by Emma Cline

Format: Audiobook

Primary Doorways: Character, Setting

Genre: Literary Fiction

Read for: A character you are so mad at for 90% of the novel, but still root for

When I was in my English 102 class in college, our professor defined tragedy as a person who was destined from greatness, but took a tumultuous fall. They key, he argued, is that the hero could have been great.

In this sense, then Emma Cline’s much celebrated novel, The Guest, reads more like a quiet psychological horror novel than a tragedy. From the opening pages, we know Alex is not destined for greatness and probably never was. Instead, this is a story about slowly unfolding disaster where you may spend you time shouting “NO! ALEX NO!” as you turn the pages. If I’m making it sound like torture to read, then it’s the kind that makes masochists of us all. Sadist would root for Alex’s failure and this is not that. You root for Alex even while knowing she’s going to fuck it all up.