“Everyone on the island has a secret. Everyone has a motive. And someone won’t survive this wedding alive…”
Rating: 3/5
I was intrigued by this very blurb - “Everyone on the island has a secret. Everyone has a motive. And someone won’t survive this wedding alive…”. It’s why I picked this for my April book pick for BOTM. An exclusive wedding on a remote island with a very selective guest list. Except someone won’t make it out alive.
I had high hopes for this one. I thought it was going to be a very suspenseful book. In a way, it was, in the very slow building way. I think that’s what bothered me most, it all felt very rushed once I got to the end. You learn all the twisted fucked up secrets within the last 70 pages of the book. Up until then, I was itching to know what the fuck was going on. I would have enjoyed it more if the secrets were more spread out. I was guessing and filling in blanks as I was reading, but the short snippets of each point of view didn’t make it easy to do that.
This book reminded me of Watching You by Lisa Jewell. This set up was similar in this one, with short exchanges of all the main characters’ points of view, and the back and forth between before and after the murder. However, I enjoyed Watching You more than I enjoyed The Guest List. With Watching You, I felt there were more secrets being told throughout the story that made it easier to try and guess who the murdered could be. I didn’t get this with The Guest List.
This book reminded me of Watching You by Lisa Jewell. This set up was similar in this one, with short exchanges of all the main characters’ points of view, and the back and forth between before and after the murder.
I did enjoy reading this. Don’t get me wrong, it just wasn’t as good of a read as others or of what I was expecting. I was actually surprised by this ending. I didn’t expect things to connect the way they did. To be honest, I was a little confused by the choice of who the narrators were up until the end. The ending of this book definitely redeemed my overall thoughts of it. If the ending wasn’t as shocking as it was I probably wouldn’t have liked this one at all.
Overall, I wasn’t that impressed with this book. I expected a more gruesome whodunit story. This didn’t feel like a whodunit at all. It felt like a very light thriller. There was too much of a slow build to a big finale that felt very rushed. Keep reading for more of my thoughts on The Guest List.
Warning! Spoilers :)
I had a feeling Will was the one who was going to be murdered. Though I didn’t expect the one who killed him. I might have if everything wasn’t rushed to be announced at the end. Even Will’s death felt rushed.
I didn’t expect all the narrators to be connected to Will. Hannah’s connection was the most shocking of all for me. But I might have seen that coming if I actually sat down and truly thought about it. I now see all the clues I initially missed. I wasn’t expecting how Aoife fit into the mix either. Maybe I would have if the death of her brother was introduced earlier in the book. I had suspected Johnno and Will had killed someone and that was their big secret. But they only danced around it, until Johnno finally comes out and explains it in those last 70 pages.
I didn’t expect all the narrators to be connected to Will. Hannah’s connection was the most shocking of all for me.
Until then I thought the one who sent the note to Jules and pulling the pranks was someone who didn’t get invited that Will did something too back in their school days. I was really holding it to that since nothing was being said up until the boy was announced dead. Then that theory died with it. I was completely thrown off the trail at that point.
I was a little bothered by the amount of sex and sex talk in this book. But once I reached the end, I felt it was needed as much as I didn’t want to hear it all. Without it, I wouldn’t have been as deeply disturbed as I was by all the discoveries of how everyone was connected to Will. Like Olivia’s connection. I was happy to see her and Jules made up at the end.