SPOILER ALERT!
This was the 87th book I read this year, not bragging, just saying, and I gave it 4 stars. It's about a wealthy family and the wife's employee who stay in their house in coastal Florida during a Category 5 hurricane. Right before the storm hits, a strange boat docks on their shore with three people aboard (two brothers and a girlfriend of one), and the family ends up hosting the newcomers during the storm. All is not as it seems (shocking!), as many secrets and twists are divulged during the hurricane's onslaught.
I enjoyed many aspects of The Guests, particularly the variety of POVs, given in third person past tense and separated by chapter. This is infinitely better than the jumbled POV novels we often get lately written in present tense first person/s. It may seem basic/trivial to remark upon the type of narration, but POV and tense create the foundation of the story and curate the experience for the reader. It definitely matters if a story is told in first person or third, if there are multiple POVs, and whether the tense is present or past. As soon as I realized that this was a "traditional" novel, with third person separated POVs in past tense and no head-hopping, I relaxed into the narrative.
Serious spoilers coming now. This is your last chance to escape. Muhahahaha.
It was pretty obvious to me early on, after Marlowe found the cell phone, that her husband Lee was having an affair with her assistant Isabel, but there were several other twists I did not expect, such as Isabel being in cahoots with the brothers. Whoa! Well done. It also seemed obvious that Felix would, at some point, be required to overcome his fear of water, but the way it all played out was surprising ~ I did not expect Bo to die at sea, and I had expected Marlowe to kill him. I assumed that Tom would step up eventually to protect his family, but he didn't really... he just escaped with June, which was more in character, I suppose. Not everyone has to overcome something. I had also figured that Bo's girlfriend Darcy was an expendable character, but she survived (didn't really care about her either way). I liked that June overcame her anorexia, at least temporarily, and ate a granola bar. LOL.
Some problems. I didn't think how Jason died was believable. I get that June smashed the glass with a hammer and shards went flying everywhere. Since Jason was standing right in front of the window, it would make sense for his face to get cut up... but a huge shard sailing right into his jugular and killing him? Meh. I wish Tom had deliberately stabbed him instead; I guess I am bummed that Tom stayed his cowardly self throughout the book. Also, Zack died accidentally when Jason shoved him and he hit his head on the kitchen counter, so that makes two (2) weird deaths, which is one too many for a story, not even counting Bo getting swept overboard during his fight with Felix. Let people murder each other! Come on, it's fiction. Even in real life, it is OK to defend yourself. It seemed like Margot became too attached to her main characters to allow them to deliberately kill anyone, even in self-defense, so she had the brothers die inadvertently.
There were a couple logistical errors in the book where characters were sitting/standing. Perhaps that's too minor to comment on? Nah. A good proofreader should have caught these blips. Also, names were used oddly and too often. If it's clear whose body is being carried, you don't have to keep saying Mick slipped, Mick was this, Mick was that. We know it's Mick already! "That" was used in a strange way ~ Margot often wrote "that night" when she meant now. Even in past tense, this was jarring. She could have said "tonight" or "this night." "That night" made it seem like she was referring to a different night.
Still a good book, despite the minor glitches.
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