The Guest by Emma Cline

[Anonymous]

What did you think of it? By the end I was tired of the protagonist’s self sabotaging. What did you make of the ending?

[Anonymous]

I agree with you about the self sabotage. I also fou d myself anxious towards the end about what would happen to her, though I can’t say I cared that much about her. Ending was not what I expected but I am not sure where else it could have gone. Not my favorite book ever.

[Anonymous]

But what was the ending? I feel like maybe I didn’t get it. She showed up at the Labor Day party and maybe she had a cut over her eye because she was in a car accident? She must have looked a mess so it was obvious she was in a sorry state? I think the significance of the ending may have blown by me? In a my haste to get to the end because I was anxious like you, PP.

[Anonymous]

I quite liked it. I did read it last year in a beach town in late summer and it just so captured the feeling and ~vibes~ of such a place. Alex’s choices exasperated me but she was just determined to self destruct. Some of the passages, such as when she is at the fateful last dinner with Simon, are beautiful. I still think of them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:But what was the ending? I feel like maybe I didn’t get it. She showed up at the Labor Day party and maybe she had a cut over her eye because she was in a car accident? She must have looked a mess so it was obvious she was in a sorry state? I think the significance of the ending may have blown by me? In a my haste to get to the end because I was anxious like you, PP.

I liked how open-ended it is, so you can impose your own meaning. But I’m pretty sure the ending is this: She shows up at Simon’s party looking absolutely deranged (which she is). No one is happy to see her, least of all Simon. He may even know about the incident with the painting. But the wealthy are non-confrontational. Laurie is looking at a point behind her— probably at private security, which are just moments from kicking her out. She’ll then face actual criminal charges or (maybe more scarily?), she will have to face Dom, who knows everything now and is a bad, bad guy.

She’s finally hit rock bottom and yet still doesn’t quite realize it. The magical solution of Simon saving her is done. Her story is over.

[Anonymous]

^ I meant to add, this is the only way her story could have ended. She was delusional from the start. It’s an anxiety-inducing novel because you just know she’s spiraling down. (But a beautifully written one, though!)

[Anonymous]

Is this character and book more compelling than The Girls? I hated the main character in that book.

[Anonymous]

I thought it was stunning. I tend to like procedurals and this to me was a "sugar baby procedural" and I loved her coping steps even as I saw missteps.

[Anonymous]

I loved this book. It was my favorite read of the year. I found Alex oddly compelling even though she frustrated me. The book’s ambiguous ending still causes me to mull it over months after I’ve read it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is this character and book more compelling than The Girls? I hated the main character in that book.

Yes, I didn’t like The Girls all that much. I didn’t particularly care about the main character or her bizarre fixation on that other girl.

But I thought that The Guest was nearly immaculately written. Still very descriptive and atmospheric but no sentence went to waste— unlike The Girls, which I found over-written.

[Anonymous]

I could not have hated a book more. I thought it was so dull and was not engaged at all.

It never ceases to amaze me how subjective reading is. When people comment that it was "immaculately written" and "stunning," I feel like there must have been some mistake in the universe and I read the wrong book.

[Anonymous]

She died in the car crash. The rest is in her mind before dying.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^ I meant to add, this is the only way her story could have ended. She was delusional from the start. It’s an anxiety-inducing novel because you just know she’s spiraling down. (But a beautifully written one, though!)

I loved how a few times she referenced a girl she knew who went crazy and disappeared, and Alex almost disappointingly acknowledges that she herself will never go crazy.

But she does go crazy, and completely loses it at the very end, and she doesn’t even realize it.

(I disagree that she is just “dead” and it’s all a dream or hallucination at the end. But it’s open ended so people can make what they want of it.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^ I meant to add, this is the only way her story could have ended. She was delusional from the start. It’s an anxiety-inducing novel because you just know she’s spiraling down. (But a beautifully written one, though!)

I loved how a few times she referenced a girl she knew who went crazy and disappeared, and Alex almost disappointingly acknowledges that she herself will never go crazy.

But she does go crazy, and completely loses it at the very end, and she doesn’t even realize it.

(I disagree that she is just “dead” and it’s all a dream or hallucination at the end. But it’s open ended so people can make what they want of it.)

So I just read this and loved those references to the other girl. Alex thinks to herself that maybe she’s going crazy, but then immediately thinks, almost disappointedly, that she’ll never go crazy. Which I think just shows that of course she finally lost it at the end, just like that other girl— someone who goes crazy doesn’t think they’re going crazy!