The Guest List

The island is the primary setting of the novel and thus, also a significant symbol within the text. Jules describes the hotel on the Folly as “a beautifully restored fifteenth-century building, treading the line between luxury and timelessness, grandeur and comfort” (21). The Folly straddles the boundary between past and future and thus becomes an oddly liminal space, caught between the natural and the supernatural. The numerous myths about ghosts and long-lost religious zealots creates a heavy setting from the onset of the novel. Everything on the island appears to add to the dangerous environment. Its strong waves and tides almost drown Olivia, its countless bogs almost swallow Hannah into the depths of the earth, and its high cliffs almost become the site of yet another murder.

The natural elements of the island, combined with its many supernatural myths, intertwine to create a tense setting that leaves the reader constantly guessing. With so many threats on this island, not to mention the impending storm on the night of the wedding, Foley provides the reader with enough red herrings to fuel countless theories and guesses as to what might happen next.