Prakhar Alok

Verdict – 2.5/5. 

A thriller based in a creepy, somewhat haunting Irish island told from the perspective of each character with a predictable twist connecting to all characters making it rather sloppy.

I have mixed feeling about The Guest List by Lucy Foley. The setting is on an unescapable Irish island where all the guests converge for the wedding of Will and Julia who seem to be the perfect couple, except they are too perfect to be true. Author has painstakingly described the island atmosphere, giving the readers a feeling that it may be haunted. The story is told from the perspective of each characters, a brave attempt but I thought the tone for few of them didn’t really capture their motives. 

The ending, arriving at which the author took a lot of time, is acceptable but predictable. The main antagonist has too many tells to ignore. Each characters story arc converges to the same thing making it rather convenient. One character who has wronged everybody and somehow they are all related too. Too many coincidences for my liking.

I liked the Irish island setting, making the events that took place to be believable. Apart from the bride, whose motives, whose intentions were always questionable and making the reader always guessing. other characters were rather one dimensional. The Guest List is a good one-two sitting read, if you are not doing anything else during the weekend.