BOOK REVIEW: Many are Invited by Dennis Cuesta

A tragic story fueled by animosity and jealousy.

Thank you to NetGalley and Celestial Eyes Press for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Based on the blurb, I thought that the main character, Steve, would be telling the tale of some dramatic, thriller-esce, suspenseful catastrophe that occured at a housewarming party; however, I was unfortunately disappointed with how everything played out.

The story is told from Steve who is recounting a traumatic experience in this life that was preceded by a weird relationship based on mistrust and animosity with his supposed best friend, John. Honestly, they only became friends because they didn’t have anyone else. The entire first half of the book is centered around how they met - working at the phone company in 1994 when the fear of Y2K was just coming to light. John, being in the right place at the right time and taking just an ounce of initiative, turns the Y2K momentum into millions. Steve, remains in a mediocre job that he hates while watching John achieve every success.

It was depressing reading about Steve and how he felt towards John, and while there is just a single point of view, there was evidence that John wasn’t overly invested in Steve. Throw in two women (roommates who both have equally depressing pasts and a similar best friendship based on animosity), and we now have this weird triangle or square or overlapping triangles. I’m not even really sure.

Where some books are plot driven and others are character driven, this book is primarily dialogue driven. Everything comes about through the characters' interactions with each other, and no one is innocent and everyone has a hand in the outcome of the book. Honestly, the conclusion in the sense of what happens to the characters is fitting for how the story and characters are developed.

However, while we know that the climax and the entire point of the book happens at the housewarming party, we don't actually get to the party until 55% of the way through the book. Then it becomes a whole lot of conversations with the different guests. Everything from religion to politics to Y2K. And this climatic, traumatic event? We don’t see it until 91% of the way through. Then it is just a complete dive to the end. I wasn’t even able to really process what was happening since it was not at all what I was expecting. Prior to the “event” there are hints and potential moments of foreshadowing where we think that a particular character may be slightly more crazy than we currently think with the potential to create a more catastrophe event. I was really hoping it would have been a more in your face., or at least something we are able to read “live.”

And then, it just ends. I wish there was a little bit more about what happened after. Where does Steve land after all this? He’s telling the story as if talking to a therapist or writing a journal, but then it just ends. And what exactly does that one character think Steve did? I mean I can assume, but it’s a little unclear. It could have been a few different things.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I thought the book was interesting in a I-really-don’t-like-these- characters-but-I-really-need-to-know-if-they-are-really-this-petty-and-crazy kinda way. Because, I honestly didn’t like the characters. The only characters that I ended up liking in any semblance of the word were Joanna and F. Jake. They actually came across as the most mentally stable of them all.

Overall, it was a quick read full of dialogue that highlighted the jealousy and tension - more on Steve and Lauren’s part. It’s definitely not a typical book that I would have read, so I appreciate the opportunity to read something that I may not have normally done on my own.

This truly is a story about how jealousy and mistrust corrupts. Envy rears its ugly green head, and often it’s those that are, in this class, less guilty that come up with the short stick. There is some degree of honesty in these characters though. The idea that human nature sometimes pulls us into the gravitational field of people who are not good for us. That there are always going to be those people who are better than us, smarter than us, better looking than us. These four characters - Steve, John, Mary and Lauren - seem unable to get out of each other’s orbit even when it is filled with toxic gas. This is why the book is successful at engaging the reader and making them finish the book.

Where does this land on my bookshelf?

It’s on the middle shelf, but definitely on the lower end of it. While there were aspects of the book that bothered me and characters I didn’t like. I was intrigued, in a trainwreck sort of way, to how the dominos were being set. Once that first domino fell, everything collapsed, and quickly. I just struggled with the immaturity of these adults and the lack of a jaw-dropping, suspenseful “event” that everything was supposedly building to.I felt like I was holding my breath for something dramatic only to feel like the air was being let out of a balloon.

Many are Invited hits shelves on October 6.

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