Goodreads Choice Awards Book Club discussion

Winner of the Mystery & Thriller award



The Guest List by Lucy Foley

The bride ‧ The plus one ‧ The best man ‧ The wedding planner ‧ The bridesmaid ‧ The body

On an island off the coast of Ireland, guests gather to celebrate two people joining their lives together as one. The groom: handsome and charming, a rising television star. The bride: smart and ambitious, a magazine publisher. It’s a wedding for a magazine, or for a celebrity: the designer dress, the remote location, the luxe party favors, the boutique whiskey. The cell phone service may be spotty and the waves may be rough, but every detail has been expertly planned and will be expertly executed.

But perfection is for plans, and people are all too human. As the champagne is popped and the festivities begin, resentments and petty jealousies begin to mingle with the reminiscences and well wishes. The groomsmen begin the drinking game from their school days. The bridesmaid not-so-accidentally ruins her dress. The bride’s oldest (male) friend gives an uncomfortably caring toast.

And then someone turns up dead. Who didn’t wish the happy couple well? And perhaps more important, why?

Oh I just read this... Waiting to discuss...

I have a hold on it at the library. I put it in a while ago so I'm hoping it comes in soon. My holds seem to be running 2-4 weeks late for all my reads right now.

Ah... that's gonna be a long wait...

I lucked up on got this really cheap on a kindle sale (but it's not cheap now unfortunately.

I just checked my library. I placed the hold on Dec 15th and it says I still have about 8 weeks to go. Sometimes they come in earlier than expected, so fingers crossed.

I’m excited to read this! I placed a hold at my library back in December and I should get it in three weeks. Hope you get lucky Kristie!

I will be getting to this soon. it seems all my library hold became available this week, so I should get to this next week.

I was able to checkout the audio version (they’re never as popular at my library system, knock on wood!). I’m only about 30 minutes in and am already loving both the narration and the story.

Thanks, Kaitlin! I hope I get lucky too. :)

Djrmel, my 8 week wait is on the audio! The other editions have even longer waits. It seems this is a popular one.

Just a few chapters in but so far fun and fast. POV skips around and even before anything bad as happened it has a scary ominous feel to it.

Well I now about a quarter in and I think I've "met" all the characters. Some I already like (few) and some I already dislike a lot. So now I am hoping one of them at least gets murdered.

I have a hold on this one as well.

Bonnie wrote: "...So now I am hoping one of them at least gets murdered."

lol!

Finished and really enjoyed this. Can't say much since many are still reading or planning to, but the atmosphere was creepy- and plenty of the characters were too.

Bonnie wrote: "Finished and really enjoyed this. Can't say much since many are still reading or planning to, but the atmosphere was creepy- and plenty of the characters were too."

I read it and concur that I don't want to say too much as there are twists. But the clues are laid out well in advance.

Still waiting on my hold... it now says my wait sabot 5 weeks, so there's progress.

Katy wrote: "I read it and concur that I don't want to say too much as there are twists. But the clues are laid out well in advance."

I just finished it too. Enjoyed it but I must have missed the clues; I would be interested to hear what they were once more people have finished the book.

My hold came in! It is on audio, but that is ok.
I just need to finish up the audio I am on and then will be starting this one.

Should get to the book this weekend... fingers crossed

Finally just got my copy! Starting it tonight :)

Hi! I finished this one, and I'm really looking forward to hear what you thought :)

I’m starting this today

My hold still says 4 weeks, so I'm going to be late for this one. I'm hold #21 (out of 112 on 11 copies).

I started the audio and 40% flew by..
The setting/atmosphere is excellent and there is a big cast of characters.

I just finished The Guest List. I really enjoyed it. Sorry, Kristie you are waiting so long at your library. I am lucky here, with Covid, my library open, but only for quick trips and it literally is like going to the Book Store. The table is filled with all the new releases.

Vicki, I loved the atmosphere of the Island, this definitely was a great setting for a little different kind of wedding. Did you finish the audio?

I started it last night and could not put it down. This usually isn't the genre that I read, but I really like this book.
Currently on page 95 - there aren't chapter numbers just names of people who are telling the story. The atmosphere is great and I love (view spoiler)[that we have to figure out who died - if someone died (hide spoiler)]

Did anyone catch that the only people telling the story are the women?

Jayme wrote: "I started it last night and could not put it down. This usually isn't the genre that I read, but I really like this book.
Currently on page 95 - there aren't chapter numbers just names of people wh..."

It’s a quick read, easy to get into and I wasn’t sure either about it. That’s interesting about the women, now that you mention obvious, but did not realize that.

It is interesting that most of the book is from the female perspective, but I think Johnno - the Best Man - tells portions of the story also?

I'm probably just being super picky, but I'm finding continuity issues that I think a good editor should have caught. I'll withhold judgment until the end, maybe some of these issues will be explained? :-)

It is mostly the women telling the story, but Johnno and the groom also have a few 'chapters'

Lea wrote: "It is interesting that most of the book is from the female perspective, but I think Johnno - the Best Man - tells portions of the story also?

I'm probably just being super picky, but I'm finding c..."

You are right. Johnno does have a couple of chapters. never mind!

Carla wrote: "It is mostly the women telling the story, but Johnno and the groom also have a few 'chapters'"

I haven't gotten to the grooms chapter yet.

Lea wrote: "It is interesting that most of the book is from the female perspective, but I think Johnno - the Best Man - tells portions of the story also?

I'm probably just being super picky, but I'm finding c..."

I agree with you on that. I was wondering if it was deliberate to keep up off balance. Time will tell.

just got this from the used bookstore :) let's see if I can finish it this month :) a few chapters in and so far it's a great read!

Hi all. I'm on page 114 and am still waiting for something to happen?
No murder yet. Hope we get one eventually as this is a murder mystery (least I thought it was). All I'm reading are about people telling stories, people flirting with other people's husband and wives, senseless babble, yet no mystery. Sure hope SOMETHING happens soon.

Glenn, I am feeling the same thing....so far it's a little boring actually. I hope it gets better...

This book was a really quick read for me. The one thing I didn't really like about it was that pretty much all the characters were awful people.

Kaitlin wrote: "This book was a really quick read for me. The one thing I didn't really like about it was that pretty much all the characters were awful people."

that kind of helped me enjoy the spookiness without really caring about the murder victim.

I finally got around to finishing this. I thought it was going for a slow build ominous vibe (similar to The Haunting of Bly Manor), but where that show excelled in storytelling this one fell flat for me. It wasn't terrible though.