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  • The Guest

  • A Novel
  • Written by: Emma Cline
  • Narrated by: Carlotta Brentan
  • Length: 8 hrs and 36 mins
  • 3.3 out of 5 stars (13 ratings)

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The Guest

Written by: Emma Cline
Narrated by: Carlotta Brentan
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Publisher's Summary

NATIONAL BESTSELLER

A young woman pretends to be someone she isn’t in this “spellbinding” (Vogue), “smoldering” (The Washington Post) novel by the New York Times bestselling author of The Girls.

“Under Cline’s command, every sentence as sharp as a scalpel, a woman toeing the line between welcome and unwelcome guest becomes a fully destabilizing force.”—The New York Times

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New Yorker, Time, NPR, The Washington Post, Financial Times, Harper’s Bazaar, Elle, Vogue, Newsweek, Chicago Public Library

“Alex drained her wineglass, then her water glass. The ocean looked calm, a black darker than the sky. A ripple of anxiety made her palms go damp. It seemed suddenly very tenuous to believe that anything would stay hidden, that she could successfully pass from one world to another.”

Summer is coming to a close on the East End of Long Island, and Alex is no longer welcome.

A misstep at a dinner party, and the older man she’s been staying with dismisses her with a ride to the train station and a ticket back to the city.

With few resources and a waterlogged phone, but gifted with an ability to navigate the desires of others, Alex stays on Long Island and drifts like a ghost through the hedged lanes, gated driveways, and sun-blasted dunes of a rarefied world that is, at first, closed to her. Propelled by desperation and a mutable sense of morality, she spends the week leading up to Labor Day moving from one place to the next, a cipher leaving destruction in her wake.

Taut, propulsive, and impossible to look away from, Emma Cline’s The Guest is a spellbinding literary achievement.

©2023 Emma Cline (P)2023 Random House Audio

What the critics say

“Cline’s writing at its very best—hypnotically propulsive, viscerally disquieting, and moving in the most unpredictable ways.”Financial Times

“Sultry and engrossing, with a note of menace, [The Guest] [is a] gorgeously smart affair whose deceptive lightness conceals strange depths and an arresting originality.”The Guardian

“Cline confirms her reputation as the literary prophet of women on the brink.”Esquire

What listeners say about The Guest

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

where’s the ending ???

is there a sequel ? I didn’t understand in the ending at all …Did I miss something?

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

*Grunting in a lower octave* I'm a man now.

Brilliant novel, truly, but the reader's 'male voice' was comically bad and frequently distracting. Just read the dialogue as it's written. It is strong enough on it's own.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Was expecting a better ending

I thought this story line was leading to some sort of climax - what a horrible ending or should I say lack of an ending? I purchased this book because it was recommended as a top read for the summer. I feel robbed. The narrator voice was fine if she talked in her normal voice - but quite annoying when she would switch to a pretend male voice.

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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Not the greatest

I was expecting something exciting to happen but unfortunately I found myself drifting off listening to it. Felt like the story didn’t go anywhere

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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Not a fan

Found myself waiting for something to happen that explained the lead characters’ motivations.
Summer read about a drifter. I didn’t find any qualities in the lead that I could hang onto. Fleeting. Perhaps that was the point?

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  • Will Cathcart
  • 2023-06-20

We’ve known an Alex

When it comes to finding serious literary fiction, I’ve begun to look for the negative reviews of angry baffled readers complaining about endings, disliking characters, or the lack of something happening. That’s how I know it will be good. That this book has only 3 stars is a badge of honor. It fulfilled its purpose. Sometimes it’s hard to look in the mirror. This isn't a Netflix documentary nor is it an episode of Black Mirror wrapped up with a clever twist to make you feel insightful. This is more The Stranger circa 2020, and it has a lot to say about our world and the vacuity that gathers around wealth in particular. Cline is unflinchingly honest without judging or pitying her protagonist. We’ve all known an Alex. Many of us have been an Alex in some way. And we are all surrounded by Alexes. That’s the point. This young woman and the world she’s lost in is an embodiment of 21st-century America. If you didn't like this novel, if it made you uncomfortable, then the problem is not the novel.

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26 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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  • J. Wu
  • 2023-05-20

Captive story and high quality narration

It's an 8 hour audio book and I finished listening to it in a Saturday.

About the book, it's a captive piece of work and the physiological aspect of the character was masterfully developed. The main plot or theme might not be that complicated, but the story telling is exquisite.

About the audio book, it's superbly narrated, The voices of different characters are well presented with right amount of nuances.
Though I haven't listened to many literature audio books recently, I feel this one is the best.

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10 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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  • Teadrinker
  • 2023-06-15

Summer Slumming

OK, I admit I read this for a good escape. And it WAS a good escape! "Thank god I'm not her," I kept thinking. She isn't even trying. It's a long slow suicide of a life. The writing was excellent, the narrator was excellent. I want to read Part II.

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7 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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  • Susan
  • 2023-06-14

Enjoyable summer listen…Until the end

I enjoyed the main character, Alex, and all her flaws, as she navigated the entitled world of the rich. The narration was superb. The ending was abrupt and didn’t provide any resolution. Why didn’t the talented author take it over the finish line?

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6 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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  • John Kopcak
  • 2023-05-21

A captivating read and an excellent reader

Highly recommend, had this going in the car and absolutely drove out of my way to finish one of the chapters.

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6 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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  • Kindle Customer
  • 2023-05-20

Loved this book so much.

I listen to and read tons of books but this is the first review I’ve left. I couldn’t stop and I didn’t want it to end. This is a dark page turner with an unsettling protagonist who I rooted for all the way through while willing her to do things differently. Emma Cline’s writing is incredibly readable yet deceptively complex. I almost felt like I was Alex. I know I won’t stop thinking about this story for a long time.

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6 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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  • Barbara S
  • 2023-05-26

Cline writes another edgy female-driven story

I don’t know how I feel about Emma Cline’s “The Guest”. This book reminded of my feelings after watching the movie “Leaving Las Vegas”. It’s gritty, disgusting, frustrating, horrifying, yet so good. How can something that upsets me so much be a compulsive read? Can I recommend this? Well sure, with some caveats.

This is a story of a 22-year-old train-wreck of a woman. Alex is a “working woman” who finds herself on the lam after getting unceremoniously kicked out of the home of Simon, an older rich man who invited her to stay with him for the month of August in the Hamptons. Problem: Alex has nowhere to go. Her bad behavior as a roommate (not paying rent, stealing etc.) leaves her with no home. What’s a resourceful sex-worker to do? This is the end of August, with Labor Day approaching. As Alex sees it, she needs to allow time for Simon to cool off. There are 5 days until his Labor Day party; she just needs to find ways to survive until then. She is sure Simon will welcome her back. This is the story of those 5 days, with some backstories attached.

How Cline came up with all the predicaments Alex finds herself in is nothing but pure talent. Alex is a survivor. She can be anything she thinks her mark wants. In Alex’s ruminations, Cline uses Alex to show the male dominated world. In Cline’s world, women are commodities who must transform themselves to meet men’s expectations and needs. These are calculating women who work within the imbalance of power.

Alex’s strength is in her acting like she belongs; she’s an observer. She attaches herself to unsuspecting people. Because Alex is in the wealthy Hamptons, she is provided a wide berth. No one expects someone to steal from them. This is a well-heeled society who expect their wealth and privilege to protect them from grifters such as Alex. Cline has some fun showing how wealthy folk are blissfully unaware of the ugliness of life.

Cline pulls no punches. Alex is a parasite, a clever and observant parasite, but dangerous, nonetheless. She’s not likable. Her five-day journey is believable in the way that Nicholas Cage’s journey in “Leaving Las Vegas” was. Cline keeps the reader alert with looming disasters.

The ending is abrupt and open-ended. I admit, I feel cheated. Do I recommend it? Sure, if you understand that this is no happy story.

I listened to the audio narrated wonderfully by Carlotta Brentan.

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5 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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  • Sonja Schmitz
  • 2023-08-08

Good story

I know most people felt meh about the story and it’s ending but I really enjoyed it. It was light and uncomplicated. Just what I needed. The ending was not abrupt to me. I loved the narration.

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4 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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  • Ron Rude
  • 2023-06-16

Dark and Desperate

This is not your typical summer beach read, although it is set during summer at the beach, the protagonist is damaged in some way. At first I thought maybe autistic or “on the spectrum”, but as the story progressed, I think she is more of a budding psychopath.

I enjoyed the story, It was an original story with a compelling main character, even as unlikeable as she is. Things just seem to happen to Alex though. She doesn’t go looking for trouble, exactly. She makes poor choices and has awful impulse control.

I found the ending good and very literary. We dropped in to this world and now we’re dropping out. It was a very detailed slice of someone’s life. All we are meant to have is this portion. If you must have an epilogue, you’ll be disappointed.

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4 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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  • Jerseygirl
  • 2023-06-01

This is a send up of the rich

Hard to think of a character with less self-awareness in recent fiction. Clearly from the other reviews it’s not for everyone but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Love Emma Cline but maybe she’s an acquired taste.

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4 people found this helpful