The Guest

"A romp of epic proportions – Alex, our adrift protagonist, swims and eats her way through the private pools and stainless steel kitchens of the Hamptons’ elite. Broke and without a home to return to, she extends her summer stay by weaseling her way into the lives of various seasonal residents. After puzzling through all the actually difficult parts of infiltrating the world, her demise is her own once she’s in. Alex’s self-destructive impulses land her in increasingly anxiety-inducing, thriller-like scenarios and interactions that become harder to unravel as she leaves a trail of mess with every exit. She simply must scratch the itch – steal the watch, kiss the boy, jump in the pool."

"One of the most hotly anticipated books of summer 2023 must be Emma Cline’s new novel The Guest. Set at the end of a long hot summer on Long Island, we follow a manipulative 20-something as she infiltrates the social circles of the American elite. Cline is an able storyteller and a master narrator of the inner lives of amoral young women. It’s another hazy, intriguing tale from the author of The Girls , her bestselling 2016 story of cult-motivated murders in 1960s California. Like Sally Rooney , Cline is that rare literary beast—a critic’s darling who also sells by the shedload. Naoise Dolan, the young author whose caustic debut Exciting Times made a splash back in 2020, will publish her second novel. The Happy Couple charts the upcoming nuptials of Luke and Celine, an Irish couple who found themselves getting engaged as an alternative to breaking up, including the perspective of several members of the wedding party. It is, The Guardian reports , “less love triangle, more sex pentangle”, so be prepared for bed-hopping and a more general debate about what it means to live happily ever after."