Book club wrap-up! The Guest by Emma Cline
Tell us your thoughts! + photos from May's reading below
This month we read The Guest by Emma Cline for book club!! So what did ya’ll think?? Comment on this thread your ✨review✨
I love an author who controls my body’s cortisol levels. I dare say, I hath been stressed!
The Guest starts with a mysterious young woman, Alex, at the whim of an older wealthy man, Simon. She lives with him in the Hampton’s, exchanging her companionship for the access of comfort. Alex is strict with the details of her life before Simon. She hides herself from the reader too. She’s laser-focused on her mission for a new luxurious life under the financial protection of Simon. She must believe Simon will care for her, right? She is otherwise powerless, she’s without a home, money, employment, or support, and the last guy she was with, Dom, is hunting her down for stealing drugs and money from him. She must believe she has at least one source of power: her perceived beauty.
How does Alex use (or try to use) her appeal on men?
How does Alex use her appeal on women?
What do Alex’s tactics reveal about gender as a performance?
What I loved about Alex’s character, was her self-delusion and naivety combining into a supernova of self-destruction. I think a part of her really does believe Simon had cared for her. A part of her thinks they were moving on from a transactional relationship into an intimate one. If she could just keep being chill enough, cool enough, filate Simon enough, never complain, never ruffle his ego. He will realize how much he cares for her. Unfortunately, after Simon discovers Alex goofing around in the pool with another (younger) married man at a party, it was the proverbial cherry on top, and Simon kicked Alex out, pretty heartlessly, as though she were an item that could be returned to the store.
Instead of moving back to the city, Alex avoids Dom’s threats and tours through the Hamptons in the hopes of winning Simon back. She has no place to live, and no money. She manipulates her way into spaces with wealthy people, or their children, by using their own biases against them, as a means of surviving the week. Quickly, Alex spirals into morally dubious territory that makes you want to tear your hair out—or finish reading as fast as possible to discover what happens next. How far will she lose it among the East Coast elite? And in the end, it would seem, she loses everything.
How did you think it ended??!
How did you feel when you finished the last page?
I feel like The Guest wants you to experience the profanity of excess wealth firsthand, in part by exposing the hidden lives of the quiet-luxury class—set in stark contrast to Alex, who has essentially lost her mind due to her circumstances, whatever they may be. Why should she or anyone fear for being outed as poor and without resources? It’s pretty wild. She moves around the world terrified of rejection, because she knows it will come.
Alex is in a position where she feels her only access to daily comfort and peace is by prostrating herself to Simon, or any financially secure man, woman, or child who will help her. The psychological horror of Alex’s story is beautifully done.
My month of reading The Guest
I met up in Oakland with a fellow book club reader to discuss!
May reading involved breakfasts and city dates.
Next up: Beautyland!
Tomorrow we start Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino. Grab your copies for June if you haven’t already, it’ll be a fun one. Here’s all the details.
Love the way you organize these books clubs--so fun!!
One of the coolest things I noticed about the writing and the character was how we never learned about Alexis's past and I loved that, I loved how it was not needed and how it helped the story and that there wasn't necessarily this traumatic event that ruined her, she was perhaps just wanting a plush life where she was taken care of, society is so harsh about this, and its so hard for women to achieve!!! And along that same vein, how Dom never came to fruition, just the fear of him, how deft of Emma!
I think on a smaller level how Alex uses her wilds to achieve attention reminds me of being in my twenties and using my wilds for bad haha, its a power women have and its very interesting to see how Alex uses her body and her femininity as a weapon. I don't know what I was hoping for for Alex, I was more just following her along and understanding her desperation. I was very surprised by the ending and looking back at it I see more of what was going on, with Alex unable to see her reflection in the beach bathroom mirror and her dress feeling wet, I think she is super injured or even dying, but I wonder what everyone else thinks, it is very open to many possibilities. It's as if her truth is at last revealed and she is no longer able to pretend.
I've heard this one is really good/thought provoking. I would love to read it one day - hopefully life calms down after my busy summer!