The Guest List

“The island looks at its most starkly beautiful this evening, lit up by the glow of the dying sun. But perhaps it will never seem quite so beautiful to me as I remember from those trips we took here when I was a child. The four of us, my family, here to stay for the summer holidays. Nowhere on earth could possibly live up to those halcyon days. But that’s nostalgia for you, the tyranny of those memories of childhood that feel so golden, so perfect.” 

Aoife’s nostalgia for her past is coupled with the lonely tone that pervades the text in this passage. With this quote, Foley hints at the death of Aoife’s brother, Darcey, as well as the subsequent loss of her parents. We see the fond memories of her past, and just as they are “so perfect,” they are also out of reach and impossible to regain. This eventually makes up the basis of Aoife’s eventual motivation to murder Will. 

“Actually, I know this place better than they think. It is more familiar to me in some ways than any other place I have known in my life. And I’m not worried about it being haunted. I have my own ghosts. I carry them with me wherever I go.” 

Though many of the locals believe Aoife and Freddy are foolish to take over the Folly, Aoife has a long history with the island. The quote taps into the novel’s repeating supernatural motif. The theme of unburied secrets and mistakes that continue to haunt the present is also especially evident in the above passage. Foley imparts upon the reader that the characters on the island, rather than the island itself, are the ones who are haunted.

“The sound of the scream rings in the air after it has finished, like a struck glass. The guests are frozen in its wake. They are looking, all of them, out of the marquee and into the roaring darkness from where it came. The lights flicker, threatening another blackout.” 

This passage reflects the beginning of the novel’s rising action. Though it occurs early in the narrative arc, Foley often jumps back and forth in time and leaves the reader with a cliff-hanger. This quote is one such example. The tone in this passage is rife with tension and suspense; as darkness descends over the characters, the earlier jovial mood of the day all but evaporates. This quote marks a sharp turn in the narrative.

“Finally, in that terrible rasping voice, the girl speaks again. ‘Outside. So much blood.’ And then, right before she collapses: ‘A body.’” 

The waitress discovers a dead body out in the storm. The identity of the body is initially unknown, and Foley deliberately leaves it as an unsolved question until further in the novel. By prolonging the reveal that the body belongs to Will, Foley keeps the reader guessing as to which guest is the victim and which is the perpetrator.

“She’s kind, Hannah. That is one of the things I know about her. It sort of … spills out of her. I remember meeting Hannah for the first time and thinking: oh, that’s who Charlie wants. Someone nice. Someone soft, and warm. I’m too much for him. I’m too angry, too driven. He would never have picked me.” 

Jules can be characterized by her stubbornness and even more so by her envious nature. Jules is not only jealous of her sister’s looks, but she is also angry at Hannah for being kind and soft. This quote suggests that Jules might feel incapable of being those very same things. Despite being the bride of the wedding, Jules continues to be bitter that Charlie does not want her; her repeated insistence that it is her “drive” that makes Charlie dislike her is yet another dig at Hannah’s supposed lack of ambition. Jules appears to see the other women around her as competition rather than as a source of community and support.

“Here’s the truth my mother won’t speak: if I hadn’t known what I wanted, and worked out how to get it, I wouldn’t have got anywhere. I had to learn how to get my way. Because my mother wasn’t going to be any bloody help. I look at her, in her frothy black chiffon—like a negative of a wedding gown—and her glittering earrings, holding her sparkling glass of champagne, and I think: you don’t get this. This isn’t your moment. You didn’t create it. I created it in spite of you.” 

Jules’s fraught relationship with her mother is on display in the passage above. This quote explains Jules’s character. Due to her mother and father’s absence in her childhood, Jules has grown up to be independent, stubborn, and she’s determined to attain the things that she wants. These are qualities that Jules has had to instill within herself, and she is furious that her mother attempts to take the credit for it. Later in the text, Jules becomes enraged at her father for the same reason. 

“It was being back together with that group of blokes again, I suppose. Most of them went to Trevellyan’s. We were all bonded by that place. Not in the same way that Will and I are bonded—that’s only the two of us. But we are tied by the other stuff. The rituals, the male bonding. When we get together there’s this kind of pack mentality. We get carried away.” 

The novel explores the depth of a homosocial bond. Johnno’s own admission to the pack-like mentality that takes over when the ushers are together showcases how this particular group of men can become dangerous. Johnno places his own connection with Will on a pedestal and is entirely convinced that it is unbreakable. This foreshadows Will’s eventual betrayal of Johnno. 

“It is perfect. It is absolutely as I had planned, better than I had planned. And best of all is my groom—beautiful, radiant—awaiting me at the altar. Looking at him, stepping towards him, it is impossible to believe that this man is anything other than the one I know him to be. I smile.”

Throughout the novel, numerous people comment on how Jules and Will look perfect together. In this passage, Foley makes especially clear that though things may appear to be perfect on the surface, not everything is as it seems. In this moment, Foley foreshadows Jules’s eventual realization that she knows nothing about her husband-to-be. 

“I think of our wedding, how my mum’s friend Karen gave us mates’ rates on our flowers. It was all done in rather retro pastel shades. But I wasn’t about to complain; we could never have afforded a florist of our choice. I wonder what it must be like to have the money to do exactly what you want.” 

Wealth and economic status are topics that make up the nucleus of the text. The characters are motivated by their desire to appear wealthier than they are, or more successful than they are. Other characters are willing to do anything to maintain the facade of their success. Other characters still, like Hannah, are unable to resist comparing their lives to those of others around them. Wealth and success thus become primary motivators for some of the characters within the text.

“Look at him. Playing the hero, carrying Jules’s sister out of the water. Just fucking look at him. He’s always been so good at getting people to see exactly what he wants them to see.” 

Johnno bitterly observes Will saving Olivia from the water. He has discovered that Will has betrayed him and cut him out of the television deal. Johnno has known Will for so long that he knows what the other man is capable of, and how Will can manipulate others. The theme of appearance versus reality is once again reflected here, manifesting most strongly in Will’s characterization.

“The most fucking offensive thing about it is how simple it all must have felt to Will. Stupid Johnno … so easy to pull the wool over his eyes. Now I understand why he’s been so hard to get hold of recently. Why I’ve felt like he’s pushed me away. Why I practically had to beg to be his best man. When he agreed he must have thought of it as a consolation prize, a sticking plaster. But being best man doesn’t pay the bills. It’s not a big enough sticking plaster. He’s used me, the whole time, ever since school. I’ve been there to do his dirty work for him. But he didn’t want to share the spotlight with me, oh no. When it came to it he threw me under the bus.” 

Johnno appears to be both bereft and enraged by Will’s betrayal. To everyone around them, Johnno has always appeared to ride on Will’s coattails and taken advantage of Will’s success. It is made especially clear in this passage that Johnno genuinely thinks of Will as his friend; it is Will who continues to use Johnno. This moment foreshadows how Johnno will continue to take the fall for Will and be blamed for his murder. 

“‘Sometimes,’ I say, ‘I think it’s too difficult to tell the people closest to you. The ones you love. Does that sound familiar?’” 

Hannah is concerned about Olivia and her mental health after she learns about the younger woman’s relationship with Steven. This passage deals with the difficulty of telling one’s family about one’s mental health concerns, especially as that topic is often surrounded by feelings of shame and uncertainty. Here, Hannah encourages Olivia to tell her family what happened so that she might be able to get the help that she needs. 

“So I didn’t tell Olivia how one June, two months after she came home from uni, Alice took a cocktail of painkillers and pretty much anything else she could find from the medicine cabinet in the bathroom while my mum was collecting me from netball practice. How, seventeen years ago this month, my beautiful, clever sister killed herself.” 

After Hannah and Olivia speak, the wedding festivities begin once more, and the older woman does not have the chance to tell Olivia about what happened to Alice. Throughout the novel, Foley hints at this time of year being a particularly difficult one for Hannah and her parents. This passage provides the reader with the death that continues to haunt Hannah and inform her decisions in the present. It is the figure of Alice who has been haunting Hannah all this time.

“‘The girl could have drowned, out there,’ I say. When I think about it, I can hardly breathe. I’m seeing it all, how it could have happened, playing out before my eyes. It is as though I’ve been transported back to a different day, when there was no happy ending. ‘Oh God—Freddy, she could have drowned. I wasn’t paying enough attention.’ It is the past, all over again. All my fault.” 

Aoife initially appears composed and in control when she ushers the wedding guests away from the shore and back to the tent. She is only allowed a single moment to emote when she is finally alone in the kitchen with Freddy. Clues about Aoife’s past are beginning to come together in this passage; her panic at the thought of Olivia drowning foreshadows the reveal that Darcey was her brother. 

“He doesn’t go so far as to spell it out but they hear it, all the same, behind his words. Murder.” 

The group of ushers that wander outside in the storm, in search of the body, are struck by paranoia and fear. Though they make a big show of bravery while inside the hotel, when they are outside in the dark, they grow more and more frantic. Their pack has begun to fall apart, and when Freddy suggests that the body may well be the corpse of someone who has been murdered, the men grow even more paranoid. 

“‘Christ … well, I’m not going to wander around looking for him, too,’ Duncan shouts, a faint but telling tremor in his voice. ‘It’s not the first time he’s been in that state, is it? He can look after himself. He’ll be fine.’ The others suspect he’s made an effort to sound more certain than he really is. But they aren’t going to question it. They want to believe it too.” 

Duncan has been one of the minor antagonists throughout the novel. He is loud, brash, and rude to different characters like Hannah, Charlie, and Johnno. Duncan makes a show that he is the leader of the pack when Will is not present, however, he is just as lost and afraid as the other men in the group. 

“I saw exactly how it had happened. He’d gone back into the V&A, after he put me in that taxi. There he’d met my sister, belle of the ball—so much better suited to him. Fate. And I remember what he’d said when we first met: ‘If you were ten years older, you’d be my ideal woman.’ I saw it all.”

The reveal that Steven and Will are one and the same comes in this chapter of the text. In the above passage, Olivia reveals how Will and Jules met, and how she is the catalyst for the events of the novel. Olivia is only able to sit back and watch Will woo Jules, unable to interfere. In this moment, it is clear that she has separated herself from the ongoing events. This disassociation reflects Olivia’s own loss of control and her feelings of helplessness throughout the novel. 

“‘I mean,’ Johnno says, not done. ‘He could have bought me the suit, couldn’t he? It’s not like he’s not loaded, is it? Mainly thanks to you, Jules love. But he’s a stingy bastard. I say that, of course, with all my love.’ He pretends to flutter his eyelashes at Will in a weird, camp parody.”

Johnno is giving his best man’s speech, and he is heavily intoxicated from a mix of drugs and alcohol. Johnno is also furious at Will after discovering the man’s betrayal, thereby deliberately choosing to humiliate Will in his best man’s speech. In this quote, it also becomes evident that Jules (financially cut off from her father) and Will (wealthy only because of Jules) are not as rich as they pretend to be. 

“‘Because I have to smoke it, to get by. Because it’s the only thing that helps me forget. See, it feels like my whole life stopped at that point, all those years ago. It’s like—it’s like … nothing good has happened since. The one good thing that’s happened to me in the years after Trevs was that shot at the TV show—and you took it away from me.’ I pause, take a deep breath, prepare to say what I’ve finally come to realise, after nearly twenty years. ‘But it’s not like that for you, is it? It’s like the past doesn’t affect you. It didn’t matter to you at all. You carry on taking what you need. And you always get away with it.’”

Johnno finally confronts Will for not only his betrayal, but also for their hand in Darcey’s death while they were at school. Johnno speaks about his addiction to drugs and his need for it simply to function from day to day. Though it may appear that Johnno is more of a mess than Will, this suggests that Johnno carries real regret for the things he did. Will does not seem to harbor the same feelings. 

“‘No—don’t touch me.’ I snatch my arm away, stand up. ‘And you’re a state,’ I say. ‘An embarrassment. Whatever they did to you on the stag, there’s no excuse for your behaviour just now. Yeah, maybe it was awful, what they did. But it didn’t do you any lasting harm, did it? For Christ’s sake, you’re a grown man—a father …’ I almost add ‘a husband’ but can’t bring myself to. ‘You’ve got responsibilities,’ I say. ‘And you know what? I’m sick of looking after you. I don’t care. You can sort out your own bloody mess.’ I turn and stride away.” 

Hannah has been patient with Charlie throughout the weekend and the narrative thus far. She has repeatedly played the role of the dutiful and patient wife, but when she learns of how and when Charlie cheated on her, Hannah actively stops caring. Charlie pities himself for the shame he suffered at the hands of Will and the ushers, but Hannah is quick to remind him that he has not sustained any lasting injury. The irony present here stems from the fact that Charlie is responsible for hurting Hannah and their relationship irreparably, and yet he appears to be less upset by that than he is by the ushers’ prank. 

“This is the thing about organising a wedding. I can put together a perfect day, as long as the guests play along, remember to stay within certain bounds. But if they don’t, the repercussions can last far longer than twenty-four hours. No one is capable of controlling that sort of fallout.” 

Aoife’s inner dialogue here is a meta commentary on the perfect storm of characters and coincidences that make up the novel. In this one wedding, despite Aoife’s preparations and Jules’s perfectionism, the people and personalities at play wreak havoc on the island. There is a sharp irony here; it is the people on the island rather than the Folly itself that bring bad tidings. 

“For one crazy moment there, realising how near we were to the cliff edge, I was tempted. It wouldn’t have come as that much of a surprise. She tried to drown herself earlier, after all—or that’s certainly how it looked, before I saved her. And with this wind—it’s really blowing a gale now—there would have been so much confusion. But that’s not me. I’m not a killer. I’m a good guy.” 

This passage is one that cuts Will’s character to the quick and reveals the core of his characterization. Will is ruthless and willing to do anything to protect his reputation and preserve the success that he already enjoys. Coupled with Will’s own disillusioned view of himself, that he is a “good guy” despite causing the deaths of two people and ruining the lives of countless others, suggests that Will is the most dangerous person on the island.  

“And then, for my little brother, I stab him. In his heart. I have raised hell.” 

This is the climax of the novel, and in this moment, Aoife finally takes revenge on Will for murdering Darcey. Her reclamation of the men’s motto that they created at school echoes the catharsis that she reaches through this act of violence. Though Aoife is unable to revive her brother, she is able to “raise hell” and claim vengeance on behalf of her brother and her parents.