The Guest List

“Her tone is caring, but it doesn’t quite ring true. I know she’s probably jealous. Once, when she got drunk, she went on about how kids had got at her at school for being ‘chubby’. She’s always making comments about my weight, like she doesn’t know I’ve always been skinny, ever since I was a little girl. But it’s possible to hate your body when you’re thin, too. To feel like it’s kept secrets from you. To feel like it’s let you down.” 

The above passage introduces the reader to the tempestuous relationship between Olivia and Jules. Their difficult relationship and inability to communicate with each other are both factors that play into Will’s ability to keep his affair with Olivia a secret. Jules’s jealousy towards Olivia, especially about her appearance, is evident in this quote; Olivia’s own distrust of her body after her abortion is also hinted at here.  

“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.