The Guest Room
A Novel
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4.1 • 486 Ratings
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • From the New York Times bestselling author of The Flight Attendant comes the spellbinding tale of a party gone horribly wrong: two men lie dead in a suburban living room, two women are on the run from police, and a marriage is ripping apart at the seams.
When Kristin Chapman agrees to let her husband, Richard, host his brother's bachelor party, she expects a certain amount of debauchery. She takes their young daughter to Manhattan for the evening, leaving her Westchester home to the men and their hired entertainment. What she does not expect is that the entertainment—two scared young women brought there by force—will kill their captors and drive off into the night.
With their house now a crime scene, Kristin's and Richard’s life spirals into nightmare. Kristin is unable to forgive her husband for his lapses in judgement, or for the moment he shared with a dark-haired girl in the guest room. But for the dark-haired girl, Alexandra, the danger is just beginning.
Look for Chris Bohjalian's new novel, The Lioness!
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
When investment banker Richard offers to host his brother-in-law's bachelor party in his suburban home, he doesn't expect the night to end in tragedy. It turns out that the strippers he hires are victims of human trafficking, pulling their host and his guests into a dark, harrowing world. Best-selling author Chris Bohjalian demonstrates his penchant for tackling tough subjects with candor and nuance; he narrates the story from the dual perspectives of Richard and Alexandra, an Armenian sex slave. The Guest Room is as suspenseful as any thriller but daring enough to tackle a weighty and timely topic.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In his latest novel, Bohjalian (Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands) stacks the deck against his well-to-do main character, Richard Chapman, who holds a bachelor party in his Bronxville home for his younger brother, Philip. Richard sends his wife and daughter into Manhattan for the night, a good thing, because the two strippers hired for the occasion turn out to be Russian sex slaves, who kill the two pimps who accompany them to the party before fleeing into the night. Earlier, one of them, a beautiful Armenian girl named Alexandra, almost managed to seduce Richard before he changes his mind. In the aftermath of the murders, Richard is turned out of his house, which has become a crime scene with reporters camped outside, and forced to hire a lawyer. As the consequences of the night pile up, Richard becomes estranged from his wife, is banned from his office, and finds himself the target of a blackmailer from the party who has an incriminating cell phone video of him and Alexandra. And then there is Alexandra herself, who returns to the scene of the crime, tailed by her seriously scary Russian bosses. It is to the author's credit that he takes this situation and makes it somewhat credible. Juxtaposed against the upper-class setting is Alexandra's own account of being sold into slavery, which deserves a less sudsy book of its own.
Customer Reviews
A riveting story that brings human trafficking to light.
It's only been a few years since human (sex) trafficking has started to be addressed in America. This page turner of a novel, wrapped around the normalcy of a bachelor party, has layer after layer of intrigue.
You'll enjoy this book immensely and the further you get in, the less likely you'll be able to stop reading! And when you're done? Tell your friends, especially those with teenage daughters, to read it, too. It's that important.
Boring and trite
This is so dePressing, not a thriller, and slow to unwind.
The guest Room
Very shallow. Knew where this was headed very early in the book.