You May Dislike the Book, But You’ll Love Talking About It
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This book is a terrific choice for book clubs! Conversation will abound! But here’s the deal: No two people will have the same thoughts on exactly what happens at the end!
If you check the review of this book in Vanity Fair, you will see it’s called, “The Ending of The Guest Is Anyone’s Guess.” In the article, written by Keziah Weir, more than a dozen staff members offer up more than a dozen explanations of the ending.
The ambiguity of the last few pages is the only spoiler I will give away. That in itself may keep some from reading this book. But, if you’re not turned off by this, give it a go – and hold off reading Vanity Fair until after you finish the novel.
That said, this is the story of a twenty-two-year-old woman named Alex who is a sex worker in New York and who has found herself some stability in an older man named Simon. As the book opens, she is living with him in his summer home in the Hamptons. She is enjoying the clothes and jewelry he buys for her and his sumptuous lifestyle. Meanwhile, she is also running from a shady acquaintance named Dom, who lives in the city and who calls and texts her repeatedly.
You would think she would do anything to keep the stability she has found. But this is not the case at all. Instead, she does something fabulously inappropriate at a party Simon takes her to. In the aftermath, he kicks her out. She decides that if she gives him some time to cool off, he will take her back. Her grand plan is to show up at his Labor Day party – just a week away – expecting to fall into his open arms.
But what is she going to do for the week? If she goes back to the city, she’ll have to deal with Dom. If she stays in the Hamptons, where exactly will she stay? In typical Alex fashion, every time she solves that problem, she does something inappropriate that sends her packing again.
All of these Alex-antics were mind boggling to me:
- The original sin against Simon at the party.
- The property damage she causes when the personal assistant of one of Simon’s friend takes her in.
- Her insanity in befriending a small child at the country club in order to gain entry to the club.
- Her friendship with a teenage girl.
- And worse yet, her sexual relationship with an unstable teenage boy.
Basically, I cringed repeatedly throughout the book. Sometimes I was so afraid of what would happen next that I had to put the book down. But still I read on. I wanted to see if the author was going to give me a back story to explain all this craziness and I certainly wanted to see what would happen come Labor Day.
Bottom line: I did not like Alex at all! And I did not like this book!
BUT, all that cringing and page turning tell me what a well written book it is. Thus, I recommend it to book clubs! I guarantee you will want to talk about this one!
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Click here to learn more about The Guest on Amazon.
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