told from multiple perspectives over the course of the weekend, with the body and the killer only being revealed at the very end.
I was intrigued from the start. Swept up into the atmosphere of the remote location almost immediately.
I loved how it has a classic Mystery format, while the content itself, makes it feel quite modern. The lavish destination wedding was perfect as an impetus, and backdrop, for the action.
This story has one of my favorite things, well, many of my favorite things, but one of the most notable is the
quirky cast of unlikable characters.
Everyone had something to hide. Everyone had an axe to grind and I was there for every cat-clawing minute of it.
The setting was extremely atmospheric, channeling a gothic vibe by incorporating some of the island's earlier history and lore into the tale.
The varying perspectives kept the chapters short and therefore the story never had a chance to fall into a lull. Each chapter ended on a sort of mini-cliffhanger that kept me wanting more.
This book received a lot of buzz and for good reason. If you haven't had a chance to pick it up yet, what are you waiting for!?
I cannot wait to see what Lucy Foley comes up with next!!!
Rating: really liked it
People were gushing so much about this book that I gave in and read it. Personally, I think the book focused more on the characters themselves than the plot. For the first 200 pages, I wasn’t thrilled nor excited. The last 100 pages was a different story. It went crazy and got more twisted.
Rating: really liked it
4.75 stars
Just released my Top 10 Books from 2020 BookTube Video - now that you know this one made the list, click the link to find the rest!
The Written Review 
So, I've talked about this one on my channel a lot by now. And the long and short of it is that
I enjoyed this book immensely. I really enjoyed just discovering what this book was about without any external influence, so I'll keep my review short.
It's an
atmospheric whodunit with plenty of twists and turns to keep you on your toes.
The overall premise is that there's a wedding on a remote Irish island, the weather closes in and the island is cut off from the rest of the world.
And then the body is found.Not knowing the body and having an ever-growing list of potential-killers...you are left wondering who in the world could've done it. And why??
I loved and adored the setting and various atmospheric elements. The characters felt well fleshed out and the plot was intriguing throughout.
I definitely recommend it!!Other BookTube Videos involving this gorgeous book:
Just posted my Goodreads Choice 2020 Reaction Video on Booktube! Click the link to check it out!!
YouTube | Blog | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Snapchat @miranda_reads
Rating: really liked it
This one is more a wonderful character study and a take-off on the old locked room mystery--on a dark and stormy night. The story, as it should, grabs more and more as you turn the pages. Great writing. We get to know all the characters enough to care about them before something happens. Instead of a mystery construct this one is done as a thriller. First person present tense that moves backward and forward in time. I was never lost or confused. Clear concise writing.
Too many points of view made the story a tad choppy like driving with one foot on the brake and one foot on the gas. Stop, start. Just when I got going into one character’s story, we’re off to another. Lots of atmosphere, and the setting carries equal, if not more, weight than the characters. The story is like a frayed rope being braided tighter and tighter as we approached the crisis. The characters, although three dimensional and at least semi-likable all turn heavily flawed by the end. The idea of killing a victim in a story is to evoke emotions. In this case the victim turns out to be so heinous we’re cheering for the killer. Which is really a unique way of twisting the plot. By the end everyone has a motive just like in the best locked room mysteries. What was really nice, I did not guess the, “who.”
Four solid stars and I would recommend this book.
David Putnam author of The Bruno Johnson Series.
Rating: really liked it
The Guest List BOTM April 2020 SelectionIn a sea of mediocre mysteries and thrillers, this one caught my attention and held it through to the explosive ending. Lucy Foley writes psychological fiction that isn't flashy, but focuses a quiet power to envelop the reader with strong writing and plotting. In my opinion, a good thriller isn't one that has to pull a twist out of somewhere the reader wouldn't expect, but takes the entire cast of characters and makes each look as guilty as the rest, so that by the time the reader reaches the end, it doesn't really matter whodunnit as much as how the author has kept you floundering around for 300+ pages in search of the reveal. This is precisely what Foley has done with The Guest List, and while it was difficult at first to keep up with the numerous POVs we receive, I was able to keep them straight once the story was going. Part Agatha Christie mystery, part Big Little Lies, The Guest List is a book that I felt lightened the burden of current world issues and allowed me to slip into a place that was filled with murder and mayhem instead of viruses and homeschooling.
Disclaimer: I also received a review copy via the publisher.
Rating: really liked it
I received this ARC from Netgalley and the publisher, in exchange for an honest review. I normally would of said Thank you at the start of that sentence. But on this occasion, the only thing to say thank you for was that it was reasonably short.
I requested this, as from the blurb it had great promise. Boy was I wrong. The first chapter was quite good. After that each chapter was written from a different guests pov. Jumping all over the place. None of the characters were likeable at all. It sounded like the wedding from Hell, and not for the reason the author intended.
At times felt like the author had dropped the chapters, and picked up quickly, getting them out of order. I did
manage to finish this, which was mainly because it was an ARC, and I felt obligated to finish it. Also because I kept thinking it would improve.. it didn't.
Rating: really liked it
This is a very slow moving thriller, and I am learning that slow moving thrillers is just not for me. I had a lot of hope of this one, but the first 200 pages I was bored and I almost stopped reading this book. Overall I think this book is just ok not great. The ending I liked, but I did not love it. The ending did not make up for me being bored for 200 pages.
I added this book on to my May 2020 Book of the Month box.
https://www.mybotm.com/zr12wnytgc8?sh...
Rating: really liked it
Lucy Foley follows The Hunting Party with this even more hugely entertaining atmospheric murder mystery, a modern take on Agatha Christie, set on the wild and isolated Cormorant Island, off the west coast of Ireland. The golden celebrity couple, Julia 'Jules' Keegan, publisher of a successful online magazine, and the handsome Will Slater, rising star of TV show Survival, are getting married in style in front of their friends and family, an exclusive event being organised by wedding planner, Aoife and catered for by her husband, Freddy. However, it immediately becomes clear on a dark, wild and stormy wedding night of power cuts that something has gone desperately wrong, and in a narrative that goes back and forth in time, a distraught waitress speaks of seeing a body outside, which has the ushers setting out into the night to find out what has happened.
Foley provides the perspectives of a wide host of diverse characters, with their fears, secrets, lies and silences amidst the drink and drug fuelled wedding celebrations over which hang an ominous air of upcoming disaster, a feeling that is enhanced further by the island location with its haunted history, its ghosts of the dead, its treacherous terrain and the approaching storm. Jules is worrying about a anonymous note that warns her not to marry Will, her bridesmaid, her sister Olivia, is a fragile self harming wreck. The best man, Johnno, is desperate not to lose touch with Will, they have a shared past history that goes back to their school days. Hannah is the plus one, married to Charlie, the MC and best friend of the bride, they are a cash strapped couple, determined to make the most of their first opportunity for a long time to be away from their children and their humdrum lives. The ushers are a bunch of sneering, entitled, bullying and malicious ex-public schoolboys who have never grown up.
Foley skilfully reveals the past history of the characters, the grief, the losses, the simmering resentments and jealousies, the guilt, the secrets, the lies, a past that adds up to a bubbling cauldron full of motives to kill, and a present where the chickens of the past have finally come home to roost. Foley excels in writing a riveting murder mystery, with the vibrant creation and development of larger than life characters, attending a strife ridden wedding in a location that is just perfect for the darkest of deeds to take place. A fabulous crime read that I recommend highly. Many thanks to HarperCollins for an ARC.
