The Guest

I loved every moment of The Guest: the intensity, the control, the atmosphere, the psychological escalation, the astonishing social observation, the profound and devastating visions of the void achieved with flicks of the wrist, the way it lets nobody off the hook and yet is not without deep humanity

SAM LIPSYTE

Cline has a crime writer's gift for revelatory storytelling, ramping up tension like an HBO pro

Big Issue

The talented Ms. Cline . . . Her prose is drifty and wire-taut, easy on the eye, with an awful undertow of unease that never lets up. The pathology brilliantly observed by The Guest would not feel so edgy if it were not perilously close to an aspirational ideal

GEOFF DYER

A dream-like, foreboding novel and worthy follow-up to the sensation The Girls

i

Cline's writing at its very best - hypnotically propulsive, viscerally disquieting, and moving in the most unpredictable ways

Doug Battersby, Financial Times

As bracing as saltwater... Cline possesses unmistakable talent; her bursts of genuine originality and startling insight make that clear

Ann Manov, Daily Telegraph

Sultry and engrossing, with a note of menace, it's a gorgeously smart affair whose deceptive lightness conceals strange depths and an arresting originality . . . take it to the beach and savour every page

Rob Doyle, Observer

The Girls was exceptional; The Guest...is even better... Compulsively readable... The Guest is as refreshing as a dip in a cool pool on a hot day

i

Drawing the reader inexorably on to the heightened, rug-pulling denouement, this is beach reading at its finest

Stephanie Cross, Daily Mail

The tension never wavers . . . This is rich material for Cline, who trains a chilly eye on the preposterous affluence and exclusivity of that part of the world

Emma Brockes, Guardian

Every sentence as sharp as a scalpel . . . tantalizing

Liska Jacobs, New York Times Book Review

At once chilling and eminently evocative of the rarefied world it portrays . . . a definite contender for Status Vacation Book of 2023

Vogue

Atmospheric and at times incandescent

Michelle Hart, Los Angeles Times

A tale of the ultimate grifter. Doused in ambiguity and foreboding

Imy Brighty-Potts, Independent

This unsettling but gripping novel takes us deep into the mind of a woman living a shadowy half-life

Vanessa Berridge, Daily Mirror

Crucial reading for any young woman

Alex Peake-Tomkinson, Evening Standard

Undeniably compelling and atmospheric... a poolside-worthy page-turner

Sunday Express

A taut, tense novel... The Guest is a strong follow-up... Her [Cline's] prose is limpid and propulsive, sustaining an atmosphere of dread.

Economist

The Girls was exceptional; The Guest, with its exquisite pacing and deliciously muddled moral compass, is even better

Emily Watkins, Scotland on Sunday

The Guest... cements Cline's place as one of America's great contemporary stylists

Arin Keeble, Guardian

Supremely readable... propulsive

Markie Robson, Tablet, *Novel of the Week*

A new tense summer adventure

Stylist

[An] arresting observational eye

Alex Clark, Financial Times

A searing portrayal of the precariat? Or a slick summer thriller? The answer is: both . . . you won't be able to look away

Laura Battle, Financial Times

The wealthy clique depicted in Cline's unsettling second novel is by turns boorish and menacing - but you won't be able to look away

Financial Times, *Summer Reads of 2023*

The Guest is everything I look for in a novel: cool, subtle, clinical

Nicole Flattery, author of NOTHING SPECIAL, Observer, *Summer Reads of 2023*

The ideal mix of hazy summer glamour and shimmering threat for compulsive beach reading... A gripping, almost ghastly book

Megan Nolan, author of ACTS OF DESPERATION, Observer, *Summer Reads of 2023*

A thrilling dissection of survival and how far its protagonist will (or can) go to achieve it

Virginia Feito, author of MRS MARCH, Observer, *Summer Reads of 2023*

A beach read that ticks all the boxes

Stephanie Cross, Daily Mail

[The Guest’s] atmosphere is equally apprehensive [as The Girls] and Cline’s eye for the fragility of insider-outsiders is as gimlet-sharp as before

Financial Times, *Books of the Year*

The Guest… [is] as relentlessly spellbinding as her debut

New Statesman, *Books of the Year*

Emma Cline excels at writing novels suffused with the kind of foreboding atmosphere which makes it difficult to tear yourself away… Every page is brimming with tension

i, *Summer Reads of 2024*

One of my favourite types of books is where the entire story unfolds over a week… Beautiful, poetic, and addicting — I finished it faster than the time span of the story itself

Wonderland