A review by kasiamonique
The Guest by Emma Cline

2.0

The Guest follows Alex, who we can believe is an escort or sex worker of some sort. Alex comes to spend the summer at her older boyfriends beach house in Long Island. When her boyfriend asks her to leave, we follow Alex and all the things she gets into trying to make it by until Labor Day.


To be honest, I am very torn about this book and story. I felt very sorry for Alex, but I also disliked her a lot. There is something that irritates me very much about “sleepy” characters that kind of just meander through life (think My Year of Rest and Relaxation). I just want to reach into the book and shake them by the shoulders.
The adventures of Alex did keep me very entertained as I was reading and I was astonished with how much she was able to get away with and the ways she was able to make herself “fit in”. As someone who, at times, suffers from social anxiety, it was hard for me to imagine the ease that it seemed Alex did these things with.
The ending of the book was somewhat ambiguous to me. There were a lot of questions that I felt were left unanswered. I know that some people enjoy endings like this, but I do not. I guess I was expecting more from the ending.

Overall, I hated the ending, but not the book itself, but there also wasn’t a lot going on in the book so I can’t bring myself to rate it any higher. But it was a decent casual read.