The Guest List

I'm so happy that I tried this one again after initially starting the eBook and putting it down as I couldn't get into it. I then tried the audiobook and wow!! I could not stop listening! The voice actors are brilliant and really heighten the tension of the story. Definitely recommend this for anyone who loves a dark and atmospheric thriller.

Overall very entertaining! It's a bit juicy and it's got drama and it's got a few twists, as you would expect. It doesn't get overly unpredictable though, as the “bigger” twist isn't that hard to figure out, but it wasn't too on the nose either.

Part of the mystery here is not only who did it, but it also takes up until the last quarter of the book to figure out who actually got killed. And then after finding out who, the book very suddenly ends and there are a few plot points you don't really get closure on.

A fun read though, especially the audiobook.

I try to read books that have been nominated or won awards! This book was just published this year so will not show up on any award lists yet. However this seems to be on alot of “Must Read” lists for this summer I thought I would try it out! This was a great book!! Tons of suspects, great characters, good location & surprises! As the suspense/mystery builds up, the chapter lengths get shorter helping to even make it more thrilling! Read this, I think you will enjoy it! David Navratil

Merged review:

I try to read books that have been nominated or won awards! This book was just published this year so will not show up on any award lists yet. However this seems to be on alot of “Must Read” lists for this summer I thought I would try it out! This was a great book!! Tons of suspects, great characters, good location & surprises! As the suspense/mystery builds up, the chapter lengths get shorter helping to even make it more thrilling! Read this, I think you will enjoy it! David Navratil

It was a very quick read and it did have it's moments, but ultimately it failed to deliver. To start with I was having a hard time with this book because I just didn't the vast majority of the characters. They're all defined by one or more significant character flaws that makes empathizing with them somewhat difficult. If I don't like the characters in a book then the plot must be that much better for me to enjoy the book.

Unfortunately the plot here, while initially interesting (for a good 2/3rds of the book even), by the end felt very contrived. It was hard to suspend disbelief with how convenient all the relationships of both the killer and victim ended up being. It just felt incredibly forced. 

Have you ever finished a book and been like “that's it?” That's how I felt after finishing this book, it was lackluster and didn't work for me. I was waiting for the exciting plot twist in this murder mystery and sadly that never happened. 
This novel is told from multiple POVs and we gradually find out the dark secrets that link the characters together. Hearing how these dark secrets affected each person's life was the most interesting part of the book. But by the time the secret reveals came to light everything felt repeatitive and too much of stretch from reality for me to enjoy.

This is a classic whodunit set on a remote island off the Galway Coast. The setting is a wedding between Jules and Will, a seemingly perfect couple. As the guests arrive we find out more about the bride and groom as deep dark secrets are hinted at. The book is at its best when it hints at troubled pasts of characters catching up with them in the present. The plot is very skilfully handled by Lucy Foley. Highly recommended.

Too many annoying men (read: all of them), and the writing style really didn't work for me.

But the women were interesting, and the twists were good. One even caught me completely by surprise.

Enjoyable enough to finish, but completely lacked anything to really get me engrossed in the story until the last third.

Also, for me personally, I found it completely lacking the atmosphere it promised. It was almost like it tried SO HARD that it cancelled itself out. Like, the remote island would have been enough! It didn't need the ~ghosts~ and ~old bodies buried in the bog.~

At least [redacted] died. That's honestly the best thing about the book.

This wasn't a great book. It wasn't even a great mystery. It was, however, a fun read. I was never bored with the ridiculous drama of rich, awful people who are painfully heteronormative. This is pretty much the same shtick as The Hunting Party, but the toxic friendship is male this time around. And it's a wedding, obviously. But it all tracks exactly the same, just with different details. I don't really get the love; but at least I was entertained, even though I kinda guessed what was going on way before the end. It was bad but fun, so it gets three stars, rounded up from 2.5 or so.

Definitely a nice break from the really serious and depressing great literature I've been reading lately. It was a bit contrived, but that made it easier for me to detach emotionally. By the end, though, I was hooked. I stayed up late to get to the ending, which was mostly satisfying and a bit surprising. I enjoyed the description of the island. I would read her again.

The bride ‧ The plus one ‧ The best man ‧ The wedding planner ‧ The bridesmaid ‧ The body

The editors must've thought this was a clever way of introducing the mystery, except that we get points of view from the bride, the plus one, the best man, the wedding planner, the bridesmaid, and the groom. Guess who ends up being the body?