Reviews with content warning for Vomit - The Guest List

This novel is a blink and miss it type of story. We follow a celebrity couple who are getting married on a private island in Northern Ireland. This story revolves around 5 main characters

Bride - Jules is essentially an influencer with her website and is striving to have the perfect wedding.

Groom- Will is a TV star with boat loads of charisma, every girl at the wedding can't keep their eyes off of him.

Best Man - Johnno is a stoner who doesn't come from money. His friendship with Will started in school and they have been best mates since then.

Maid of Honor - Olivia is Jules half-sister and has been going through a hard time with a recent break up.

Plus one - Hannah is the wife of Charlie who is Jules best friend. Her and Charlie left the kids with her parents and hope to spend the weekend reconnecting, enjoying the time away from parental life.

Through out the novel we alternate between the wedding night where the lights went out and a scream was heard and the two days prior. Secrets are revealed, games are played, and no one is who they seem. I enjoyed the fast pace of this novel and was genuinely shocked when it ended. I didn't want to put the book down.

Spoiler

I loved how we didn't know who even died until the ending. Without a clear victim I wasn't able to predict the murderer so all of the twists felt fresh. My biggest draw back was the ending. I feel like we just needed another chapter or two to wrap up all of the characters stories.

Overall such a good quick read with plenty of drama. For real the drama in this story was telenovela level of drama.

Content Warnings

ssarahbbeth's review against another edition

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dark mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

Contrary to the hype of this book, I felt this was a slow moving book at first. It took about half way in for the story to pick up but when it did I throughly enjoyed it. I enjoyed the plot twists and the last half quite immensely.

Content Warnings

coffeekitaab's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

Foley is second to none when it comes to stringing a twisted murder mystery filled with a multitude of suspicious characters who form the premise of her 'whodunit' narrative. The Guest List has been on my radar since I read my first of this author's books, The Hunting Party. I always find the books really easy to read; setting the tone with the bulstrous winds and oncoming storm, a challenging ride for the guests over dark waters to the isolated castle/Folly which lies on this deserted island, where Jules and Will have arranged to have their destination wedding is the crème de la crème of a suspense thriller. Foley has you hooked from the first page! You almost feel like a guest at this wedding watching the drama unfold, the writing is strong and persuasive. I definitely had a gasp moment at the revealing of Olivia's plot twist. This would have been a 5 star for me but, for the same reason I didn't enjoy The Paris Apartment, I just don't think every character needs to be linked to the pivotal one, it feels like overkill and the story fell flat for me when Hannah's connection to Will came to the fore. Thankfully this only happened within the last 15 pages of the book and I was loving every detail until then so I'd still rate it highly and recommend it if you're a fan of thrillers! Content warnings should be checked.

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