The Guest

PUB DATE: Feb 20, 2024

SYNOPSIS: Iris and Gabriel have been through so much lately. They have just suffered the death of their beloved dog and Gabriel’s father. If that wasn’t enough, a young boy said his last words in Gabriel’s arms, he has become distant and depressed. Iris has been there for Gabriel, but his burden and guilt are causing tension in their marriage. They come home from a long trip meant to clear their minds, to find a best friend of theirs has let herself in. It turns out that the guest, Laure, has been having marital issues with her husband Pierre, who reveals that he has a child he hadn’t known about. Laure ends up long overstaying her welcome while figuring out her next steps. In the meantime they all befriend a new couple, Esme and Hugh, who just moved into their neighborhood with a “guest” of their own. Everyone has their secrets and everything unravels as time goes on.

MY THOUGHTS: I would give this a solid 3 stars. While it held my interest, there were elements that I do not particularly enjoy in mystery thrillers. There were many characters introduced in the first chapter that I had trouble keeping straight, but by the time I read a quarter of the book, I knew who everyone was. I did enjoy the mini suspenseful moments that felt like those scenes in horror movies meant to build up to the climax of the mystery and thrill. They added to the mystery of who the guest was and how everything was connected. The multiple points of view helped to understand what the main characters were feeling and move the plot along, but it did get quite repetitive. One chapter was literally repeated almost word-for-word. I feel as though this story could have been told without the timeline moving so slowly, but the short chapters that ended in cliffhangers made for quick reading. Although everything is explained in the end, it was done in one chapter. It is not a mystery that could be solved because you, as the reader, were not given even half the information by the narrators.