Book Review: The Guest by Emma Cline

 

My Rating: 3.5⭐

“Misfortune hadn’t touched Alex: it had only come close enough that she felt the cold air of a different outcome hurtling past.”

Twenty-two-year-old Alex is a grifter, a liar and an opportunist. After managing to charm Simon, an older man she meets at a bar in the city, Alex eventually finds herself spending the summer in his Long Island vacation home. Leaving her train wreck of a life (prostitution, theft, prescription medication abuse and a particularly threatening fellow by the name of Dom who has a score to settle with her), she spends her days content with the attention, the expensive gifts and the affluent lifestyle that comes with Simon’s companionship. She is aware of how different she is from Simon's wealthy friends and struggles to fit in, but keenly observes their way of life. However, one misstep at a party prompts Simon to show her the door. Alex leaves his home but not the area, waiting for Simon to cool down, hopeful that she can gain his favor once again. As she waits out the week preceding Simon’s Labor Day party, she resorts to her old habits to get by, manipulating, thieving and lying her way through the next few days.

“The appearance of calm demanded an endless campaign of violent intervention.”

Narrated in the third person from the perspective of Alex, The Guest  by Emma Cline is an intense and immersive read. Emma Cline's writing is excellent I did like the atmospheric setting of the story and how Alex's worldview is presented to us as the narrative progresses. Despite the lack of plot per se and the somewhat impersonal tone of the narrative, I found this novel oddly addictive, and my curiosity kept me turning the pages.  We don’t get to know much about Alex’s past and we are not given much insight into the people and events that contributed to Alex becoming who she is. Insecure, alone but street-smart she has no qualms about using people and discarding them after they have served their purpose. Her actions are self-serving but not intended to harm others and though we do see fleeting moments of guilt and sympathy amid her alcohol- and drug-infused (mis)adventures, it is selfishness and desperation that defines her narrative. I alternated between being disgusted by her antics and feeling sorry for her. The ending is abrupt, not surprising but also not satisfying.

Overall, while I didn’t dislike this novel, I wasn’t quite taken with it as other readers.

“People just wanted to hear their own voices, your response a comma punctuating their monologue.”