The Guest List

I’m a member of Audible for over 10 years. This is my first review. This book is just terrible in my opinion. Where from good reviews came? I’m quitting after 2 hours 20 minutes,How in world I could spent my credit on this. How it is even possible that after 2 hours I have no idea what this writing is about. How person who write this set of words can be called writer. Sorry, maybe it is too harsh but it’s really bad text.

I found this book to be engaging at first, but the ending was disappointing. There were way too many coincidences to be believable, so the last few chapters of the story felt contrived and silly. It was also fairly predictable with certain characters. Not my favorite, but I think many will still find it entertaining!

Not knowing in advance everything that is going to happen is not the same as being in the 'mystery' genre.The book basically ends with the occurrence of the crime one would ostensibly solve in a mystery novel, at the same time that we find out who the culprit is.There is some jumping back and forth in time in the book, but there is no part of the book where the crime is being investigated or solved.No gathering of clues after the fact...or before the fact, as it would have to be in this case.Let me put it another way -- the reader can't properly solve the crime at any point.This is not a case where you are given all the information you need to come to a conclusion, if only you were clever enough.This is not anything like a Christie mystery, and those comparisons need to stop. And I did guess who did it in advance.

I enjoyed the book overall, but the ending (or lack thereof) ruined it for me. We finally piece together what happens. Minutes later, the credits roll. All this build-up, for that? But then what?! Tie it up in a nice little bow and finish the story! The epilogue wasn’t much of an epilogue. Amazing performance, though!

I enjoyed this book as a simple “who did it” book. The voices change in narrators was enjoyable, though the female narrators putting on the male public school boy voices was slightly irritating an stupid for me. I didn’t enjoy this book as much as “the hunting party” by Lucy Foley which was fantastic. This seemed to have a far more predictable and less complex story line.

I picked this because of the buzz.My problem was the totally unlikeable characters.Only two I cared about.The bride was ok, she owned her quirks.I did listen to the end to find out what happened but I don’t think I’d recommend.So many people in the book made poor decisions!I did think the writing was technically good.

I read, also listen to Audible a ton...after the first couple of chapters i pretty much knew where the plot was headed!! It's still a compelling storyline.

interesting and easy to stay engaged with. the characters were not overly complex, but the pace was quick.I could also add a trigger warning as there is a part that is very deatiled in describing self harm.Overall I really enjoyed it!

First: The readers are pretty good. But it does take a while to get used to the characters and their relationships. Second: The author gets kudos for writing a story that didn't hinge on a missed text or dropped phone call or a smartphone battery dying as a complicating incident. The story is a case of good versus evil.. Third: The delineation of character is fairly obvious for each character, which dulls any surprises as to plot development. Maybe too many inner-thoughts laying the groundwork and not enough showing through action what is really going on in the characters' lives. Fourth: It did hold my interest on my Pandemic Walks since it was straight-forward and had a beginning, middle and end... but I felt it did need some more development so that I actually cared about the characters in the story. Fifth: Therefore, 2 stars overall.

This book satisfied me like a bag of potato chips. It has one flavor: a dark and stormy night. But it's not a complete meal. I kept going until the end because I honestly did want to know the ending- so it has that going for it. But the ending wasn't very satisfying. Ironic because I think it's intended to be very satisfying. The performance was very good- all different characters reading with different personalities. So in that sense I enjoyed it. But I agree with the other reviewers that I just did not like any of the characters. I commend the author for writing this book- I do like potato chips. I like this genre and I liked the mystery. I couldn't have written this myself. So apologies for sounding mean. I just don't think it's all that. Maybe I'll try The Hunting Party to compare!

It has been a while since I’ve listened to a book THIS bad! Characters were underdeveloped. Plot was choppy. I listened to the end to see if it would redeem itself and sadly it did not

I liked the setting, I liked the characters, I liked the narrator, but this book is just too ridiculous. Strong “Behind Closed Doors” vibes, if you know what I mean...

This is a bad soap opera. The characters are jokes: the posh crowd, the boy that doesn’t fit, the absent father, the crazy sister etc.if going to weddings is your thing, go for it. If the idea of fake people having idle conversations bores you to death, stay as far away from this book as you cam.

The Guest List is another in a long, long list of thrillers that rely on victimized women and men with dark secrets. You could find a thousand stories just like this with 5 minutes of searching and get almost the exact same thing, Like I said in the title, its a Mcdonald's Hamburger. From a larger perspective these sort of stories really depress me because they show how much of the thriller genre has devolved into lifetime movies put to page. We had luminaries like Agatha Christie, Conan Doyle, Dorothy Sayers, and Patricia Highsmith. Now we get this. The abuse of women by men fetishized over and over again. If you are unexpectedly stuck in an airport for ten hours you could do worse then reading this book. But you wont remember it in T-minus 1 day.

I waited for this book to get better, but it never did. So many boring details, not an exciting storyline for most of the book. I found it hard to pay attention even though I listened while driving a long distance by myself.

This book wasn’t bad looking back since the last few chapters helped save it from a 1 star review. However, the pay off was so not worth the agony of tediously going through everyone’s past and present. There were no lovable characters just a few that weren’t the worst. Since you don’t know who’s been murdered for most of the book, I spent that first 80% hoping that everyone was murdered somehow. The end was okay and had better pacing but was guessable. Also, be warned that there are random, somewhat graphic sex scenes throughout which made listening to this with my family rough. I wish I could have passed on this. I won’t be choosing from this book list in the future.

I found the individual stories and the wedding details and especially the location highly entertaining. Then there’s the mystery element. Very well written atmospheric and well performed. Great job.

The big reveal of a murder mystery should not be that the psychopath “did it”.Without spoiling the story I think it is fair criticism to say that we have no true insight into the mind or motivations behind the “bad guy”, and I am not referring to the person who wielded the final blow.

The author can tell a story. I wish there was minimal use of profanity in telling of this story. Sexual content was a bit explicit. I appreciated the expert way the author built up the storyline though.

This book was entertaining, but slightly shallow in the character development and plot line. Nice nod to Christie, but don’t go in expecting a new And Then There Were None.

Fun who dunnit but is hopelessly predictable if you've seen recent thriller shows from HBO in the past couple years.Laughable that Reese Witherspoon endorses this book.Performances are too dreary throughout.

Agatha Christie would be horrified having her name associated with this book. Most annoying is the chapters aren't numbered so if you lose your place you can't find it again. The chapters use the character's name who is talking, but the characters have many chapters. IMPOSSIBLE ! The plot involves a murder, which doesn't appear until the last chapter, so skip to there and even that's not very interesting. The other chapters are the character's lives, mostly dealing in others thinking they are sexy and are about to abuse them. AWFUL!

There's nothing wrong with the recording or performances -- excellent, as with all Audibles. But the story took forever to get going and never developed into a good suspense novel. Tiny snippets hinted at something exciting to come, but the very, very long passages of dull backstory made me wish I had a physical book so I could skip ahead to something that would hold my attention. These characters have no depth and are not interesting on any level

The first half of the book was decent. Sadly, the second half devolved into something almost laughable.I found myself wanting it to be over which is rare for me.The female narrator was very good. The male narrator could use some work.

I purchased this book because one reviewer recommended it to readers of Agatha Christie. Nothing could be further from the truth. The syntax and vocabulary is 9th grade level. The language is so heavily peppered with the most base and vile, misogynistic profanities I found myself winding continually throughout. The cheap trick or cliffhanger/flashback was the main structure of the work. I would not recommend this book to intelligent readers who appreciate style and grace in prose, especially those who appreciate Agatha Christie.

Why this book was compared to an Agatha Christie type novel I have no idea because it is surely not. The book is less than 10 hours yet for some reason they decided to attempt character development through various characters talking for the first 9 hours before something of substance happens. Won't spoil it, but you would think for a murder mystery there would be a murder before the last 30 minutes, right? Nope. Hate to be so negative but I would not recommend this. Unless you love Snape from Harry Potter because the main narrator sounds exactly like him....but in a bad way haha.

The majority of the characters were so utterly despicable that you just wish they would all die at the end of the book. The jarring timeline exists to cover up the fact that the plot is entirely unoriginal, uninspired, and ultimately unsatisfying. I would challenge anyone who read the book and gave a positive review to show me one clever thing that happened in the book or a single lesson that any of the characters learned in the process. Everyone enters the book deeply flawed and they leave just as flawed albeit a lot more miserable.

I had high hopes for this book because of all the good ratings, but was disappointed. A bunch of 30-somethings who drink a lot, get drunk a lot, think about having sex or actually have sex. Not much of a mystery until the end.

I spent all this time getting to know the characters and then poof it’s over like a Lifetimemovie - even the last sentence read sounded like she wanted to say more - a bad guy gets off too easy - the main female disappears at the end - she had been strong throughout and then after getting some really bad news just cuts the cake ! What the heck - I am so sad , I believe this is my first audible review and now I am returning this book - don’t bother with this it will leave you unfulfilled

The book is just the most simple of fantasy revenge murder mystery.It would fit well in a high school writing contest.The twists and turns are telegraphed and build no suspense.Any random click on the app will get you something more entertaining.

I am having a hard time getting into the audible because of the author switching so much between past and present tense. One line says ‘Matty called..”, next line says “Matty says...”. Shouldn’t it be ‘Matty calls, Matty says or Matty called, Matty said? Another example “I look...” “I asked” instead of “I look, I ask” or “I looked, I asked”. I really am no expert so I hope this doesn’t sounds pretentious. I’m just finding it very distracting for some reason.

The book had way too much sex for me but if that's your jam then you may like the book. The plot was pretty thin. Knew the killer as soon as they were introduced. Was pretty sure of the victim too. Pretty boring. Read the first 2 parts, then skipped to the end to make sure I guessed right about the killer and returned the book. The best part of the book were the various performers.

Overall, I enjoyed getting wrapped up in this story, trying to figure it out. Most of the narrators were really good, but one of the male ones was a little off-putting (maybe intentionally as part of the characters he was doing?). Things that kept it from being 5 stars for me were way too much of the f word, and an overuse of a particular suspense-let down device, which I won’t detail and spoil for future readers. I would recommend, but with these caveats.

Boy was I wrong.At first, I was too quick to judge this book.The characterization seemed stereotypical and just wasn't doing it for me,The plot thickens, as the characters are revealed to be much much more than I could have possibly imagined.Really well done, and also very well narrated.