The Guest List
by Lucy Foley
For October, our thematic book club chose the theme of
books with weather as a major element or even a character.
I did a Google search and found several lists. After a
little perusing, I chose The Guest List
by Lucy Foley. “A wedding celebration turns dark and deadly in this deliciously
wicked and atmospheric thriller reminiscent of Agatha Christie ….” It
sounded intriguing and was a Reese Witherspoon book club pick.
On an island off the coast of Ireland, a wedding is
taking place at an old Folly. (A folly is a building that serves no practical
purpose, apparently, like a tower or mock-Gothic ruin.) This one is owned by a
wedding planner and her husband. The bride and groom are what might be called a
power couple – he’s the star of a big survival show and she’s the owner of a
zine called The Download.
The format was intriguing. It started with a chapter
from the perspective of the wedding planner, Aiofe, then alternates with a few
other people including –
- The bride, Jules,
- The groom, Will,
- The bride’s sister, Olivia,
- The best man, Jonah?
- The wife of the bridesman, Hannah
I like the idea of getting different perspectives, and they were different. One of my problems was that the only one I really liked was Hannah.
You get, right off, that the groom is a bit of a
gorgeous and charming jerk. Nothing new there. It takes a while to find out
just how much of a jerk he is though.
Unfortunately, as often happens with this type of
book, I was bored by about 25% of the way through. For me, it feels like
there’s a whole lot of talk with nothing happening, like episodes of a soap
opera I used to watch when I was in my teens. The language is not particularly beautiful
and the story is intriguing but not really interesting.
I’m afraid thrillers just aren’t for me. I ended up
skimming the last 25% just looking for who got killed and who did it. And maybe
I wouldn’t have been so bored if I’d been reading it instead of listening to
it, which dramatically slows things down for me.
I would recommend it for anyone who wants a quick
reading thriller.
