Tuesdays with Ambrea: The Guest List by Lucy Foley

 

Reviewed by Ambrea

 Will, a rising television star, and Jules, an ambitious magazine publisher, are set to marry on an exclusive little island off the coast of Ireland.  Bright, beautiful, and brilliant in their everyday lives, they look like the perfect couple and this event is set to be the perfect wedding.  They have invited all their closest friends and family out to celebrate their momentous day, but, then, someone turns up dead—and, now, everyone is a suspect.

I picked up an audiobook copy of The Guest List as part of BPL Book Club.  I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from Lucy Foley’s novel, so I was a little hesitant to start reading.  I mean, it was going to be narrated by a large cast (which is sometimes hit-or-miss for me) and it was a mystery/thriller (which isn’t my usual cup of tea); however, as I dived into the novel, I was pleasantly surprised to find myself hooked.

Not only was I enthralled by the story, I actually enjoyed the alternating narration between the characters—the bride, the bridesmaid, the best man, the plus one, and the wedding planner—because it helped to paint a larger portrait of both the wedding and the wedding party.  Although no one is a particularly good person, I found I enjoyed hearing from Hannah (the plus one) and Aoife (the wedding planner).

Hannah feels like a real person:  not perfect, like Jules (the bride) pretends to be, and not a train wreck, like both Johnno (the best man) and Olivia (the bridesmaid).  She’s someone who is caught up in the whirlwind of the weekend; someone who is struggling with her own hurt and jealousy, her floundering marriage; someone who sees the menace behind Will’s pretty face and his “boys-will-be-boys” pals. 

Aoife, on the other hand, feels more like the “straight-man” in this narrative.  She’s observant and smart, and she slips very easily behind the scenes.  She seems a little more omniscient than the other characters, simply because she’s the wedding planner and people tend to forget she’s there; she sees and hears more than anyone else, which makes her very important. 

As for the story, I was riveted very early in the book.  While Foley does take time to get you invested in her characters and gives you plenty of characters to despise, she makes a point of introducing readers to the murder long before she introduces them to the victim.  I was definitely caught in her web:  I spent much of the novel theorizing who the victim was—and hoping it was a particular character who deserved it—rather than dwelling on the actual murder or, even, the murderer.

I won’t mention any spoilers, because the plot of this novel hinges on discovering the murder victim, but I will say I felt an immense rush of gratification when Foley finally introduced “the victim.”

While I enjoyed The Guest List overall, I did find it to be both infuriating and slightly shocking.  First, it takes a very long time to build up to the climax; and, second, it broaches a number of difficult subjects, including suicide, murder, abuse, drug use, and infidelity, among other things.  It’s not a tame book in any respect, so be forewarned.