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The Disinvited Guest
Lucy Harper still has traumatic memories and lingering health problems from the 2020 pandemic. So, when a new virus surfaces years later, she and her husband, Reed, seek refuge on his family’s private island off the coast of Maine. Ostensibly safely sequestered with their five closest friends and family, Lucy should feel at ease. So why does she feel the weight of the island’s dark history pushing down on the group
As Lucy uncovers Reed’s family secrets and the island’s history as a quarantine hospital for typhus patients, she becomes obsessed with the past and feels her own grip on reality slipping. Tempers flare, strange signs appear in the woods, and accidents turn deadly. Is the island haunted by the dead Or is someone amongst the living taking their revenge?
As Lucy uncovers Reed’s family secrets and the island’s history as a quarantine hospital for typhus patients, she becomes obsessed with the past and feels her own grip on reality slipping. Tempers flare, strange signs appear in the woods, and accidents turn deadly. Is the island haunted by the dead Or is someone amongst the living taking their revenge?
336 pages, Paperback
First published July 12, 2022
About the author
Carol Goodman
29 books2,786 followersCarol Goodman is the author of The Lake of Dead Languages, The Seduction of Water, which won the Hammett Prize, The Widow's House, which won the Mary Higgins Clark Award and The Night Visitors, which won the Mary Higgins Clark Award. She is also the co-author, with her husband Lee Slonimsky, of the Watchtower fantasy trilogy. Her work has appeared in such journals as The Greensboro Review, Literal Latte, The Midwest Quarterly, and Other Voices. After graduation from Vassar College, where she majored in Latin, she taught Latin for several years in Austin, Texas. She then received an M.F.A. in fiction from the New School University. Goodman currently teaches literature and writing at The New School and SUNY New Paltz and lives with her family in the Hudson Valley.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 347 reviews
October 17, 2023
**3.5-stars rounded up**
I added The Disinvited Guest to my TBR just prior to its release knowing one thing, that it was set in Maine. Since that is my home state and the cover had such an ominous feel, I figured I should pick it up and give it a go.
When my library hold on an audiobook copy came through the morning I was leaving for a solo road trip to Maine, I figured it was serendipity and I should take advantage of it.
I downloaded this baby so fast, I left no room for second-guessing myself and I dove in. I didn't even refresh my memory by reading the synopsis, although truth be told, I'm not sure I ever read the full thing to begin with.
Either way, I was surprised when I discovered that this story is based around a contagious virus situation where people are quarantining themselves away from the outside world.
This story takes place years after the 2020-pandemic and we follow Lucy Harper, who is still a bit traumatized from that time and actually has some lingering health effects.
Lucy's husband, Reed, has a generational family home on an isolated island off the coast of Maine and the couple decide to head there to wait out this newest virus.
They plan to quarantine on the property with Reed's sister and her girlfriend, Lucy's best friend and her husband, as well as Reed's best friend from childhood, who still lives in the area and helped provision the island for their stay.
What could possibly go wrong with this situation? It's sounds fool proof...
Obviously, I am being sarcastic AF, because we all know all sorts of things are going to go wrong. Basically, anything that possibly can, will.
The island and property itself have a dark and murky past. Lucy, an author, is interested in that history and does a bit of poking about trying to learn more. She ends up finding an old diary of one of Reed's ancestors and the Reader gets entire excerpts from that.
The historical aspect was something that I wasn't expecting at all. While at times, I would have preferred to have been in the present, particularly towards the beginning, I ended up really enjoying it.
I also liked how the tension climbed in the present the longer they were stuck on the island. It was such a difficult situation and with no way out, people were definitely on edge with one another.
Additionally intriguing to me, was that Lucy's perspective started to feel like she was losing her grip on reality a bit. She became so immersed in the diary that sometimes it became hard to decipher past from present.
Was the island haunting her, or was it just a by-product of her environment; of being so isolated?
This was my first Carol Goodman book. I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but I got her number now. This got wild. I'm talking really wild as it was building to the climax.
I'll be honest, I found The Disinvited Guest to be sort of ridiculous, but luckily, it was also a ridiculously entertaining road trip audiobook!!
I was shouting things at the characters, providing my own running stream of commentary. I must have looked completely unhinged driving down the highway.
It was fun. I enjoyed it. It kept me entertained for my entire drive to Maine and I'm thankful for that.
It was a long drive. I would definitely be interested in checking out more of Goodman's work! If you've got recommendations, drop them below...
I added The Disinvited Guest to my TBR just prior to its release knowing one thing, that it was set in Maine. Since that is my home state and the cover had such an ominous feel, I figured I should pick it up and give it a go.
When my library hold on an audiobook copy came through the morning I was leaving for a solo road trip to Maine, I figured it was serendipity and I should take advantage of it.
I downloaded this baby so fast, I left no room for second-guessing myself and I dove in. I didn't even refresh my memory by reading the synopsis, although truth be told, I'm not sure I ever read the full thing to begin with.
Either way, I was surprised when I discovered that this story is based around a contagious virus situation where people are quarantining themselves away from the outside world.
This story takes place years after the 2020-pandemic and we follow Lucy Harper, who is still a bit traumatized from that time and actually has some lingering health effects.
Lucy's husband, Reed, has a generational family home on an isolated island off the coast of Maine and the couple decide to head there to wait out this newest virus.
They plan to quarantine on the property with Reed's sister and her girlfriend, Lucy's best friend and her husband, as well as Reed's best friend from childhood, who still lives in the area and helped provision the island for their stay.
What could possibly go wrong with this situation? It's sounds fool proof...
Obviously, I am being sarcastic AF, because we all know all sorts of things are going to go wrong. Basically, anything that possibly can, will.
The island and property itself have a dark and murky past. Lucy, an author, is interested in that history and does a bit of poking about trying to learn more. She ends up finding an old diary of one of Reed's ancestors and the Reader gets entire excerpts from that.
The historical aspect was something that I wasn't expecting at all. While at times, I would have preferred to have been in the present, particularly towards the beginning, I ended up really enjoying it.
I also liked how the tension climbed in the present the longer they were stuck on the island. It was such a difficult situation and with no way out, people were definitely on edge with one another.
Additionally intriguing to me, was that Lucy's perspective started to feel like she was losing her grip on reality a bit. She became so immersed in the diary that sometimes it became hard to decipher past from present.
Was the island haunting her, or was it just a by-product of her environment; of being so isolated?
This was my first Carol Goodman book. I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but I got her number now. This got wild. I'm talking really wild as it was building to the climax.
I'll be honest, I found The Disinvited Guest to be sort of ridiculous, but luckily, it was also a ridiculously entertaining road trip audiobook!!
I was shouting things at the characters, providing my own running stream of commentary. I must have looked completely unhinged driving down the highway.
It was fun. I enjoyed it. It kept me entertained for my entire drive to Maine and I'm thankful for that.
It was a long drive. I would definitely be interested in checking out more of Goodman's work! If you've got recommendations, drop them below...
July 13, 2022
HAPPY PUBLICATION DAY!
Is it really over?
Ten years after the first pandemic, a new deadly virus has spread all over the world.
“We were a haunted generation—not just by the people who died in the pandemic, but by all the plans and dreams derailed by it.”
Terrified that this is happening AGAIN, Reed invites seven people to quarantine on his family’s historic private island off the coast of Maine. He is accompanied by his sister Liz and her girlfriend, Nikko, his wife Lucy, Lucy’s best friend Ada, her husband, Crosby, and Mac, Reed’s best friend from high school.
Many of the characters lost their parents, loved ones, and friends during the first pandemic. Therefore, they seek the safety the remote island provides from a society that has not completely healed. As a semi-permanent resident of the island, Mac makes sure they have the supplies they need to survive.
However, the island has its own sordid history. It was named Fever Island when it was used as a quarantine site in the 19th century. It was built in 1832 during the Cholera epidemic and used in 1848 by refugees fleeing the Irish Potato Famine as a quarantine site for Typhus.
Despite the promise of security, Lucy begins to feel unsafe. What family secrets is Reed hiding? Is the island cursed by a witch? Are those the devil’s footprints? When accidents turn deadly, Lucy fears for her life.
Is this the work of a witch, ghost, devil, or is it just a prank?
Carol Goodman cleverly and humorously examines the anxieties, fears, and paranoia people experienced during the 2020 pandemic by crafting a twisty, creepy, locked room mystery. She portrays our own human frailty and inability to learn from past mistakes and the devastation and detritus we left in its wake.
This is the way to write about the pandemic! While she does not name the new virus, Goodman gives us a peak into a frightening future, while we are currently living through this awful time. I enjoyed this well-crafted premise, but for some reason never really connected with the characters. This was a 5 star read for me until the 30% percent mark. I would have enjoyed this book more if it did not include the historical connection and focused more on the main characters.
Nonetheless, if you don’t feel quite up to reading about the horrors of our current pandemic, this book provides an eerie escape into the future.
3.5/5 stars rounded up
Expected publication date: 7/12/22
Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow Publishing for the ARC of The Disinvited Guest in exchange for an honest review.
Is it really over?
Ten years after the first pandemic, a new deadly virus has spread all over the world.
“We were a haunted generation—not just by the people who died in the pandemic, but by all the plans and dreams derailed by it.”
Terrified that this is happening AGAIN, Reed invites seven people to quarantine on his family’s historic private island off the coast of Maine. He is accompanied by his sister Liz and her girlfriend, Nikko, his wife Lucy, Lucy’s best friend Ada, her husband, Crosby, and Mac, Reed’s best friend from high school.
Many of the characters lost their parents, loved ones, and friends during the first pandemic. Therefore, they seek the safety the remote island provides from a society that has not completely healed. As a semi-permanent resident of the island, Mac makes sure they have the supplies they need to survive.
However, the island has its own sordid history. It was named Fever Island when it was used as a quarantine site in the 19th century. It was built in 1832 during the Cholera epidemic and used in 1848 by refugees fleeing the Irish Potato Famine as a quarantine site for Typhus.
Despite the promise of security, Lucy begins to feel unsafe. What family secrets is Reed hiding? Is the island cursed by a witch? Are those the devil’s footprints? When accidents turn deadly, Lucy fears for her life.
Is this the work of a witch, ghost, devil, or is it just a prank?
Carol Goodman cleverly and humorously examines the anxieties, fears, and paranoia people experienced during the 2020 pandemic by crafting a twisty, creepy, locked room mystery. She portrays our own human frailty and inability to learn from past mistakes and the devastation and detritus we left in its wake.
This is the way to write about the pandemic! While she does not name the new virus, Goodman gives us a peak into a frightening future, while we are currently living through this awful time. I enjoyed this well-crafted premise, but for some reason never really connected with the characters. This was a 5 star read for me until the 30% percent mark. I would have enjoyed this book more if it did not include the historical connection and focused more on the main characters.
Nonetheless, if you don’t feel quite up to reading about the horrors of our current pandemic, this book provides an eerie escape into the future.
3.5/5 stars rounded up
Expected publication date: 7/12/22
Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow Publishing for the ARC of The Disinvited Guest in exchange for an honest review.
July 12, 2022
I was so excited to read this and it did not disappoint. It was creepy and atmospheric. It was everything I was looking for. I enjoyed the historical twist and thought it added to the creepy mystery. The ending had my jaw on the floor!
Lucy Harper is still reeling from the aftermath of the first pandemic when years later a new virus begins spreading. Her husband Reed and their five closest friends and family decide to get out of town and go to Reeds family’s private island.
Understandably with an abundant amount of time on her hands, Lucy begins reading the journal of Reed’s relative. This leads Lucy down a rabbit hole of secrets and betrayal. The islands dark history comes to light and Lucy’s world crumbles around her as she realizes that the past refuses to stay buried.
The Disinvited Guest is available now!
Lucy Harper is still reeling from the aftermath of the first pandemic when years later a new virus begins spreading. Her husband Reed and their five closest friends and family decide to get out of town and go to Reeds family’s private island.
Understandably with an abundant amount of time on her hands, Lucy begins reading the journal of Reed’s relative. This leads Lucy down a rabbit hole of secrets and betrayal. The islands dark history comes to light and Lucy’s world crumbles around her as she realizes that the past refuses to stay buried.
The Disinvited Guest is available now!
July 9, 2023
Bestselling author Carol Goodman returns following The Stranger Behind You with her latest chilling, atmospheric gothic mystery thriller —THE DISINVITED GUEST. A group of friends isolated on a remote island with a history of foul play.
Is the island haunted by the dead? Or is there something more sinister—someone among them?
Set in the future, it has been ten years since the 2020 pandemic. There is now a new pandemic to prepare for.
Lucy Harper is a writer that put everything she had into her last book. She had written her first two years after college about how lives changed when the pandemic hit. It had been successful enough that she got a job teaching creative writing at the local college and a contract for a second book.
But now, eight years later, she hasn't been able to write. She feels like she has not really lived since then. How can she write about a life not lived?
Now there is a new virus and Lucy is still thinking about her near-death experience with the first one in 2020. Her heart stopped in the hospital for three minutes and thirty seconds but not enough to cause damage.
So Reed and Lucy get tested and decide to take refuge on Reed's (husband & sister) family's private island off the coast of Maine with five of their closest friends. He is accompanied by his sister Liz and her girlfriend, Nikko, his wife Lucy, Lucy's best friend Ada, her husband, Crosby, and Mac, Reed's best friend from high school.
Many of them lost their parents, families, and friends during the first pandemic, and of course, the author does a great job in summarizing what we live through today with the pandemic. They all had been touched by the tragedies and high anxieties and fears since they are now going through it again.
The mansion/cottage is rather imposing located on Fever Island. Upon arrival not what Lucy expected. It is massive. They arrived by boat with their supplies. She had never been there even though Reed of course came without her over the years.
It is located on a rocky landscape, three stories high on a cliff, with a stone foundation made of the same granite as the cliff, cedar shingles and trim with peaked eaves. A columned porch runs across the front with a gazebo, tower, and widow's walk. It is massive and seems to say, Keep away, I protect my own.
Fever Island is located three miles off the coast of Maine. The island was used as a station for the sick arriving from Ireland in the 1800s before they could enter the mainland. Later the island became the property of the wealthy Harper family.
Narrated by Lucy, she plans to spend her time writing about its Celtic rituals, the ghosts, and tragedies. At first, all goes well, until things start happening. Do the seven really know one another? Does Lucy really know Reed?
Fever Island has its own sordid past. It was named this when used as a quarantine site in the 19th century. During the 1850s, the island served as a quarantine site for Irish famine ships overflowing with dying typhus-infected migrants.
The cliffside setting is remote and surrounded by water. On top of this, Lucy begins digging into the property and family secrets. The disturbing and unsettling journal entries. She becomes obsessed with the past and worries about her own sanity.
Strange things begin happening. Lucy feels unsafe. Her friend said she should write about the ghosts but is this making her fearful or is the island casting a dark spell on everyone?
Lucy immerses herself in the journals she finds that were kept during the typhus and Reed's ancestor was a physician. What family secrets is Reed hiding? Is the island cursed? Are there witches?
When accidents turn deadly, Lucy fears for her life. They are stuck on this island and in this house. Something dark and cold lives in the heart of the island.
This TWISTY one will make your heart pound! I have read several books by Goodman and am a huge fan. I loved the map of Fever Island included at the front of the book, which helps you relate to the locations referenced in the novel. Both timelines were equally as compelling, giving that eerie atmospheric feeling.
The author does a fantastic job of creating anxieties, fears, claustrophobia, and paranoia during the past and current pandemics. Cleverly written and blended with humor, suspense, and mystery, THE DISINVITED GUEST reads like a creepy dark, cat-and-mouse locked-room mystery/psychological thriller.
There are past family secrets, the island, college friendships, betrayals, indiscretions, the present, and ghosts which all give a sense of foreboding and darkness. The setting is vivid, descriptive, and alluring - drawing you in.
I was not warm and fuzzy or particularly invested with any of the characters, and the dark bold font used (for journal entries) throughout was bothersome to my eyes.
Overall a chilling mystery and scary ghostly storytelling. As always the author delivers an Agatha Christie/Hitchcockian vibe infused with literary sprinklings with her signature style. For fans of authors: Jennifer McMahon, Lisa Unger, Lisa Jewell, and Ruth Ware.
Thank you to #WilliamMorrow and #NetGalley for an ARC to read, review, and enjoy!
Blog Review posted @
www.JudithDCollins.com
@JudithDCollins | #JDCMustReadBooks
My Rating: 4 Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Pub Date: July 12, 2022
July 2022 Must-Read Books
Is the island haunted by the dead? Or is there something more sinister—someone among them?
Set in the future, it has been ten years since the 2020 pandemic. There is now a new pandemic to prepare for.
Lucy Harper is a writer that put everything she had into her last book. She had written her first two years after college about how lives changed when the pandemic hit. It had been successful enough that she got a job teaching creative writing at the local college and a contract for a second book.
But now, eight years later, she hasn't been able to write. She feels like she has not really lived since then. How can she write about a life not lived?
Now there is a new virus and Lucy is still thinking about her near-death experience with the first one in 2020. Her heart stopped in the hospital for three minutes and thirty seconds but not enough to cause damage.
So Reed and Lucy get tested and decide to take refuge on Reed's (husband & sister) family's private island off the coast of Maine with five of their closest friends. He is accompanied by his sister Liz and her girlfriend, Nikko, his wife Lucy, Lucy's best friend Ada, her husband, Crosby, and Mac, Reed's best friend from high school.
Many of them lost their parents, families, and friends during the first pandemic, and of course, the author does a great job in summarizing what we live through today with the pandemic. They all had been touched by the tragedies and high anxieties and fears since they are now going through it again.
The mansion/cottage is rather imposing located on Fever Island. Upon arrival not what Lucy expected. It is massive. They arrived by boat with their supplies. She had never been there even though Reed of course came without her over the years.
It is located on a rocky landscape, three stories high on a cliff, with a stone foundation made of the same granite as the cliff, cedar shingles and trim with peaked eaves. A columned porch runs across the front with a gazebo, tower, and widow's walk. It is massive and seems to say, Keep away, I protect my own.
Fever Island is located three miles off the coast of Maine. The island was used as a station for the sick arriving from Ireland in the 1800s before they could enter the mainland. Later the island became the property of the wealthy Harper family.
Narrated by Lucy, she plans to spend her time writing about its Celtic rituals, the ghosts, and tragedies. At first, all goes well, until things start happening. Do the seven really know one another? Does Lucy really know Reed?
Fever Island has its own sordid past. It was named this when used as a quarantine site in the 19th century. During the 1850s, the island served as a quarantine site for Irish famine ships overflowing with dying typhus-infected migrants.
The cliffside setting is remote and surrounded by water. On top of this, Lucy begins digging into the property and family secrets. The disturbing and unsettling journal entries. She becomes obsessed with the past and worries about her own sanity.
Strange things begin happening. Lucy feels unsafe. Her friend said she should write about the ghosts but is this making her fearful or is the island casting a dark spell on everyone?
Lucy immerses herself in the journals she finds that were kept during the typhus and Reed's ancestor was a physician. What family secrets is Reed hiding? Is the island cursed? Are there witches?
When accidents turn deadly, Lucy fears for her life. They are stuck on this island and in this house. Something dark and cold lives in the heart of the island.
This TWISTY one will make your heart pound! I have read several books by Goodman and am a huge fan. I loved the map of Fever Island included at the front of the book, which helps you relate to the locations referenced in the novel. Both timelines were equally as compelling, giving that eerie atmospheric feeling.
The author does a fantastic job of creating anxieties, fears, claustrophobia, and paranoia during the past and current pandemics. Cleverly written and blended with humor, suspense, and mystery, THE DISINVITED GUEST reads like a creepy dark, cat-and-mouse locked-room mystery/psychological thriller.
There are past family secrets, the island, college friendships, betrayals, indiscretions, the present, and ghosts which all give a sense of foreboding and darkness. The setting is vivid, descriptive, and alluring - drawing you in.
I was not warm and fuzzy or particularly invested with any of the characters, and the dark bold font used (for journal entries) throughout was bothersome to my eyes.
Overall a chilling mystery and scary ghostly storytelling. As always the author delivers an Agatha Christie/Hitchcockian vibe infused with literary sprinklings with her signature style. For fans of authors: Jennifer McMahon, Lisa Unger, Lisa Jewell, and Ruth Ware.
Thank you to #WilliamMorrow and #NetGalley for an ARC to read, review, and enjoy!
Blog Review posted @
www.JudithDCollins.com
@JudithDCollins | #JDCMustReadBooks
My Rating: 4 Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Pub Date: July 12, 2022
July 2022 Must-Read Books
July 19, 2022
This one was going to get 5 stars until I reached the 80% mark. The last 20% went in a disappointing direction. Maybe because I’d invested myself in the characters that turned out to be flawed. I especially didn’t like Reed’s dying - he should have had a chance at redemption. Even more disturbing to me was his wife’s lack of significant response. In fact, people seemed to die throughout the book without causing too much angst for anyone.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 4, 2022
I was on the fence about reading this book based on the description, but since the author and I share the same last name, I gave it a shot. Well Carol, I guess we will have to avoid each other at the family reunion, because cousin, your book stinks.
The things that are wrong with it are numerous, but the absolute worst part, which was comically bad, was the
The things that are wrong with it are numerous, but the absolute worst part, which was comically bad, was the
January 13, 2024
This turned out to be so much better than I thought it would be!
Sure the end become a little complicated and a little too much but I liked the book overall. It was kinda scary at times!!
Sure the end become a little complicated and a little too much but I liked the book overall. It was kinda scary at times!!
December 29, 2022
Lucy Harper, her husband Reed, and a group of their friends are moving to a remote, island location to hopefully escape from and live through the pandemic. They don't yet realise they will also have to survive residing with each other, too.
Understandably, pandemic books terrify me. When I realised that this focused on a future, fictional pandemic but was penned with inclusions of the one we have already lived through, I was both unnerved and intrigued. Goodman is an author who never fails for me and so I trusted her with accuracy and sensitivity, but also abundant mysteries and eerie vibes. She delivered.
The group's shared history is detailed alongside their present-day struggles and I became just as invested in both timelines. None could be trusted, all had secrets to hide, and when the tensions of living in close quarters and with no contact to the outside world started to weigh heavily on them, the fraying threads of friendship started to become exposed.
As always, Goodman delivered a tense, dramatic, and twisted narrative with a compelling cast of characters, a foreboding setting, and an unsettling atmosphere that featured throughout every scene. I love every concept she tackles and both appreciated and was deeply unsettled by how a deadly virus and worldwide pandemic was focused on here, as well as the killer mystery in the characters' midst.
Understandably, pandemic books terrify me. When I realised that this focused on a future, fictional pandemic but was penned with inclusions of the one we have already lived through, I was both unnerved and intrigued. Goodman is an author who never fails for me and so I trusted her with accuracy and sensitivity, but also abundant mysteries and eerie vibes. She delivered.
The group's shared history is detailed alongside their present-day struggles and I became just as invested in both timelines. None could be trusted, all had secrets to hide, and when the tensions of living in close quarters and with no contact to the outside world started to weigh heavily on them, the fraying threads of friendship started to become exposed.
As always, Goodman delivered a tense, dramatic, and twisted narrative with a compelling cast of characters, a foreboding setting, and an unsettling atmosphere that featured throughout every scene. I love every concept she tackles and both appreciated and was deeply unsettled by how a deadly virus and worldwide pandemic was focused on here, as well as the killer mystery in the characters' midst.
August 21, 2022
I loved the idea of this story. Set in 2030, group of friends escaping to an island to get away from a new pandemic, Locked room mystery feeling.
But unfortunately I couldn't get into this one.
The journal entries were long and honestly I skimmed most parts.
I didn't get into the story till about 200 pages in.
The characters never grabbed me and I didn't feel connected to any of them.
In my opinion it was definitely a slow burn suspense read.
I'm glad most enjoyed it.
But unfortunately I couldn't get into this one.
The journal entries were long and honestly I skimmed most parts.
I didn't get into the story till about 200 pages in.
The characters never grabbed me and I didn't feel connected to any of them.
In my opinion it was definitely a slow burn suspense read.
I'm glad most enjoyed it.
December 13, 2022
2.5
A spectacular atmospheric setting in which the surrounding environmental attributes and weather can make a claim itself, for best supporting character in Carol Goodman's novel, "The Disinvited Guest"!
This is not a thriller. Nor suspenseful enough to call it a suspenseful novel either. However, both terms were used to describe and market the book.
This is a slow build, torn between three methods, character building drama, potential mystery drama, and atmospheric haunting. Trying to check all these boxes, unfortunately left little time to provide depth to each.
Folklore and historical aspects were done well. Unfortunately, there was no true plot. Potential pieces are never intricately pulled together for a complete picture. The conclusion is not so much a disappointment. Instead, where as the reader has been led, adrift the entire novel. By the end, it felt more like the author's concession to the reader by simply ending the foggy confusion all together, using the words "The End."
A spectacular atmospheric setting in which the surrounding environmental attributes and weather can make a claim itself, for best supporting character in Carol Goodman's novel, "The Disinvited Guest"!
This is not a thriller. Nor suspenseful enough to call it a suspenseful novel either. However, both terms were used to describe and market the book.
This is a slow build, torn between three methods, character building drama, potential mystery drama, and atmospheric haunting. Trying to check all these boxes, unfortunately left little time to provide depth to each.
Folklore and historical aspects were done well. Unfortunately, there was no true plot. Potential pieces are never intricately pulled together for a complete picture. The conclusion is not so much a disappointment. Instead, where as the reader has been led, adrift the entire novel. By the end, it felt more like the author's concession to the reader by simply ending the foggy confusion all together, using the words "The End."
Read
January 27, 2023Dnf @ 30% - couldn’t keep my attention
July 20, 2022
Set a decade or so after the 2020 pandemic, the scariest part of this book to me is that another go-round is not only possible, but probable. Would I pack up my family and go live on a deserted island until it all blows over again? It's doubtful, in large part because I, unlike Lucy Harper and her husband Reed, don't have access to family property nor money enough to keep us well fed for however long it took to ride out the storm. The Harpers, though, have no such problem - inviting a handful of their best friends (including Reed's not-so-sisterly sister Liz and her significant other, Niko) to tag along.
And therein lie at least seven problems - eight, if you count the bear of a guy who apparently lives on the island and serves as a sort of jack of all trades by keeping the machinery running and food in the pantry. That's because while on the surface they're all friends and lovers, nobody seems to really like each other very much (too much personal history, I guess, although I have to admit I didn't like any of them very much either). And speaking of history, the island itself has a sordid background, once serving as a drop-off point for typhus patients and Reed's family mansion a quarantine hospital a couple of hundred years ago. More recently came deaths with far more personal ties to Reed and Liz.
For the most part, while she's riding out the viral storm, Lucy plans to write a new book as a follow-up to her successful first one. She hopes to find a journal written by one of Reed's long-ago ancestors, thinking the content will kick the stops from under her writer's block. But maybe, just maybe, that's exactly what shouldn't happen; it could be that some of the dead would far prefer to remain that way.
And slowly, the whole group begins to feel the ill effects of togetherness plus something more sinister; important things go missing, tensions and suspicions among the residents grow to the breaking point and accidents turn deadly serious. Clearly, something other than a virus is on the loose and full of malicious intent. But especially when she has no idea who to trust (both among the living and the dead), can Lucy figure out what's going on before it's too late to save anyone?
While all that makes for exciting reading, the chapters that were pages from the centuries-old journal were a bit too long and boring. It was also a little hard for me to work up much empathy with or sympathy for characters who expressed virtually no reaction at the loss of their loved ones (but then, no one ever seemed to care much about any of the others anyway, so I guess I shouldn't have been surprised). But despite that and my virtually nil belief in the supernatural, the story is a bit of a mind-bender and made for an enticing, enjoyable read that was hard to put down. Thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to read and review a pre-release copy.
And therein lie at least seven problems - eight, if you count the bear of a guy who apparently lives on the island and serves as a sort of jack of all trades by keeping the machinery running and food in the pantry. That's because while on the surface they're all friends and lovers, nobody seems to really like each other very much (too much personal history, I guess, although I have to admit I didn't like any of them very much either). And speaking of history, the island itself has a sordid background, once serving as a drop-off point for typhus patients and Reed's family mansion a quarantine hospital a couple of hundred years ago. More recently came deaths with far more personal ties to Reed and Liz.
For the most part, while she's riding out the viral storm, Lucy plans to write a new book as a follow-up to her successful first one. She hopes to find a journal written by one of Reed's long-ago ancestors, thinking the content will kick the stops from under her writer's block. But maybe, just maybe, that's exactly what shouldn't happen; it could be that some of the dead would far prefer to remain that way.
And slowly, the whole group begins to feel the ill effects of togetherness plus something more sinister; important things go missing, tensions and suspicions among the residents grow to the breaking point and accidents turn deadly serious. Clearly, something other than a virus is on the loose and full of malicious intent. But especially when she has no idea who to trust (both among the living and the dead), can Lucy figure out what's going on before it's too late to save anyone?
While all that makes for exciting reading, the chapters that were pages from the centuries-old journal were a bit too long and boring. It was also a little hard for me to work up much empathy with or sympathy for characters who expressed virtually no reaction at the loss of their loved ones (but then, no one ever seemed to care much about any of the others anyway, so I guess I shouldn't have been surprised). But despite that and my virtually nil belief in the supernatural, the story is a bit of a mind-bender and made for an enticing, enjoyable read that was hard to put down. Thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to read and review a pre-release copy.
July 26, 2022
Carol Goodman is a marvelous writer. I've read several of her books. It's a mixed bag for me when it comes to this book. I enjoyed learning about the island's history, the witch that cursed it, and the time it served as a quarantine hospital for typhoid patients. I struggled with the slightly in the future from now story with the new pandemic.
Although I liked the author's idea of writing about the covid pandemic and what would happen if a new pandemic emerged ten years later, I wasn't captivated by the characters or the story on the island. Lucy, the main character, and the narrator of the story felt very dull, and the rest of the characters weren't particularly likable. I felt that I just didn't care so much about them or their fate. As for the ending, it wasn't a very big surprise and was frankly a bit disappointing.
I gave The Disinvited Guest 3 stars because I enjoyed parts of the story (especially when it dealt with the time when the island was a quarantine hospital). I did want to know if the past story and something to do with the present.
I listened to the audiobook version, and Imani Jade Powers did an excellent job narrating.
Although I liked the author's idea of writing about the covid pandemic and what would happen if a new pandemic emerged ten years later, I wasn't captivated by the characters or the story on the island. Lucy, the main character, and the narrator of the story felt very dull, and the rest of the characters weren't particularly likable. I felt that I just didn't care so much about them or their fate. As for the ending, it wasn't a very big surprise and was frankly a bit disappointing.
I gave The Disinvited Guest 3 stars because I enjoyed parts of the story (especially when it dealt with the time when the island was a quarantine hospital). I did want to know if the past story and something to do with the present.
I listened to the audiobook version, and Imani Jade Powers did an excellent job narrating.
July 17, 2022
I recently reviewed THE LOCKED ROOM, in which Elly Griffiths uses the start of the COVID-19 pandemic as the backdrop to her murder mystery. Now, in THE DISINVITED GUEST, Carol Goodman has blown the doors off this concept by moving it into the not-too-distant future.
A much stronger strain of the virus has hit us, and a group of friends have decided to escape to an island off the coast of Maine in an attempt to lock themselves down. However, knowing this is a Carol Goodman novel (and one of her best ever, I might add), these characters soon will be faced with not only their own secrets and fears, but also the secrets, infamous history and pagan supernatural powers that exist all around them. It’s a nice literary way of saying that you can run, but you can’t hide.
Reed Harper has organized this trip, or more appropriately escape, and has limited the number of people he has invited. Joining him are his author wife, Lucy; his sister, Liz, and her partner, Niko; and his college friend, Ada, and her husband, Crosby. Meeting them at the dock for the boat ride is Mac, Reed’s best friend who lives on the ironically named Fever Island year round.
Once everyone is gathered around the fire in the great room of the big house on the island where they’re staying, Reed leads them in a toast: “Here’s to our brave new world. May it fare better than the old one.” They discuss the island and the history that directly involves his father, Dr. Nathaniel Harper. He recounts the alleged stories of witches, ghosts and even the horned devil himself being part of its storied past. Mac echoes that there has been some bad mojo here. It is suggested that Lucy might seek out Dr. Harper's journals for her long-discussed second novel.
Crosby surprises everyone by announcing that Ada, a former actress who is now a nurse, is three months pregnant. This is primarily why they wanted to escape New York City. Crosby himself is a hospital administrator and plans to work remotely during the pandemic. He gets slightly alarmed during a tour of the house when he comes across a gun. Reed assures everyone that it is just his father’s old hunting gun, and Mac adds that each household on the island has one. It’s necessary to defend themselves if the need should arise. They may be isolated for now, but who knows. Plus, there are those superstitions about what may still exist on Fever Island.
Lucy learns that Reed’s old girlfriend, Becky, died on the island --- not from the virus as she previously had thought, but from drowning in the bog around Sea Witch Cove. It was as if she was lured there after reading the very same journals that Lucy plans to work on. When she finally makes her way to the huge library room that resembles a ship, with a full view of most of the island, Lucy dives into Dr. Harper’s journals. Reading through the passages is like a story within a story; they are so interesting and chilling that I never wanted them to end.
Dr. Harper set foot on Fever Island on June 10, 1848. His experiences included getting acquainted with the extremely ill inhabitants of the Stella Maris. There were nuns aboard caring for the sick who also came to the island, but they were not the ship’s most interesting residents. That would be Liadan, a young, silent Irish girl. Dr. Harper’s introduction to her was saving her as she fell overboard and making eye contact with her in the seaweed under the water where she seemed to be in her element. It almost felt like she was pulling him under.
One evening, the group decides to use the Ouija board. The planchette goes wild, spelling out: Not drowned, blood in the water, murderer, you you you. Reed takes this very personally as he believes it’s a message from one of his friends blaming him for Becky’s death. It also ominously foretells what’s to come on the island as history is about to repeat itself.
THE DISINVITED GUEST works on every level. Using the pandemic as a plot device is sheer brilliance, which helps make it an extremely frightening novel and one of the finest efforts of Goodman’s career (which is really saying something). The book will get under your skin and unsettle you in so many ways. It is an instant gothic classic yet written with the future in mind --- a future we still have not seen. This might be the most frightening idea of all.
Reviewed by Ray Palen
A much stronger strain of the virus has hit us, and a group of friends have decided to escape to an island off the coast of Maine in an attempt to lock themselves down. However, knowing this is a Carol Goodman novel (and one of her best ever, I might add), these characters soon will be faced with not only their own secrets and fears, but also the secrets, infamous history and pagan supernatural powers that exist all around them. It’s a nice literary way of saying that you can run, but you can’t hide.
Reed Harper has organized this trip, or more appropriately escape, and has limited the number of people he has invited. Joining him are his author wife, Lucy; his sister, Liz, and her partner, Niko; and his college friend, Ada, and her husband, Crosby. Meeting them at the dock for the boat ride is Mac, Reed’s best friend who lives on the ironically named Fever Island year round.
Once everyone is gathered around the fire in the great room of the big house on the island where they’re staying, Reed leads them in a toast: “Here’s to our brave new world. May it fare better than the old one.” They discuss the island and the history that directly involves his father, Dr. Nathaniel Harper. He recounts the alleged stories of witches, ghosts and even the horned devil himself being part of its storied past. Mac echoes that there has been some bad mojo here. It is suggested that Lucy might seek out Dr. Harper's journals for her long-discussed second novel.
Crosby surprises everyone by announcing that Ada, a former actress who is now a nurse, is three months pregnant. This is primarily why they wanted to escape New York City. Crosby himself is a hospital administrator and plans to work remotely during the pandemic. He gets slightly alarmed during a tour of the house when he comes across a gun. Reed assures everyone that it is just his father’s old hunting gun, and Mac adds that each household on the island has one. It’s necessary to defend themselves if the need should arise. They may be isolated for now, but who knows. Plus, there are those superstitions about what may still exist on Fever Island.
Lucy learns that Reed’s old girlfriend, Becky, died on the island --- not from the virus as she previously had thought, but from drowning in the bog around Sea Witch Cove. It was as if she was lured there after reading the very same journals that Lucy plans to work on. When she finally makes her way to the huge library room that resembles a ship, with a full view of most of the island, Lucy dives into Dr. Harper’s journals. Reading through the passages is like a story within a story; they are so interesting and chilling that I never wanted them to end.
Dr. Harper set foot on Fever Island on June 10, 1848. His experiences included getting acquainted with the extremely ill inhabitants of the Stella Maris. There were nuns aboard caring for the sick who also came to the island, but they were not the ship’s most interesting residents. That would be Liadan, a young, silent Irish girl. Dr. Harper’s introduction to her was saving her as she fell overboard and making eye contact with her in the seaweed under the water where she seemed to be in her element. It almost felt like she was pulling him under.
One evening, the group decides to use the Ouija board. The planchette goes wild, spelling out: Not drowned, blood in the water, murderer, you you you. Reed takes this very personally as he believes it’s a message from one of his friends blaming him for Becky’s death. It also ominously foretells what’s to come on the island as history is about to repeat itself.
THE DISINVITED GUEST works on every level. Using the pandemic as a plot device is sheer brilliance, which helps make it an extremely frightening novel and one of the finest efforts of Goodman’s career (which is really saying something). The book will get under your skin and unsettle you in so many ways. It is an instant gothic classic yet written with the future in mind --- a future we still have not seen. This might be the most frightening idea of all.
Reviewed by Ray Palen
July 27, 2022
Ah, the eternal problem and pitfall of using a book-within-a-book in your narrative: when the book inside the book is actually better and more engrossing. Lucy was such a forgettable character that it made it disappointing to return to her tale when I was far more interested in reading about the events on Fever Island in the 1800s. Spoilers behind tags, so click those at your own risk.
First off, I should say that supernatural elements simply do not work for me as a reader, so this definitely limited the book's effectiveness. Readers who do like supernatural elements will probably get a lot more out of this than I did.
The atmosphere in this book was also lacking. While it felt plenty atmospheric when Lucy was reading the journal, Lucy's actual environment felt flat. Yes, the island was developed, but there was so little detail about what was happening in the world outside that I couldn't understand why the island was supposed to be a haven. This is such a flaw; had there been more detail about terrifying happenings in the outside world, it would have ratcheted the tension in the novel up several notches, something that would have done it a lot more service.
As for Lucy herself... Ho boy. She's one of the worst tropes in mystery/thriller novels: the completely clueless and guileless idiot who is far too oblivious to be believed.
The characters in general are just...there. Again, they're far more developed in the journal than they are in the larger narrative. All of them read like types, and all of them make it obvious how the reader is supposed to feel about them. They have personality traits, but none of them feel like actual people.
As for the plot, well, the only thing that kept me from one-starring this was I did think the story about the quarantine island and what happened there was interesting. The plot of the framing novel, though... Yeesh.
So, yeah, I read this book and that's about all I have to say about it. Give me a few days and I'll have forgotten all about it.
First off, I should say that supernatural elements simply do not work for me as a reader, so this definitely limited the book's effectiveness. Readers who do like supernatural elements will probably get a lot more out of this than I did.
The atmosphere in this book was also lacking. While it felt plenty atmospheric when Lucy was reading the journal, Lucy's actual environment felt flat. Yes, the island was developed, but there was so little detail about what was happening in the world outside that I couldn't understand why the island was supposed to be a haven. This is such a flaw; had there been more detail about terrifying happenings in the outside world, it would have ratcheted the tension in the novel up several notches, something that would have done it a lot more service.
As for Lucy herself... Ho boy. She's one of the worst tropes in mystery/thriller novels: the completely clueless and guileless idiot who is far too oblivious to be believed.
The characters in general are just...there. Again, they're far more developed in the journal than they are in the larger narrative. All of them read like types, and all of them make it obvious how the reader is supposed to feel about them. They have personality traits, but none of them feel like actual people.
As for the plot, well, the only thing that kept me from one-starring this was I did think the story about the quarantine island and what happened there was interesting. The plot of the framing novel, though... Yeesh.
So, yeah, I read this book and that's about all I have to say about it. Give me a few days and I'll have forgotten all about it.
July 14, 2022
"What if those of us that survived really were haunted by those who didn't??"
September 16, 2023
I love Carol Goodman's books and somehow didn't get to GUEST when it first came out, so made sure to include it in my #backlistbooks23 challenge this year. Lucy Harper got sick in the 2020 pandemic, an event that also affected her husband Reed and his family. Years later, as another virus looms, she, Reed, and five other close friends and family members sequester themselves on Reed's family's island to stay safe and sheltered from whatever is coming.
"'This is what people do when they're desperate and have nothing left to lose... They begin making their own idols and gods.'"
As Goodman does so well, GUEST immediately creates an eerie feel, with its atmospheric and stifling island settling. The island is isolated and soon Lucy suspects it's haunted as well. This creates a locked room type story--very Agatha Christie-like. When Lucy discovers a journal left behind by one of Reed's ancestors, Nathaniel Harper, a doctor who treated patients who came to the island to quarantine from typhoid fever, she's immediately sucked into his story. Goodman deftly draws parallels between Nathaniel's past situation and Lucy and her friends today. The pieces of the story from the typhoid fever times were utterly intriguing--I would have read an entire book about that period alone.
"'Don't underestimate the power of stories, Dr. Harper. Sometimes it's all we poor folk have to pass our truth along.'"
As Lucy becomes more entangled in the journal and exploring the island, she is consumed by Nathaniel's story. But, can we trust her as narrator? All our characters have their own secrets, lies, and fragile pasts. It's so easy for emotions to fray during a pandemic and for feelings to quickly become volatile. Desperation, jealousy, power all come into play. Again, the cloistered setting has such a strong role here.
At times the story drags a little, focusing a bit too much on Lucy questioning those around her, and there are no major twists and surprises (it's pretty easy to guess how this is going to end). But this is an eerie, dark, and compelling tale that easily captures the creepy island setting (and the parallels to the past are especially fascinating), even if things get a little preposterous at times. 3.75 stars, rounded up here.
"'This is what people do when they're desperate and have nothing left to lose... They begin making their own idols and gods.'"
As Goodman does so well, GUEST immediately creates an eerie feel, with its atmospheric and stifling island settling. The island is isolated and soon Lucy suspects it's haunted as well. This creates a locked room type story--very Agatha Christie-like. When Lucy discovers a journal left behind by one of Reed's ancestors, Nathaniel Harper, a doctor who treated patients who came to the island to quarantine from typhoid fever, she's immediately sucked into his story. Goodman deftly draws parallels between Nathaniel's past situation and Lucy and her friends today. The pieces of the story from the typhoid fever times were utterly intriguing--I would have read an entire book about that period alone.
"'Don't underestimate the power of stories, Dr. Harper. Sometimes it's all we poor folk have to pass our truth along.'"
As Lucy becomes more entangled in the journal and exploring the island, she is consumed by Nathaniel's story. But, can we trust her as narrator? All our characters have their own secrets, lies, and fragile pasts. It's so easy for emotions to fray during a pandemic and for feelings to quickly become volatile. Desperation, jealousy, power all come into play. Again, the cloistered setting has such a strong role here.
At times the story drags a little, focusing a bit too much on Lucy questioning those around her, and there are no major twists and surprises (it's pretty easy to guess how this is going to end). But this is an eerie, dark, and compelling tale that easily captures the creepy island setting (and the parallels to the past are especially fascinating), even if things get a little preposterous at times. 3.75 stars, rounded up here.
July 15, 2022
I liked it, I didn't love it
Read if you...
-like secluded island stories
-appreciate when history repeats itself
-water low key freaks you out
What I did love:
-the supernatural aspect
-the old journal entries that help push the story along
-the character dynamics
What I didn't love:
-how long the journal entries were
-it needed another 70 pages to tie everything up
-it didn't get there on the creep factor even though it was set up to
It's the year 2030 and a new pandemic is sweeping across the nation. 7 friends take refuge in a completely remote island to segregate themselves from the pandemic-ridden cities. The thing is... the island just might be cursed by the devil idk
History starts to repeat itself as a few members of the group used this island as a refuge during the first pandemic go around. The same creepy things are happening again. Is someone doing it? Did they wake something up?
This had a really great premise, but like I said it just needed a few more pages to allow more red herrings and creepy pages.
Read if you...
-like secluded island stories
-appreciate when history repeats itself
-water low key freaks you out
What I did love:
-the supernatural aspect
-the old journal entries that help push the story along
-the character dynamics
What I didn't love:
-how long the journal entries were
-it needed another 70 pages to tie everything up
-it didn't get there on the creep factor even though it was set up to
It's the year 2030 and a new pandemic is sweeping across the nation. 7 friends take refuge in a completely remote island to segregate themselves from the pandemic-ridden cities. The thing is... the island just might be cursed by the devil idk
History starts to repeat itself as a few members of the group used this island as a refuge during the first pandemic go around. The same creepy things are happening again. Is someone doing it? Did they wake something up?
This had a really great premise, but like I said it just needed a few more pages to allow more red herrings and creepy pages.
September 25, 2022
I should learn not to read pandemic novels by authors I usually like. This was so disappointing and paper-thin, not at all up to Goodman's usual standard. Worst of all, the picture it paints of the 2020 pandemic (already a memory in the future where this book is set) doesn't match our reality. It's all overblown, as if she wrote the first draft in March 2020 and revised it during the Omicron surge. Not everybody's whole family was wiped out by the coronavirus. It hasn't changed our whole way of life and plunged us into dystopia. And if I can't trust the historical background of the piece, then it's hard for me to trust anything she tells me about the present situation in 2030. I'm very disappointed.
(Note: I received an uncorrected proof of this book through a Goodreads giveaway.)
(Note: I received an uncorrected proof of this book through a Goodreads giveaway.)
August 16, 2022
Review in progress UPDATE:
I love Carol Goodman I own a lot of her books almost all. I was so excited to get my hands on this the day of release. Unfortunately I was just not in to this one, it’s about the pandemic and then another one. I just couldn’t connect to any of the characters. I’m so sad but because I know she’s a phenomenal author and maybe it’s just me, I gave her a 3.
I love Carol Goodman I own a lot of her books almost all. I was so excited to get my hands on this the day of release. Unfortunately I was just not in to this one, it’s about the pandemic and then another one. I just couldn’t connect to any of the characters. I’m so sad but because I know she’s a phenomenal author and maybe it’s just me, I gave her a 3.
August 30, 2022
I did finish this “thriller” 🙄, but I did NOT like or enjoy it. Throughout most of it I was bored, especially reading the diary entries! 🥱. By the end I did not care who lived or died, just glad it was over.
August 17, 2022
There are few places I’d rather be than a Maine island in a storm. Or in fog. One after the other is preferable. If you feel the same way, with a touch of pagan ritual and abandoned lighthouse on the side here’s a book for you.
Which is one of the reasons why this book worked so well for me. This is my first Carol Goodman, but I can tell she knows atmospheric because when she went to write a book about isolation, she chose an island far off the coast of Maine and gave it some storms and fog.
Really, The Disinvited Guest is a book about quarantine. Set some time in the near future, humankind is battling a new pandemic, and our focus is on Lucy, the narrator, and five friends and family members. Covid-19 is in their past, but it still haunts each one of them, especially the summer of 2020. They isolate themselves as a group at Lucy husband, Reed’s, rich family’s island.
Not only are they confronting the trials of the near past, Lucy has found a diary that gives an account of the island when it was used as a quarantine hospital for typhus patients. The stories from that time on the island start to take a toll on the characters as myths about witches and devils come to light.
This book was really fun, and I had expected a run of the mill thriller. But the pagan influence gave the book the kind of atmosphere I crave.
Thank you to HarperCollins for the giveaway win.
Read
November 23, 2022Ten years after the first pandemic, a new deadly virus has spread all over the world.
A wonderfully creepy pandemic read spoiled by, well, the pandemic. I think I'm just not there yet.
A wonderfully creepy pandemic read spoiled by, well, the pandemic. I think I'm just not there yet.
July 16, 2022
Carol Goodman has been killing it. She’s writing the kind of standalone, psychologically suspenseful novels that are incredibly popular at the moment, but she’s been doing it for twenty years. She’s a tight storyteller and a smart one, and she’s great with character and setting – in fact, she’s the whole package. Her new novel, The Disinvited Guest, posits that we have emerged from a worldwide pandemic, albeit briefly, and been plunged into another one. Her book is set very slightly in an unfortunately believable future.
Taking a page from Christie’s classic, And Then There Were None, she gathers her characters and puts them on a boat where they are headed to a remote island in Maine to quarantine together. They have been quarantining, test for virus before they get on the boat (familiar details for all of us), and when they arrive their backstories begin to emerge. Unlike Christie’s story, all of them know each other from college or as siblings or as long-standing acquaintances. The island belongs to Reed Harper and he’s bringing along his wife, Lucy, his sister, and some college friends along with their partners/spouses. Their guide is Mac, who has grown up with Reed, and is full of practical knowledge and skills that will help everything run smoothly.
Lucy turns out to be the central narrator, and we see everything through her eyes, as she reevaluates friendships and connections through the lens of quarantine. She and Reed also seem to be on shaky ground though the canny Goodman keeps their relationship complicated and not-so-obvious as all that. Lucy has been stuck after writing a first book, but when she discovers an old journal left by a previous island resident it launches her into the past and back into creativity.
The journal entries from the 1840’s form a parallel narrative of a group of passengers on a ship from Ireland who hit this area of Maine’s coast with a ship full of very ill people. The journal writer, a young doctor, cuts his teeth on taking care of these people, along with a group of “Grey Ladies” who live on the island and who have devoted themselves to charitable nursing, running a quarantine hospital. The island is also seemingly a nexus of witchcraft and superstition.
The present-day islanders also feel this atmosphere of witchcraft, uncertainty and mysterious happenings that begin to drive them apart as they become suspicious of one another. As a reader you yourself begin to wonder just what might be real and what is imagined by people who are certainly under a great deal of stress. The journal entries and the present-day occurrences echo back and forth, creating a deepening atmosphere of suspense.
When bodies start to fall, the tiny cast of characters has nowhere to look but at themselves, and secrets and long misunderstandings play a huge part on how things ultimately resolve. As in Christie’s novel, the body count in high, and the ending is pretty bleak. This is a book to make a reader think, to keep you turning the pages, and to relish it’s richly drawn characters and setting. It’s another wonderful read from Goodman’s talented pen.
Taking a page from Christie’s classic, And Then There Were None, she gathers her characters and puts them on a boat where they are headed to a remote island in Maine to quarantine together. They have been quarantining, test for virus before they get on the boat (familiar details for all of us), and when they arrive their backstories begin to emerge. Unlike Christie’s story, all of them know each other from college or as siblings or as long-standing acquaintances. The island belongs to Reed Harper and he’s bringing along his wife, Lucy, his sister, and some college friends along with their partners/spouses. Their guide is Mac, who has grown up with Reed, and is full of practical knowledge and skills that will help everything run smoothly.
Lucy turns out to be the central narrator, and we see everything through her eyes, as she reevaluates friendships and connections through the lens of quarantine. She and Reed also seem to be on shaky ground though the canny Goodman keeps their relationship complicated and not-so-obvious as all that. Lucy has been stuck after writing a first book, but when she discovers an old journal left by a previous island resident it launches her into the past and back into creativity.
The journal entries from the 1840’s form a parallel narrative of a group of passengers on a ship from Ireland who hit this area of Maine’s coast with a ship full of very ill people. The journal writer, a young doctor, cuts his teeth on taking care of these people, along with a group of “Grey Ladies” who live on the island and who have devoted themselves to charitable nursing, running a quarantine hospital. The island is also seemingly a nexus of witchcraft and superstition.
The present-day islanders also feel this atmosphere of witchcraft, uncertainty and mysterious happenings that begin to drive them apart as they become suspicious of one another. As a reader you yourself begin to wonder just what might be real and what is imagined by people who are certainly under a great deal of stress. The journal entries and the present-day occurrences echo back and forth, creating a deepening atmosphere of suspense.
When bodies start to fall, the tiny cast of characters has nowhere to look but at themselves, and secrets and long misunderstandings play a huge part on how things ultimately resolve. As in Christie’s novel, the body count in high, and the ending is pretty bleak. This is a book to make a reader think, to keep you turning the pages, and to relish it’s richly drawn characters and setting. It’s another wonderful read from Goodman’s talented pen.
February 18, 2023
This novel was entertaining, but it seemed a little contrived, as though I were reading a Nancy Drew mystery.
August 28, 2022
Unfortunately dnfed. Not really in the mood for a thriller with tons of pandemic references 🙃
July 5, 2022
The Disinvited Guest by Carol Goodman is a recommended Gothic thriller
It's around 2030 and a new virus has surfaced. Lucy Harper's husband Reed has invited a small group of five close friends and family to isolate themselves on the island that he and his sister Liz own off the coast of Maine. In the 1850's Fever Island was a quarantine site for Irish famine ships and it has a history of stories claiming it is haunted. They have stock the island with supplies and now plan to wait out the new quarantines in isolation. But the history of the island where stories of witches, ghosts, and other spooky beings abound weighs heavy on everyone and when odd occurrences and strange signs begin to appear, the group is on edge. And then it seems that sabotage may threaten the group’s survival.
There are several things that were done right in The Disinvited Guest. The quality of the writing is excellent. The idea of isolating this group of characters on this creepy island is a good concept for a Gothic horror thriller. Providing the island with a tragic history is well played, as are the journal entries from the 1850's included in the plot. The increasing tension and suspicion created as strange occurrences that seem to be supernatural happen, like seeing the Grey Lady, work well. Suspicions are cast upon almost everyone. There are several twists and a surprising ending.
Two major strikes against The Disinvited Guest. First, the characters are truly annoying and not very credible. There were several times I had to suspend my disbelief. Second, this could have been set during a long summer vacation rather than a new plague ten years in the future. The whole concept of "Oh, there is a new pandemic and we must be full of fear" in this novel lost points with me immediately. Pandemic fear fiction is an ill-advised choice to make as a plot element, no matter how inconsequential it may be to the overall narrative. It is also a senseless and annoying concept for the many people who worked as usual throughout the whole event.
Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of HarperCollins.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2022/0...
It's around 2030 and a new virus has surfaced. Lucy Harper's husband Reed has invited a small group of five close friends and family to isolate themselves on the island that he and his sister Liz own off the coast of Maine. In the 1850's Fever Island was a quarantine site for Irish famine ships and it has a history of stories claiming it is haunted. They have stock the island with supplies and now plan to wait out the new quarantines in isolation. But the history of the island where stories of witches, ghosts, and other spooky beings abound weighs heavy on everyone and when odd occurrences and strange signs begin to appear, the group is on edge. And then it seems that sabotage may threaten the group’s survival.
There are several things that were done right in The Disinvited Guest. The quality of the writing is excellent. The idea of isolating this group of characters on this creepy island is a good concept for a Gothic horror thriller. Providing the island with a tragic history is well played, as are the journal entries from the 1850's included in the plot. The increasing tension and suspicion created as strange occurrences that seem to be supernatural happen, like seeing the Grey Lady, work well. Suspicions are cast upon almost everyone. There are several twists and a surprising ending.
Two major strikes against The Disinvited Guest. First, the characters are truly annoying and not very credible. There were several times I had to suspend my disbelief. Second, this could have been set during a long summer vacation rather than a new plague ten years in the future. The whole concept of "Oh, there is a new pandemic and we must be full of fear" in this novel lost points with me immediately. Pandemic fear fiction is an ill-advised choice to make as a plot element, no matter how inconsequential it may be to the overall narrative. It is also a senseless and annoying concept for the many people who worked as usual throughout the whole event.
Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of HarperCollins.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2022/0...
March 25, 2022
Wondering where all the pandemic fiction is? Well here’s the antidote. It’s ten years since the end of the pandemic, when it looks like another one, but even worse, is on its way. Married couple Reed and Lucy, both thirty-somethings, assemble their five closest friends, including Reed’s sister and her girlfriend, and hide out at Reed’s family cottage—WASP code for a 12-room-estate—on an island off the coast of Maine.
Blueberry pancakes, innovative cocktails, Scrabble, plenty of time for artistic projects, it’s like a Ralph Lauren ad come to life. Until things fall apart. In a big way. Part of it is brought on by novelist Lucy’s growing obsession with the island’s past—in the 1840s, Irish immigrants with typhoid were quarantined here—and a diary she discovers, written by one of Reed’s ancestors, recounts those horrible days. But you needn’t go so far back to be terrified. Reed’s parents died here on Fever Island—yes, that’s the name—in the last pandemic, along with his girlfriend, whose presence Lucy senses everywhere.
Goodman does a great job of blending the present and the past—each with their own rising tensions—with the past spilling over into the present. But best of all, this book offers readers a chance to reflect on the pandemic, the choices we made, the impact it had on us, and what’s left as the waters finally recede.—Brian Kenney
For more reviews of new crime fiction, subscribe to our weekly newsletter, First Clue: https://www.getrevue.co/profile/First...
Blueberry pancakes, innovative cocktails, Scrabble, plenty of time for artistic projects, it’s like a Ralph Lauren ad come to life. Until things fall apart. In a big way. Part of it is brought on by novelist Lucy’s growing obsession with the island’s past—in the 1840s, Irish immigrants with typhoid were quarantined here—and a diary she discovers, written by one of Reed’s ancestors, recounts those horrible days. But you needn’t go so far back to be terrified. Reed’s parents died here on Fever Island—yes, that’s the name—in the last pandemic, along with his girlfriend, whose presence Lucy senses everywhere.
Goodman does a great job of blending the present and the past—each with their own rising tensions—with the past spilling over into the present. But best of all, this book offers readers a chance to reflect on the pandemic, the choices we made, the impact it had on us, and what’s left as the waters finally recede.—Brian Kenney
For more reviews of new crime fiction, subscribe to our weekly newsletter, First Clue: https://www.getrevue.co/profile/First...
June 10, 2023
2.5 stars
One star for interesting story/plot—another pandemic 10 years after COVID 19. But story ended up not really being about pandemic…
One star for decent narration in audiobook.
Half star for me getting to the end and not skimming or abandoning.
Writing had too many flowery analogies. Just let a conversation be a conversation.
I found the MC Lucy kinda dumb and naive.
Her husband Reed was not really developed so I didn’t know or care about him.
I figured out the villain early on which made the story a little boring.
This weird assortment of people head to an island to ride out the latest pandemic but the island is difficult to get to and from and there’s no phone signal but they have internet??
They eat and drink like kings and have one person go on SUPPLY RUNS almost daily??? If its a pandemic, how and where is he so easily get booze and supplies line oat milk??!!
Character development was poor all around so you didn’t really care about these people.
The more interesting story was about the history if the island as a typhus hospital.
Glad to be done with this.
One star for interesting story/plot—another pandemic 10 years after COVID 19. But story ended up not really being about pandemic…
One star for decent narration in audiobook.
Half star for me getting to the end and not skimming or abandoning.
Writing had too many flowery analogies. Just let a conversation be a conversation.
I found the MC Lucy kinda dumb and naive.
Her husband Reed was not really developed so I didn’t know or care about him.
I figured out the villain early on which made the story a little boring.
This weird assortment of people head to an island to ride out the latest pandemic but the island is difficult to get to and from and there’s no phone signal but they have internet??
They eat and drink like kings and have one person go on SUPPLY RUNS almost daily??? If its a pandemic, how and where is he so easily get booze and supplies line oat milk??!!
Character development was poor all around so you didn’t really care about these people.
The more interesting story was about the history if the island as a typhus hospital.
Glad to be done with this.
July 25, 2022
Nice atmospheric story, it reminded me a bit of my favorite novel of Goodman's "The Lake of Dead Languages." Characters were a bit one dimensional and the ending seemed rushed.
I appreciate how the main character mentions that her respiratory therapist trained her in breathing exercises after she had Covid. We never get mentioned and we were essential during the pandemic.
Audio was good, except the narrator had the same voice for the main character, Lucy, as she did for the male character from the 1800s. It was a little confusing at first
I appreciate how the main character mentions that her respiratory therapist trained her in breathing exercises after she had Covid. We never get mentioned and we were essential during the pandemic.
Audio was good, except the narrator had the same voice for the main character, Lucy, as she did for the male character from the 1800s. It was a little confusing at first
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