Review - Many Are Invited by Dennis Cuesta
I received a free advanced copy from NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
I picked this book up because I love a good thriller to get me out of a reading slump or when I just want a quick read.
Well… in that sense, it delivered. I read it quickly. I was intrigued enough to keep reading until the end, though I had those moments of foreboding that come when you realize you’re nearing the end and you doubt there is enough time left for the story to resolve properly.
When I finished this book, I was both disappointed and annoyed. And I’ll tell you why.
Many Are Invited starts out strong. The characters are established, along with their relationships. The narrator (Steve) is unreliable, which is to be expected in a first-person thriller. He’s not a particularly likable character, but I’m also okay with that. Not every human is particularly likable either, and I think making a character unlikable can make them seem more human.
But then I also didn’t like the supporting characters. None of them.
Steve’s “best friend” John, who he doesn’t really care for, is chauvinistic and conceited. He refers to attractive blonde women as “Swedes,” which irritated me quite a bit, and he has a list of Swedes that he refers to by number. Ick.
Then there is John’s girlfriend/wife, Mary. She was probably the most sympathetic character in the story, though she is also difficult to trust and not very well developed.
And Mary’s “best friend” Lauren is beautiful, but awful in pretty much every way. There is very little interaction between Mary and Lauren, so it’s difficult to understand why they are friends. Lauren has no redeeming qualities.
There’s also a cast of minor characters that show up only when convenient, or swoop in during the climax and are suddenly much more important, or to drop references to books like The Brothers Karamazov. These people are caricatures at best.
By the time I finished the book, I felt like maybe I would have enjoyed it more if I was familiar with The Brothers Karamazov, which I have never read. I understand that the author is probably drawing parallels (as he also does with references to The Great Gatsby), but I feel like The Brothers Karamazov is not well-known enough to toss that into a book like this and expect people to just get it.
Throughout the book, there is a lot of talk about Y2K. It is relevant to Steve and John’s jobs, and since I was old enough at the turn of the century, I understand at least partially why it was important. I think that would be lost on younger readers. That said, I appreciated the twist at the end and how Y2K ended up actually being important in the story.
So, Many Are Invited has some redeeming qualities, but not enough for me to rate it higher than 1 star. There was no real closure for the characters, references that I didn’t understand, and characters that I could not like.
The only way I could possibly recommend this book is if the reader is familiar with both The Great Gatsby and The Brothers Karamazov. Then, give it a try and let me know if you like it. Many Are Invited is released today.
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