The Guest by Emma Cline (2023) is a contemporary novel that explores the social dynamics of gender, wealth, and power. It follows a young woman named Alex whose luck is running out. She is running away from problems she’s caused while simultaneously struggling to create a more stable future for herself. The novel is a story of survival, self-sabotage, resilience, and manipulation.

Emma Cline is the award-winning author of the novel The Girls (2016) and the short story collection Daddy (2020). Her fiction has appeared in The Paris Review and The New Yorker.

This guide is based on the Amazon Kindle (Random House, 2023) edition.

Content Warning: This guide contains references to substance-use disorder, suicidal ideation, and self-harm.

Plot Summary

Alex is a 22-year-old woman who has spent years in New York City, relying on sex work to support herself. She dates wealthy men who buy her food and clothing. Now, she’s spending the summer in the Hamptons with a new boyfriend, an older man named Simon. The timing is perfect, as Alex is actively avoiding a man in the city named Dom, from whom she’s stolen drugs and money.

Alex’s role in Simon’s life is to be a beautiful and companionable guest. At night she accompanies him to the fancy parties his friends host, and in the daytime, while he’s at work, she goes swimming in the ocean. But Alex makes a series of mistakes that test Simon’s patience. First, she gets into a minor accident in his luxury vehicle and doesn’t tell him about it. Then she gets drunk at a party and swims in the pool with the hostess’s husband. Simon tells Alex to go home, unaware that she has no home or support system and is in danger. Rather than return to the city, Alex decides to stay in the Hamptons for a week, biding her time until Simon’s annual Labor Day party. She is certain that if she only gives him some time, he’ll be glad to see her there.

Alex’s phone is broken, but she knows that the only thing she’s missing out on is a string of endless texts and calls from Dom. She sets the problem with Dom aside to figure out her next step. First, she pretends to be part of a large group of friends visiting from the city. She parties with them and stays in their house overnight but is kicked out when the other girls discover that Alex doesn’t know anyone there. She goes to the beach, where she meets a young man named Jack. They exchange numbers. Alex spends the night alone on the beach.

The next morning, she wanders around and runs into Nicholas, who works for one of Simon’s wealthy friends, George. Nicholas’s job as George’s house manager is to be hospitable and courteous, so he brings Alex to George’s house, where he cooks for her. Alex lies and says she’s in a fight with Simon to prolong her departure. She and Nicholas get drunk and high together, but their fun ends when Alex mars one of George’s priceless artworks. Nicholas lets her spend the night in his staff apartment, but he makes it clear that he knows exactly what she’s up to.

The next day, starving, she comes upon an exclusive private beach club. She befriends a little boy on the beach, whose nanny believes her story that she is a friend of the family’s. The boy helps her get into the beach club, where Alex drinks and eats, charging it to the family’s account, while supervising the boy. At the club, she meets a young woman named Margaret who is babysitting her little brother. Margaret invites Alex to her house, but Alex quickly leaves when she discovers how vulnerable and depressed Margaret is.

Alex uses Margaret’s phone to text Jack, who picks her up. Jack is thrilled that a beautiful woman like Alex wants to spend time with him. He tells her that he’s 19 years old and on a gap year. Jack brings Alex to his dinner with his father, a big-time movie producer. Jack and his father fight because Jack is disrespectful. At the restaurant, Alex runs into a woman from her past named Dana. Dana once helped Alex learn the ropes of sex work. But it has been years since they’ve spoken. Dana isn’t interested in talking to Alex, angry at her for a reason Alex can’t remember, but she does warn her that Dom is after her and knows that she’s in the Hamptons.

Jack brings Alex to a house party. The young people there are surprised to see Jack because they were under the impression that he’s no longer drinking or leaving the house. They’re also annoyed because Jack has invited his friend Max, a “townie” who sells them drugs but is otherwise seen as an outsider. Max and the host of the party get into a fight, so Alex and Jack leave. Jack is upset and doesn’t want to go home to his father. He brings Alex to the home of his ex-girlfriend’s family. The house has a guesthouse where they can stay. No one is home because the house is under construction, but Jack knows the code to the gate and the location of the key to the guesthouse. Jack and Alex spend the night together there.

Alex figures that Jack will eventually go home to his father, which means she can sneak back into the guesthouse on her own. Jack is showing more and more signs of instability. He’s sensitive, combative, and seems to be breaking down. Max visits and reveals to Alex that Jack is actually 17 years old. Now it’s obvious that Jack has been away from school because of some sort of issue he had with his ex-girlfriend, something he did to her and to himself. Despite these warning signs, Alex pretends to be as interested in Jack as he is in her. She needs to be able to stay in the guesthouse.

When Alex’s phone starts working again, she calls Dom and explains to him that his money and drugs are all gone. Alex needs a solution to the Dom problem. Jack offers to steal his father’s store of cash, which is locked in a safe he knows the combination to. Jack can give the money to Alex to give to Dom. Alex and Dom agree to meet at the train station the following day, the day of Simon’s party. But when the time comes to bring the money to Dom, Jack admits that there is no safe of cash. Jack, sensing that Alex is planning to leave him, becomes desperate and panicked and crashes the car they’re driving. Though Jack and Alex seem fine, the accident is bad. Alex calls for help and then leaves Jack at the car, telling him she’s going to get help from a neighbor. Instead, Alex walks to Simon’s house for the Labor Day party. She throws away her phone, unwilling to deal with Dom.

At Simon’s party, Alex is certain that her next chapter is about to begin. But when she sees Simon, Simon gives her a look that communicates confusion or unhappiness to see her. Alex wills herself to go over to him, but her body won’t move.