The Guest List

Will as “so fair and tanned”; together with Jules, they are described as “the most attractive couple in any room” (23). Much like Jules, Will is also much obsessed with perfection. Jules is attracted to him because “Will is so driven, so successful, so smart in the way he presents himself” (27). Will’s deliberate curation of his appearance only reflects his life-long mastery of manipulating the people around him. Using his good looks, Will is able to get away with stealing the GCSE test papers, betraying Johnno, and causing the deaths of two people. Will’s ruthlessness is no secret to Jules, but it is this supposedly shared trait that initially attracts Jules to him. Jules admits, “As much as his golden looks, his winning smile, the thing that drew me was the ambition I could smell coming off him, beneath his charm” (27). Will is able to trick Jules into believing that he is a good man, ambitious but still a good person—one who would not casually ponder murdering her younger sister in order to keep their affair a secret.

Aoife has been married to Freddy for over two decades; they are the new owners of the Folly. Aoife is from Dublin and used to visit the island when she was younger. Aoife is described as “organized, capable, discreet” with “a coolness to her, a detachment” that Jules appreciates and trusts (74). Jules thinks that Aoife looks “quite homely,” but she likes Aoife’s “steelier side” (74). The cool exterior that Aoife projects is very much at odds with her actual feelings. Aoife is nervous for a wide range of reasons; the wedding needs to be a success for their business to stay afloat, she needs to confront Will about the truth of her brother’s death, and eventually, she blames herself for Olivia almost drowning. Despite appearing calm on the surface, Aoife is a deep well of emotion and feeling. She is much like Jules in that way, perfectly composed despite feeling the very opposite. Aoife uses her appearance to fade into the background, to appear as nothing more than the unimportant staff. Aoife thus becomes the last person one would suspect of killing Will.

Freddy is described as a larger man, and though some of the ushers find him threatening, he is a kind man who cares for his wife and his friends. According to Aoife, “Freddy is a good hugger. He’s what you might call ‘cuddly’. He likes his food—it’s his job. He ran a restaurant in Dublin before we moved here” (13). Freddy’s warmth and kindness are reflected in his own continued care for Darcey. As a child, Freddy hid when the boys took Darcey away, and he has never forgiven himself for not standing up for his friend. The other ushers initially write him off, just as they did as children, and are cruel about his weight. Despite this, Freddy never retaliates against them, and is only depicted in the novel as a caring figure.

Darcey Malone was Aoife’s brother, and known to the other boys simply as “Loner” (265). Aoife loves him deeply and still reads the letters that he sent her all those years ago. Aoife regrets not warning Darcey to stay away from Will. Darcey’s parents die shortly after he does, overwhelmed from the grief. Aoife is left completely alone and becomes determined to discover the truth behind her brother’s death.

Hannah is described as having “four piercings in one ear and there’s a tattoo on the inside of her wrist, half hidden by her sleeve” (54). In this one line of description, Hannah already appears to be the polar opposite of Jules. While Jules aims for perfection and flawlessness in all things, Hannah is happy to decorate her body with art. Hannah is insecure in her body next to Jules. She is uncertain if Charlie finds her attractive now, thinking, “my boobs are not the same boobs they were before breastfeeding, now I have all this strange slack skin on my belly” (50). Hannah’s insecurity around her body reflects her overall lack of confidence when sharing the same space as Jules and the other posh guests. Hannah is not as wealthy or powerful, and she feels very much inferior to the other people present. Unlike Charlie, who tries very much to fit in with the other people there, Hannah mostly keeps to herself. In preparation for the wedding, Hannah puts on makeup and gets ready; this attracts the attention of Charlie, the ushers, and other men at the wedding. In getting ready the way she has not in so long, Hannah sheds the person she was when with Charlie. In doing this, Hannah eventually realizes that she is still her own person, independent of Charlie.

Alice was Hannah’s sister and was a beautiful and intelligent young woman. Alice wanted to become a politician and worked hard in university to get good grades. After Alice became involved with Will, she broke up with him so that she could focus on her studies. Hannah speaks of her fondly, “My beautiful, brainy sister, trying to rationalize away her feelings…classic Alice” (182). Alice’s life is entirely upturned after that, when Will shares an intimate video of her with the entire school in revenge for breaking up with him. After that, Alice steadily becomes skinnier and skinnier, hollow-eyed and fragile like Olivia. Olivia reminds Hannah so much of Alice that she cannot help but feel for the other woman. Alice functions in the novel as a motivator for Hannah to care for Olivia as well as a plot twist, since her ex who caused her to commit suicide is the very same villain who abandoned Olivia and killed Darcey.

Charlie is a schoolteacher, Hannah’s husband, and Jules’s best friend. Charlie was, according to Jules, incredibly handsome as a teenager; as her sailing coach, she had a crush on him for years. Charlie’s desire to fit in also stems from his own appearance. No longer as in shape as he was working on the pier, Charlie’s body has changed quite a bit, with a “pale, soft stomach” where there used to be abs (67).

When around Jules and her friends, Charlie puts on a posher voice, much to Hannah’s chagrin. He is desperate to fit in with the ushers; despite wearing a suit he “bought especially for this weekend,” he stands out from the other men who all wear the same type of tie, “polished brogues and tailored jackets” (65). Charlie’s clothes reflect how he simply fails to fit in with the other men, no matter how much he tries to drink at the same pace or laugh along at their jokes. Charlie’s desperation to fit in seems to stem from the prank that the men played on him during the bachelor party, where they left him, high and naked, alone on an island for hours. Though this experience humiliates Charlie and makes him resent Will and the other men, he appears just as eager to be one of them, going so far as to make fun of Hannah in front of everyone. Hannah observes, “I feel like he’s playing for laughs, trying to get in on the joke at my expense” (66). Charlie is so busy thinking about the things that he used to have that he eventually ends up losing Hannah, too.

Olivia is described by Johnno as “tall and dark-haired, with a big, sulky mouth and legs that go up to her armpits” (29). Johnno’s overt sexualization of Olivia, though she is only nineteen, reflects the troubled relationships she has had in the past. Olivia and Jules are “totally different shapes,” but they have inherited their mother’s face and are recognizably sisters (39).

Olivia’s thinness is inherently tied into her own struggles with mental health and self-harm. While Jules strives to look like a queen, fierce and ambitious, Olivia’s thinness reflects the emptiness that she feels. Olivia thinks, “But that feeling of emptiness I get when I don’t eat as much … it matches how I feel. It seems right” (38). Olivia appears to just be fading away, and her numerous moments of suicidal ideation only further compound her initial desire to disappear. Her lack of control over the situation with Will and Jules sends her into a tailspin of self-destructive habits like alcoholism, self-harm, and anorexia, as a means to gain some degree of control over her life. At the end of the novel, Olivia’s connection with Hannah and her mended relationship with Jules paint a brighter future for the young woman.

Johnno is “like a caveman” and constantly smells like weed (27). Her assessment of him is brutal, and she calls him “one of life’s dropouts” (27). Johnno stands out from the group of ushers due not only to the fact that he comes from a poor family, but also because he is the only one in the group not to have a successful career. Johnno’s desire to fit into the pack and stay Will’s righthand man is the thing that continues to send him spiraling. Johnno is unable to move on from the past and from Will; he acts as though he has no choice in the matter. Johnno says, about leaving school, “I couldn’t ever have left. My folks were so excited when I got the rugby scholarship, that I got to go to a posh school—a boarding school. All the opportunities it would give me, or so they thought” (34). Despite not fitting in with the other boys and other men, Johnno continues in this same mindset well into adulthood. Johnno is unable to leave the past, and Will, behind. His desperate desire to prove himself to Will and the others leads to Darcey’s death, and eventually, his own false conviction.

Duncan is described as “slender” with “dark red hair” (64). He often appears to be the primary antagonist in conversations. He is rude, blunt, and crass. Duncan seems to take pleasure in making fun and putting others down. He does this casually, even with the men he is supposedly friends with, like Johnno. Duncan is incredibly aggressive, the first to shout and escalate a situation. Unlike Will, his manipulation of the people around him is unsubtle, and can even be read as outright intimidation and aggression.

Femi is described as “being one of the only black kids” at the boarding school (33). There, he was constantly “singled out a lot by the teachers” (33). According to Johnno, age has given Femi a growing “bald spot” (35). Despite his difficult experience growing up as the only Black student at school, Femi still looks back on their experience at school fondly. Femi has grown up to become a successful surgeon, and later in the novel, is the one who checks Will’s body and declares him dead. 

Peter, known as Pete to the other men, works in advertising and has a “party-boy look” (65). According to Johnno, Pete has a cocaine addiction and looks “like he only goes out at night” (35). He has a smaller role in the novel, but later in the text, he is the first to lose his nerve when the ushers head out into the storm to find the body. Likely due to his intoxication, Peter begins seeing bodies in the bogs. His addition to the narrative further pulls in a supernatural element, adding to the group’s paranoia and the reader’s suspense.

Ronan is Jules’s father and a self-made businessman. He has been entirely absent from Jules’s life and has also started a new family with a woman Jules’s age. Though Ronan is disconnected from Jules, he still appears to be fiercely protective of her. Ronan is often described as an intimidating man, and this is none clearer than when he openly threatens Will if he ever deigns to hurt his daughter.