The Guest

By (author) Cline Emma
Description:

''The tension never wavers'' Guardian
‘Sultry and engrossing… Take it to the beach and savour every page’ Observer

Summer''s almost over and Alex is no longer welcome...

Alex is a young woman teetering on the edge. Behind on her rent and with nothing to keep her in New York she agrees to spend August by the beach, in the lavish house of the older man she’s been seeing.

After one misstep at a dinner party she’s dismissed with a ride to the station and a ticket back to the city. But Alex decides to stay on the island, charming her way into the lives of the dazzlingly wealthy set who live there and leaving a trail of destruction behind her. Just how long can she keep going before she’s found out?

‘A delicious, dark-sided novel’ Guardian
‘Eerily captivating’ Elle
‘Compulsively readable’ Independent

Review quote:
Sultry and engrossing, with a note of menace, it''s a gorgeously smart affair whose deceptive lightness conceals strange depths and an arresting originality . . . take it to the beach and savour every page
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Drawing the reader inexorably on to the heightened, rug-pulling denouement, this is beach reading at its finest
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Every sentence as sharp as a scalpel . . . tantalizing
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At once chilling and eminently evocative of the rarefied world it portrays . . . a definite contender for Status Vacation Book of 2023
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The ideal mix of hazy summer glamour and shimmering threat for compulsive beach reading... A gripping, almost ghastly book
Review quote:
The Girls was exceptional; The Guest, with its exquisite pacing and deliciously muddled moral compass, is even better
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Atmospheric and at times incandescent
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Cline''s writing at its very best - hypnotically propulsive, viscerally disquieting, and moving in the most unpredictable ways
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The tension never wavers . . . This is rich material for Cline, who trains a chilly eye on the preposterous affluence and exclusivity of that part of the world
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The Girls was exceptional; The Guest...is even better... Compulsively readable... The Guest is as refreshing as a dip in a cool pool on a hot day
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As bracing as saltwater... Cline possesses unmistakable talent; her bursts of genuine originality and startling insight make that clear
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A tale of the ultimate grifter. Doused in ambiguity and foreboding
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A new tense summer adventure
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A searing portrayal of the precariat? Or a slick summer thriller? The answer is: both . . . you won''t be able to look away
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This unsettling but gripping novel takes us deep into the mind of a woman living a shadowy half-life
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Crucial reading for any young woman
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Undeniably compelling and atmospheric... a poolside-worthy page-turner
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A taut, tense novel... The Guest is a strong follow-up... Her [Cline''s] prose is limpid and propulsive, sustaining an atmosphere of dread.
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[An] arresting observational eye
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A thrilling dissection of survival and how far its protagonist will (or can) go to achieve it
Biographical note:
Emma Cline is the Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling autho