The Guest is an arresting new novel by Emma Cline, bestselling author of The Girls. Unfolding over the last stretch of summer, the novel follows a young woman named Alex as she tries to navigate the elite world of Long Island without money, connections, or friends. It all begins when Alex’s lover Simon, a man 30 years her senior, invites her to stay at his summer home. Desperate to escape her responsibilities in the city—her roommates want her out because she can’t pay rent, and none of her clients are answering her calls—Alex gladly accepts his offer. The first few weeks are filled with the beach and pool and evening parties, a life of ease and security finally within her grasp; however, after a few missteps, Simon kicks her out. When his house manager drops her off at the train station with a ticket back to the city, Alex instead decides to stay, deluding herself into thinking that Simon will want her at his annual Labor Day party, will have come to his senses by then. She just needs to survive for the next five days. As Alex manipulates her way through Long Island, finding meals and beds wherever she can, she encounters a wide variety of unsavory characters (and as an antihero, she’s just as unsavory as any one of them), forcing the reader to confront some uncomfortable truths about wealth and power along the way.

I’m hesitant to say that I liked this book, because I’m not sure that I did. Few characters have redeeming qualities and Alex’s plan is one that’s obviously futile from the beginning, making the plot feel aimless. However, I could not put this book down; The Guest gripped me from the start, and did not let go until the last page. Cline writes with precision and propulsion—every observation cuts to the core, every interaction filled me with unease—and is an obvious master of her craft. She expertly wields Alex’s position as an outsider looking in to comment on power discrepancies in society, and still manages to keep Alex human and fallible. In fact, as Alex works her way through unsuspecting hosts, leaving havoc in her wake, the book starts to feel a bit like a thriller in which it’s unclear whether she’s the victim or the perpetrator. The Guest is edgy and restless, a fascinating ride that left me filled with questions.

I’d recommend this book to…

• Anyone looking for a suspenseful book that fills you with dread but isn’t quite a thriller… it’s similar in style to Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam
• Anyone enthralled by the lives of the über rich… it’s similar in theme to the television series The White Lotus
• Anyone in the mood for something melancholy and intense… it’s similar in tone to If I Survive You by Jonathan Escoffery