The Guest List

Reading Check and Short Answer questions on key points are designed for guided reading assignments, in-class review, formative assessment, quizzes, and more.

CHAPTERS 1-21

Reading Check

1. What is the nickname for the island off the coast of Ireland?

2. Who is Aoife?

3. What is Will’s TV show called?

4. Where does Hannah find Olivia?

5. What does Hannah see in the window?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What has happened at the start of the novel?

2. Why are people nervous about the island?

3. Why isn’t Hannah excited about going to the wedding?

4. Why does Johnno not say that he is working at an outdoor adventure camp?

5. What happened to Charlie at the bachelor weekend?

Paired Resource

“Lucy Foley on The Guest List”

• In this promotional video for The Guest List, Foley introduces the plot and discusses what inspired her to write it.
• How was Foley able to build on her initial idea for the novel, and where do you see this in action?

“Mystery Elements”

• This guide to the elements of a mystery comes from South Portland Middle School’s Library.
• Shared themes include The Power of Deceptive Appearances.
• How does this resource guide—made for middle school students—help us to understand the novel? What classic elements of the mystery genre do you see at play?

CHAPTERS 22-42

Reading Check

1. Who is watching Hannah’s children?

2. What does Julie wear on her head for the wedding?

3. Who is Ronan?

4. Who wrote the note telling Jules not to marry Will?

5. What game does Johnno play with Will the night of Will’s wedding?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Why does Hannah go on a walk?

2. In what way does Olivia remind Hannah of Alice?

3. What does Johnno learn from Piers?

4. Why is Johnno mad when Will emerges from the water with Olivia when it appears she is drowning?

5. Why did Jules opt to get married at the Folly?

Paired Resource

“No Body, No Crime”

• This is the lyric video for a song by Taylor Swift discussing murder.
• This connects to the theme of The Power of Deceptive Appearances.
• How does Swift’s song build tension? How does this compare to how Foley builds tension?

CHAPTERS 43-73

Reading Check

1. Who stays behind with Will in the cave?

2. What does Jules break?

3. Who is dead?

4. What was Freddy’s connection to Darcey?

5. What was the murder weapon?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What does Hannah swear not to do after learning the Charlie and Jules slept together?

2. Why did Will want Darcey gone?

3. Why did Aoife kill Will?

4. Why does Johnno feel a degree of peace over being blamed for Darcey’s death?

5. Where does the novel leave Jules’s relationship with Olivia?

Paired Resource

“Inarticulate Grief”

• This is a poem by Richard Aldington about grief.
• Shared topics include grief over loved ones and storms.
• How does this poem speak to the relationship between the storm at the Folly and Aoife’s feelings about the loss of her brother?

Recommended Next Reads 

The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley

• This is a mystery novel about a young woman whose brother has gone missing.
• Shared theme connections include The Power of Deceptive Appearances and The Importance of Family.
• Shared structures include shifting perspectives between characters.
• The Paris Apartment on SuperSummary

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

• This is a mystery novel in which a woman becomes involved in a missing person’s case filled with secrets.
• This shares the theme of Haunting as Manifestations of the Past.
• Shared structures include shifting perspectives between characters.
• The Girl on the Train on SuperSummary