The Guest Room: A Novel

by Tasha Sylva

Overview

Tess has a bad habit. She can’t stop snooping through her guests' belongings . . .

When Tess is forced to rent out her late sister’s old room to pay the bills, the urge to rummage through her guests’ belongings overtakes her every thought. Teasing herself with forbidden glimpses into the lives of strangers is a momentary thrill, but it’s the closest she’s felt to anyone since the mysterious death of her sister, Rosie.

After her newest lodger, Arran, takes the room, Tess finds his salaciously detailed diary, which chronicles his infatuation with a beautiful stranger. The diary, which appears harmless at first, slowly takes a darker, more menacing tone with each new entry. Is this a crush or an obsession?

Her compulsion to know the truth leads to Tess shadowing Arran through the streets of London, hoping to catch a glimpse of this unnamed woman. And as she continues to peruse his diary, she can’t help but notice the similarities between the woman on the pages and herself.

Tasha Sylva's thrilling debut, perfect for readers of A.J. Finn and Lucy Foley, will keep you asking, Who has truly been watching whom?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250863959
Publisher:	Holt, Henry & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	07/11/2023
Pages:	368
Sales rank:	18,987
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Tasha Sylva is an aspiring small-scale farmer, with a focus on regenerative agriculture, community and localization. She is currently based in the southwest of England, after time in London, Scotland and southern Spain. For her, the power of story is fundamental, as is the power of language. She regularly asks: how can we foster curiosity and imagination? And, importantly, human connection – to each other, soil, plants and all threads of our environment. When not writing, she can be found swimming in the sea or watching birds. The Guest Room is her debut novel.

Editorial Reviews

"A quietly eerie novel that from the first page is so deliciously unsettling that you can't help but read more. I loved it."
—Flora Collins, author of Nanny Dearest

"Lush with description, suspicious characters, and sharp twists, The Guest Room is an atmospheric thriller with a chilling soul. In Tess, Sylva has created a wounded yet tenacious narrator who will keep readers on the edge of their seats. Fans of The Girl on the Train will devour this one!
—L. Alison Heller, author of The Neighbor's Secret

"Tasha Sylva has crafted an absorbing thriller, in which a woman wrestling with her own grief can't tell which of the people in her orbit presents the most menace. It is a dizzying tale of obsession, where nothing—and no one—is exactly as it seems."
—Clémence Michallon, author of The Quiet Tenant

"A gripping mystery surrounding a dead sister that feels at once so unreachable, and yet so unbearably close. Beautifully written, taut, and smart, The Guest Room will have you asking how well you really know those closest to you..."
—L.V. Matthews, author of The Twins

From the Publisher

2023-04-12
Grief complicates everything for the protagonist of this psychological thriller.

Tess, still wracked with grief over the recent unsolved murder of her sister, Rosie, moves into Rosie’s apartment and starts renting her sister's old room for short-term stays when she realizes she’ll need help paying the mortgage. As Tess becomes more isolated from the people and activities of her old life, she develops an increasing compulsion to snoop through her guests’ possessions. The arrival of Arran, an enigmatic (and nice-looking) longer-term boarder, adds fuel to the already raging fire of Tess’ jumbled emotions and thoughts about Rosie’s death. Stymied in her efforts to find out who killed Rosie and why, Tess continues her risky nighttime solo forays into parks in order to root out predators as well as her closer-to-home explorations of duffel bags and backpacks in the guest room. Tess’ discovery of Arran’s diary—which contains entries that might signal an obsession with Tess herself—leads her to follow Arran (and others) all over London in a series of surveillance missions driven more by passion than reason. Tess’ desperation to achieve some sort of understanding of the circumstances of Rosie’s death drives her to suspect more than one character (while failing to consider some others). Sylva skillfully illustrates an unmoored character completely consumed by a spiraling, unrelenting grief in a setting where others continue their lives as usual. Moody and proceeding at a measured pace, Tess’ narrative slowly unfolds toward a cinematic resolution. Interspersed with passages from Arran’s diary entries as well as anonymous text of a more ominous nature, Tess’ story elucidates the fog of grief as well as the tendency of the human heart to see what it wants to see.

A slow burn of a psychological thriller wrapped up in mysterious ambiguity.

Kirkus Reviews