The Guest List by Lucy Foley

Star rating: 3.5/5

Lucy Foley's second novel is a murder mystery party in novel form about a wedding gone terribly wrong. 

Summary:

Will and Jules are getting married. And a lot of people have a lot of feelings about it. Jules received a mysterious note shortly before the wedding warning her that Will is not the man she thinks he is. Who could have written it, and why?

As the timeline alternates between the day before and the day of the wedding, more and more secrets are revealed, and we learn that a body is found outside during the wedding. Whose body is it? How did they die? The Guest List is a classic murder mystery, where everyone has a motive, and all of the twists will shock you. 

Review:

This book has a LOT of hype around it right now, and it unfortunately didn't quite live up to it for me. It has a really slow start, and it really didn't hook me until I was more than halfway through. It doesn't help that I found all of the characters deeply unlikeable. What kept me going is that I am a big fan of murder mystery parties and have attended plenty of them, and this book really reminded me of a classic murder mystery party. Everyone has a history with each other and some sort of vendetta against another character, everyone is suspicious, no one is safe. I did predict the biggest twist early on, but there were several other twists that I did not see coming at all. Overall, it was a fun read with some exciting albeit predictable twists. I recommend The Guest List for fans of Shari Lapena, Liv Constantine, and Riley Sager.