Trigger warning: Rape
This is a good book to keep in mind for Halloween Bingo. It fits a couple of squares that I selected when I added this to our library.
I really enjoyed this read. I was interested in the story that Wylie was there writing and loved how things tied together. I will say that of course you may not be super thrilled with the number of coincidences in this one when you get to the end. But I just rolled with it. The main reason why I didn’t give this 5 stars is that the point of view with Wylie dragged the book down a lot in my opinion. We know she’s a true crime writer, and that she’s divorced. But she in essence has run away from her life and teen son for almost a year. I started to dislike her just from that alone. When she finds the mysterious boy she just becomes angry a lot that he won’t just trust her and tell her things. That got old after a while. I liked the parts of the story following 12 year old Josie in 2000 as well as the points of a mysterious little girl that seems to be hidden away with her mother.
“The Overnight Guest” follows true crime writer, Wylie Lark. Wylie has come to a small town to stay in an isolated farmhouse to finish writing her latest book. Wylie is struggling with her book and the fact that part of her is glad to be away from her ex-husband and her difficult teen son. When a winter storm blows through though Wylie ends up going outdoors and finds a little boy who has somehow become lost in the snow. As Wylie tries to find out who the boy is and where he came from, the book then jumps back in time to follow 12 year old Josie who is excited about her best friend Becky spending the night.
There are three distinct stories and timelines going on in this book and I know that confused a lot of readers. The first is the present day following Wylie. The second is the year 2000 in August following Josie. And then there’s the third point of view and you don’t know the year/dates but a young girl is telling the story of her mother and father. The third point of view starts to chill you the farther along it goes and then you start to piece some things together. Josie’s point of view was the most heart breaking the further along you read. Wylie’s point of view just dragged for me until we got up to the 75 percent point.
The plot was interesting, I thought, and the setting of the isolated farmhouse in the middle of winter really puts you in the book at times.
The ending felt slightly unrealistic, but I liked how things ended.