The Guest

Alex is gross. I suppose she can rationalize her prostitution. Maybe a touch of sociopathy. I don't know what it is that drives her to ooze into people's lives like a leech. Sucking up what she can and leaving behind a trail of slime. Another reviewer said it was hard to look away, and it is. She's such a trainwreck and so off kilter that it's fascinating to watch her pick up on cues that allow her to choose situations to insert herself into. I assume nothing will change for her and she herself will not change given the ending. She's sucked back into the original scenario, but we don't get to see how that will turn out. I kind of wish she'll get kicked to the curb but hard.

Alex was missing the mark so often, lately. Everything was jarred from its proper place, or maybe the problem was Alex. Maybe she should cool it with the pills. Even as she told herself she would try to be better, she was aware that she would not.

Alex's life is a mess. She started out as an escort after leaving home and had done well in choosing her clients. But she's having a hard time not messing up and after she takes money and drugs from the apartment of a man she was involved with, he's angrier than she'd anticipated. And neither the money nor the drugs lasted as long as she'd expected. She's thrown a lifeline when another man offers to let her stay with him at his beach house in the Hamptons. Of course he doesn't know the trouble show more she's in, nor that she's also now homeless after failing to pay her share of the rent. Alex does try, she does know how to behave as a wealthy man's sidepiece, but she doesn't seem to be able to stop messing up, in ways both big and small. And with one man looking for revenge and another becoming rapidly disillusioned with her, her options are limited.

Dealing as it does with a woman intent on destroying her own life, this book is right up my alley. I think my attraction to this kind of novel stems from the agency it gives the main character. Sure, her life is going downhill fast, but she's the one who is causing the downward spiral. Alex has a lot going for her; she's smart and attractive enough and she knows how to behave among the wealthy. She's also self-destructive to an alarming degree, prone to actions that she knows will alienate the few people still willing to give her a hand, a group disappearing at a rapid pace. Cline knows how to bring a scene to life and Alex is a wonderful character to follow around, as she fails to rein herself in. Alex is not a likable character, but she is a compelling one and Cline paces this novel well, as she walks Alex towards a reckoning of sorts. show less

This is a book about users and the used. Alex, a young call girl is both. Her mental illness and sociopathy are made clear throughout the book. Like a spy she makes her living by thinking on her feet and turning every new situation into an opportunity. Her job is to please and she does so very well until she gets sick of it. She is shown in contrast with other young men and women who continue to devote themselves to pleasing, organizing, anticipating, and caring for their rich masters who can live their lives of excess when all the day-to-day business of living is made smooth and peaceful. Why does Alex sabotage herself at every turn? Why is she so blind to reality? Or is the reader left wondering why all the other servants are so blind show more to reality that they also don't wreak havoc on their overlords? I didn't fall in love with Alex. I didn't fall in love with anyone in this book, but I couldn't stop reading it. show less

Alex is drifting through life on a cocktail of pills, stolen money and older men who pay the bills. Her latest target has put her up in his Long Island beach house where she swims and provides sex until she messes up at a dinner party and she is coldly dismissed. Deciding that she cannot return to the city where she has to face the consequences of her previous actions, Alex chooses to stay by the beach.
I really enjoyed Cline's last novel and this continues that style of writing which is sun-drenched, hazy and hypnotic. Alex is a deeply unloveable person who grifts and uses her way through life but Cline makes her seem almost sympathetic viewed through this filter. A really wonderful read.

Spooky.
Emma Cline tells this story so vividly from her brittle and unstable character’s mind and feelings that you are left . . . spooked. I was.

Alex is 22 years old, spending the summer on Long Island with her older boyfriend, Simon. Alex’s past is fog-ridden, purposely. When she evades questions from others about her past, she evades them in her own mind as well. I hate to use such a cliche but she truly lives “in the moment,” very precariously so.

She doesn’t belong on Long Island, any more really than she belongs with Simon. She doesn’t belong with anybody anywhere. On Long Island, with its layers of class and money, from the very wealthy (like Simon), to the servants of the wealthy, to the just-plain-servants there’s show more no real place for Alex. She’s an outsider, an invader, a ghost.

She’s a habitual predator on a small scale, surviving on her practiced but fragile charm and beauty. She almost frantically manufactures false identities and illusions, illusions that she really does belong to this wealthy subworld — like a mosquito trying to masquerade as a butterfly so that no one notices her bites and stings.

She is skilled at her way of life, settling herself into Simon’s wealthy nest, but her skills compulsively fail her, a 100% failure rate.

She fails with Simon. He tosses her out. She steals his watch and a cache of bills on the way out. Still she convinces herself she can fix this — she can put it back together.

Over the next week, which is the span of the book, she lives out an odyssey of parasitic feeding, deceit, self-deceit, and self-destruction. Throughout, she keeps thinking she can “fix this.”

Two clouds hang over the fantasy. Her ex — Dom — is looking for her. She stole a lot of money from Dom, and he’s not happy. And he’s determined. He stalks her by phone and text, and eventually in person.

Alex sees the other cloud through its silver lining. Simon’s Labor Day party. Even though he’s thrown her out, he left a glimmer of hope. She can come to the party, see Simon, and everything will be back the way it was. It will all seem minor and even comical.

Cline’s narration builds and builds toward the culmination, when those clouds will fill the sky. Or maybe Alex is right. Maybe . . .

This is one of those stories you feel. I’m about as distant from her 22 year old subject as I could possibly be, but I felt it all. And it left me spooked. show less

I'm not sure what I thought of this book. I thought the writing was fantastic. Emma Cline created a fully developed character in Alex. The story drew me in and I was quite absorbed...maybe too absorbed, as it turns out.

I really felt the darkness that was Alex. I found her bad judgment, total self-absorption, and lack of concern for anybody but herself to be so disturbing. The darkness of this novel was part of the reason it took me so long to finish it. I would read some and would become so saturated in the negativity that I had to put the book down again.

I had moments of hope, in which I thought Alex had finally figured out that she was making bad decisions, but was disappointed each time. And it just kept getting worse. Yet, I could show more relate to it. I have known people like Alex. They find themselves at a fork in the road, with one path being positive and one path being negative; and every time, they choose the more negative path. And everyone who interacts with the Alex's of the world seem to end up the loser in the situation. Granted some of those people are takers and users and manipulators, and it's a bit harder to feel bad for them. But then there are the relatively innocent or naive people who are trying to be nice. Or even worse, the truly lost souls who are just looking for a connection and for someone to understand them. And it is just heartbreaking to see them become ensnared in Alex's web of deceit. But Alex, never one to stay in one place for too long, moves on. And we are left to wonder what was the extent of the damage of Hurricane Alex's brief encounter.

When all is said and done, I think I'm glad I read this book. But, it's the kind of book that's hard for me to recommend. I know a lot of people who would not enjoy reading a book with such darkness. But, I think, for those who appreciate a well-crafted story and well-developed characters, it may be worth a try! show less

(45) This novel instantly sucked you in and was engaging and readable. Our protagonist, Alex, is a twenty-something grifter who seems to glom onto rich lonely people - particularly older men, and lure them into caring for her with sex and easy companionship. A sort of trophy girlfriend or trophy friend. She can be whatever you want her to be. We know virtually nothing else about Alex - somethings are hinted at, but never fully explained regarding who she really is. She seems desperately trying to escape to something, somewhere, without seeming desperate. She is good at the game and the reader can't help but admire her and eagerly flip the pages.

The college friends, the little boy, the lonely rich girl, the scratched painting, and show more finally poor Jack. The author asks us along with Alex - are these people really victims; didn't they get something out of it as well? So the writing was tight and enjoyable. Why not a higher rating? Well, I guess I wanted more that the author was willing to give. Cline wanted to tell a conceptual story of deception, what it means to know someone, what is a stranger, an outsider. But we know just enough about the characters to care just that little bit more. And then we leave an otherwise good novel - unsatisfied. What happens to Alex? To Jack? What has happened in Alex's past? I get the aesthetic of leaving things unsaid, and I often really appreciate it. But here - I wanted more and I bet other readers agree.

I would definitely read this author again though. Maybe my rating is stingy because I feel a bit cheated, when really the novel is taught and well-written with unpretentious but affecting prose and contextual detail. I am of two minds. I think read it yourself if you are looking for a compelling summer read on vacation. Umm... and watch out for that girl in the bikini saying 'hi' to your son.

Addendum: rarely write anything after finishing reading other people's reviews. But all I can say now about my own obtuseness regarding the ending is ... Duh ... of course, why didn't I see that? I'm changing my star rating.... show less