Book Club Discussion: The Guest List

[ufcasey]

Hello! It's time for our monthly book club discussion! This month's book is The Guest List by Lucy Foley

As always, feel free to answer any of the questions, or just discuss your opinion of the book in general!

Optional questions:
1. We read the perspectives of Aoife, Hannah, Jules, Johnno, Olivia and a little with Will. Which character were you most engaged with? Which one the least?

2. Did you think it was interesting or overkill that Will was involved with all those horrible actions that impacted so many of the characters (he sabotaged the reality show for Johnno, he got Olivia pregnant and then ghosted her, he posted a private video of Hannah's sister which drove her to suicide, and he killed Aoife's little brother)? Did one of these events impact you more than the others?

3. What did you think about the reveal that Aoife is the sister of Darcey? Were you surprised that she ends up being the one to murder Will?

4. Johnno took the blame for Will’s murder despite being innocent. Do you think the truth will ever come out about Aoife?

[ufcasey]

tagging people who may have read this book:

jwright, travella, waverly, hermione, dochas, meowmaps, minzy, dontlook, eb777888

[ssmjlm]

It was barely 3 stars for me. I had high hopes given all the praise, but it was sort of a cross between the movie Clue and a post college 90210 episode. I'm also really over the high school grudge plot lines that is SO POPULAR lately. Grow up and move on people!

I was most engaged with Hannah and Olivia. I think there needs to be an epilogue where Hannah leaves her crappy husband and hires Olivia to be her nanny. They both needed some positive in their lives and to be rid of men for a bit.

Will was a bit much for me, but again, maybe that's why I had some 90210 feelings about things. It was just a little too "easy" to tie everything together with one jerk.

I think that eventually the truth would come out and Johnno would be redeemed. Guy deserved a break too.

[hermione]

I read this a while ago so details escape me. My notes are that the book cheated. The reader never really had a chance to guess the murderer because there were 0 clues pointing to the actual killer. i gave it 3 starts which for me is basically, "meh."

[travella]

I read this book a while ago so I cannot recall anything but the basic gist of the story. I wrote in my review:

I'm mystified by the stellar reviews on this one. The only silver lining was that it's a relatively short book. The pacing was very slow. There wasn't a single remotely likeable character. Then when things do finally get a little interesting the book races through it. I gave it two stars since I was able to finish it.

[dontlook]

I gave it 3 stars and I think that was generous. It was an interesting twist that Will was involved with all of the horrible things but the book felt like it just had too much going on. I’m trying to figure out how to words this but I’m over books that try to hold back facts just to throw them out there later. For instances, this book would have been better if we understood the relationship between Will and the sister upfront. It just didn’t need to be held back. It’s not just this book, I’m over a lot of books for this reason. Just give me a good story and stop trying to surprise me. I’m really tired and I’m sure this makes no sense.

Basically, this book was meh for me.

[aurora]

I thought it was fun, but maybe I don't read enough books of this genre to be tired of them.

I liked Hannah and Olivia the best, for sure, but I appreciated the multiple perspectives even for the characters I didn't like. Will was the stereotype of the privileged rich white man who can get away with anything (for a while).

[aurora]

Mar 31, 2021 9:06:51 GMT -5 hermione said:

I read this a while ago so details escape me. My notes are that the book cheated. The reader never really had a chance to guess the murderer because there were 0 clues pointing to the actual killer. i gave it 3 starts which for me is basically, "meh."

I think the major clue was how low Aoife bid the wedding to try to lure Will out to the island, but I do agree the book tried to steer us towards other villains instead.

[meowmaps]

I read this almost exactly a year ago so I remember almost nothing except that I liked it and felt that to some extent, the island was an honorary character. I enjoyed the descriptions of the environs and felt like I could picture myself there and as part of the story.

I also liked the author’s debut The Hunting Party. I’m sorry that the general consensus isn’t positive but one person’s trash is another person’s treasure as they say!

[CrazyLucky]

Mar 31, 2021 9:06:51 GMT -5 hermione said:

I read this a while ago so details escape me. My notes are that the book cheated. The reader never really had a chance to guess the murderer because there were 0 clues pointing to the actual killer. i gave it 3 starts which for me is basically, "meh."

I did not like this book, and that is one of the reasons for me too.  It's not really a whodunit, because you have no chance to figure it out.  My other main complaint is that it is extremely similar to The Hunting Party.  I looked up my review of the Hunting Party, and it was almost word for word the same problem.  Not a whodunit.  There were other similarities too.  Just too much of a formula and I didn't really get into it.
To answer a couple of  questions:
1. I liked Johnno's perspective the best.  Until all the big reveals that the villain in each person's perspective was Will, Johnno was the only one giving a differing view of Will.
2. I definitely thought it was overkill that he was the bad guy in everyone's lives.  But I identified most with Hannah.  When you love someone so much, and see them hurt to the point of despair and suicide, and you can't do anything about it... I can't imagine that pain.  And I can't imagine not wanting to kill Will.

I also didn't like Charlie much.  He had no backbone.  And I don't really get why he would have gone to the stag party.  Is it normal to go to your wife's male friend's party?  DH never did, but maybe we're the weirdos.

[waverly]

I mostly liked it but didn’t love it. It took me several tries to get into it. I am trying to read her other book but having a hard time getting into that one too, and it feels very similar.

[minzy]

I read this a little while ago, so am not crystal clear on the details any more. It is not one that I have thought much about since I finished. I had the second book on hand, but when I heard it was nearly the same, I decided to pass after all. I tore through it though, and never had the “how many pages are left in this thing?” moment, so I consider that a plus.

However, the story was so far fetched (how could one guy be so wicked?) and none of it made me feel good. I felt bad for the wife whose husband was the bride’s old friend. Here she is with young kids, hoping for a weekend getaway with her husband, and she comes back with her marriage in shambles. (And of course she also finds out that Will’s actions were connected to her sister’s suicide.)

I agree with meowmaps that the island itself seemed like a character. The author debated using a Greek isle but then set foot on a couple off the coast of Ireland, and created the setting from there. www.crimetime.co.uk/the-guest-list-lucy-foley-talks-to-crime-time/

(Random but I just got AncestryDNA results back this morning and apparently strongly match with western Ireland, so am feeling a newfound fondness for this book’s location today, haha.)

[eb777888]

Mar 31, 2021 8:34:20 GMT -5 ufcasey said:

tagging people who may have read this book:

jwright, travella, waverly, hermione, dochas, meowmaps, minzy, dontlook, eb777888

I really wish this was a question about The Hunting Party, which I just finished. The Guest List was a January book for me, so it’s vague at this point.

I just realized The Guest List and The Hunting Party are by the same author, which explains so much. I was telling H how I read two identical books in a row. 😂😂

[jwright]

I remember this being a quick fun read; which I like about once a month. It didn't really stick with me, but I was really into while reading.

I felt worst for the younger sister (Olivia?) who just got totally played by the groom.

[aurora]

I had borrowed the audiobook from my library, and at the end there was a preview of The Hunting Party, and as I listened to the preview I felt like it was still the same book but the character names had changed. Maybe it's best to only read one of the two!

[mrspez07]

I enjoyed the audio book (especially accents), though if you missed the name at the chapter switch it could be confusing.
I liked Hannah’s perspective best, she was the only one not caught up in appearances and snobbery.
It seemed a little too neat and tidy at the end, but the suspense kept me reading. It was a quick read/listen that was entertaining enough.
The author did a good job of making the island another character and the setting definitely provided a sense of dread and darkness.

[Nonny]

I finished it earlier in the week, and I agree that it's annoying to have a mystery where the reader can't actually solve the mystery. (And I accidentally read a spoiler about Aiofe being the killer, so I was actively looking for clues that pointed to her, and there were some, her bid, the mysterious drowned "person," but other than her and her husband knowing the Latin phrase they were chanting, there wasn't anything to also tie Freddy to the situation until the reveal.) She basically just pointed the finger at everyone.

I do think it was believable that William was a terrible guy to everyone though. Awful people generally don't just have one target. They spread it around.

I ended up giving it 3 stars because I did find it entertaining, but I put at the end of the review that I didn't think it was necessarily a fair 3 stars, because I'd also rated at least one book by Lisa Jewell as 3 stars, and by all accounts Jewell is a superior writer.

[expectantsteelerfan]

I just finished this book because I was late getting it from the library. I haven't read enough books like this lately. It was seriously the perfect book for me to read right now, because I'm stressed out, exhausted, have trouble focusing on things that take a lot of mental effort, and am overall cranky. So this book was interesting enough to keep my focus without me struggling, and well-written enough for me to pick it up at random times when I didn't have a huge chunk of time to read (unlike when I'm reading really heavy books or books that make me angry throughout, I avoid picking them up for short chunks of time and instead play on my phone and end up drawing out how long it takes to read the book).

I liked a lot of the characters. I did think it was unrealistic and over the top that Will was connected to all of the hurting characters and had been the cause of all of their pain, but I did like in the end that it really could have been any of them that killed him because they all had motive and hated him enough.

I think Hannah was my favorite character and I would have liked even more about what the aftermath of the wedding was for her and Charlie, but I also understood why the book ended when it did without going into what any of them did after the wedding.

Overall I didn't think it was some outstanding, life changing book that everyone should read or anything, but it's a great pick for a beach read or a read when you are stressed and need some fluff (but hate most romance fluff like me).