The Guest List

by Lucy Foley

[Joni Reads]

This book...where do I even begin?

I went into it with high hopes as it was so popular and talked about so much. But for me personally, when I read thrillers I need them to be high action. I want my thrillers to read like an episode of Criminal Minds pretty much. And this book, simply put, did not.

For one, there were too many narrators for me. It made it difficult to care much about any of them because I felt like I never truly got to know them. The time jumped around quite a bit also and it was frustrating because I just wanted to be in the action. I understood that all of this was being told for a reason but I didn't care- I wanted to get to the thrilling part.

But that's the thing. There really wasn't a thrilling part. The story was told and 95% was back story about the characters. The actual murder and explanation was 5% of the book.

That being said- I wasn't able to guess who dunnit. Which for me means that at least one part was done right. I would probably read another of her books just to see if this is her general writing style or if it was just the way this particular book was set up.

So it kept me guessing but at the same time I didn't really care enough to make many guesses. There was no urgency or feeling like I had to keep reading. I was interested enough to want to know what happened but I felt no need to read. I forced myself to finish in one sitting because if I would have put it down I probably wouldn't have picked it back up.