The Guest

In Emma Cline's 'The Guest,' the fleeting summer on Long Island's exclusive East End is abruptly cut short for Alex, a young woman whose delicate arrangement with an older man collapses after a social misstep. Stranded with few resources and a broken phone, but possessing a remarkable ability to read and exploit others' desires, Alex opts not to return to the city. Instead, she embarks on a week-long odyssey, drifting through the opulent, gated communities and sun-drenched landscapes of a world initially closed off to her. Propelled by sheer desperation and an ambiguous moral compass, she navigates a series of precarious encounters, assuming new identities and leaving a subtle trail of disruption in her wake. As Labor Day approaches, Alex exists as a spectral figure, her presence a destabilizing force in the lives of those she encounters, in this taut and deeply unsettling exploration of class, identity, and survival.