The following version of the novel was used to create this study guide: Foley, Lucy. The Guest List. William Morrow, June 2, 2020. Kindle.

In the suspense novel The Guest List by Lucy Foley, appearances can be deceiving as pretty boy Will Slater and the elegant, successful Julia “Jules” Keegan appear to be the perfect couple. While the two do look good together, there is a dark side of Will lurking below the surface. The past and the present collide as old high school and college friends reminisce their wilder days, uncovering secrets Will has tried to keep hidden.

Hannah looks forward to the weekend away with her husband, Charlie. As a friend of the bride, he has been asked to serve as the emcee for the reception. Hannah hopes that she will be distracted from thinking about her sister, Alice. Alice committed suicide that month seventeen years ago. When Charlie is accosted by Jules right away, Hannah befriends Olivia, Jules’ deeply depressed half-sister. Olivia tells Hannah the story of her breakup with Callum, her first boyfriend. Olivia signed up on a dating site and arranged a date with a man named Steven. She believed it would make her feel better. One night, she invited Steven to a party at the V & A hosted by the magazine Jules had created. Olivia got so drunk that Steven put her in a taxi and sent her home. Olivia does not tell Hannah that she watched as Steven went back into the party at the V & A. She also does not tell her how Steven started ghosting her and would not even respond when she told him that she was pregnant.

At the wedding reception the next day, Johnno, the best man is approached by Piers Whiteley, a television producer. Johnno had given Will the idea for the television show Survive the Night that had made Will famous. Both Will and Johnno had screen tests for the show, but Johnno had received an email that he was not what the producers wanted. Piers, however, tells Johnno that the producers had wanted both Will and Johnno on the show. They had been disappointed that Johnno turned them down. Johnno worked out that it was Will who sent him the email telling him he was not wanted on the show. Johnno is angry not only because his best friend stole his idea and then lied to him, but also because the two shared a terrible secret that Johnno believed bound them to each other. Johnno is also accosted during the reception by Will’s father, who was the headmaster of the private school that both Will and Johnno attended. Mr. Slater informed Johnno that Will was not his friend, he had only used Johnno to do his dirty work.

Johnno is angered by how Will has betrayed him. He gives a scathing best man’s speech about how Will was his best friend despite the fact Will insisted he wear an expensive, brand named suit, and then made Johnno pay for it. Johnno had also arranged the other ushers to help him carry Will off after the toasts, a homage to Survivor, the game they played as a prank during their school days. They blindfolded Will and left him in a cave near the reception tent to find his way back. Johnno, however, doubled back and confronted Will about the things that he had learned.

Johnno additionally confronts Will about Darcey Maloney, a boy who admired Will and Johnno at their school. Will and Johnno bullied the boy, making him do unnecessary tasks and sometimes even being physically abusive. When Darcey discovered that Will had stolen copies of tests, he told Will he was going to tell a teacher. That night, Will told Johnno that they needed to play Survivor with Darcey. Johnno did not think when Will had him tie Darcey to the handrail at the bottom of a path leading down a cliff to the beach. In the morning, he was horrified when he realized that if Darcey had not been able to free himself, he would have drowned when the tide came in. Johnno has been haunted by the fact that they caused Darcey’s death. They were never suspected of having hurt Darcey, when his body washed up on shore days later, his death was considered an accident.

As Johnno talks to Will about what they did, Will denies they were responsible in any way for his death. He shows no remorse. Johnno is considering picking up a rock and killing Will when Aoife, the wedding planner, locates them and tells them that it is time for Will to get back to the reception because the cake is about to be cut.

In the meanwhile, Hannah began to put things together. She remembered Will mention meeting Jules at a party at the V & A. The story was so similar that she wondered if Will and Steven were the same person. She is not aware that she is right, that Will has even confronted Olivia about not telling Jules about the dates they had. Unknown to Will, Jules overheard the conversation between him and Olivia. Hannah also puts together after listening to a conversation between two of Will’s college friends that Will was the boyfriend who prompted Alice’s suicide by putting a pornographic video of her on the internet as revenge when she broke up with him.

Just after Will and Jules have cut the wedding cake the electricity goes out because of a storm on the island. Will had gone back to the Folly, where he and the wedding guests were staying, to clean the cake off his face when Aoife asks him to help her with the generator. Will agrees but when Aoife leads him to a place where there is no generator, he begins to think she is going to proposition him. Instead, Aoife tells him that she is Darcey’s sister. She explains that her husband, Freddy, also went to the same private school and was in the dorm room when Johnno and Will took Darcey. Freddy told a teacher, but because Will’s father was the headmaster he kept the death from being investigated. Aoife uses the knife she had taken from the cake table to stab Will in the heart.

Will is found first by Johnno. When Johnno sees his friend dead, he realizes how much he loved him despite the way Will treated him. Johnno pulls out the knife and hugs Will, covering himself in blood. When the ushers, who have been sent to look for a body that one of the waitresses believes she saw, find Will’s body and see Johnno, they assume he is the killer. Johnno is arrested when the police arrive. Jules tells Olivia that she heard what Will said to Olivia. Olivia had been afraid to tell Jules the truth about Will. She had not wanted to ruin her sister’s happiness. Jules hugs Olivia and cries, proving that she is not angry with her sister. Hannah, meanwhile, is glad someone has avenged her sister’s death, but wishes that she had the chance to avenge it herself.