Have you read The Guilt Trip and need a run-down of the plot? Want to talk about spoilers? Need The Guilt Trip ending explained? Check out my Spoiler Discussion for the Guilt Trip by Sandie Jones.
Here’s the plan for my Spoiler Discussion for the Guilt Trip.
First I’ll do a quick run-down of the characters (as they all have a bunch of connections) and the plot. After that let’s talk spoilers and about that ending!
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Spoiler Discussion for The Guilt Trip: Main characters
The Guilt Trip by Sandie Jones. Published on August 3, 2021 by Minotaur Books.
Rachel: in her early 40s, she’s been married to Jack since her 20s and they are the parents of a college-aged son. Rachel and her college friend Noah had been planning a gap year trip after graduation, but Rachel bailed on him since she’d just met Jack. Soon after that, she got pregnant, married Jack, and postponed her dreams of being a teacher
Jack: Rachel’s husband and Will’s brother. He works at a record company.
Paige: Rachel’s best friend. Married to Noah, a friend of Rachel’s from college. A lawyer (barrister?)
Noah: Rachel’s close friend since college.
Will: Jack’s younger brother. Plays golf with Noah. Runs a water sports company.
Ali: Will’s fiance. Used to work with Jack but changed jobs.
Plot Summary for The Guilt Trip
DAY ONE:
Rachel and her husband Jack are headed to the destination wedding of Jack’s younger brother to Ali, a woman Jack used to work with. Their friends Paige and Noah are invited as well. The six of them are staying at a beautiful beachfront villa in Portugal.
Rachel notices that Ali seems to be annoying Jack recently, and Jack tells Noah, Paige and Rachel that he doesn’t trust Ali. He thinks Ali cheated on Will with a guy at work. Rachel thinks that Jack should have told his brother, but he disagrees.
DAY TWO:
Paige, Will, Rachel and Noah go to the supermarket. On that trip, Paige mentions that she was hesitant to marry Noah because she thought he might be in love with Rachel.
When they get back from the store, Rachel is convinced that Ali has been with Jack in their room. She finds a rhinestone on their floor that she is sure fell off Ali’s dress.
The men go surfing. As Rachel watches Noah surf, she remembers that she and Noah slept together the night before Noah left for the gap year trip they’d planned. Rachel decided to stay behind with Jack, who she’d just met.
The guys get caught in a big wave and Noah has to be dragged out of the water.
Paige confesses to Rachel that her marriage to Noah has been a little lackluster lately. She asks Rachel what she’d do if she found out Jack was cheating on her, and Rachel says she could not forgive him.
Paige asks Rachel if she think Ali is flirting with Jack.
As they are getting ready for the rehearsal dinner, Jack tells Rachel that her reaction to Noah’s accident got him suspicious about Rachel’s feeling for Noah.
Jack suggests that Noah is still in love with Rachel. Noah suggests that Jack had something to do with his accident.
At the rehearsal dinner, Noah and Rachel are talking to a guest who asks to see a photo of Rachel’s son. When Rachel shows her, the woman says Rachel and Jack’s son Josh looks just like Noah. Noah storms off and Rachel goes after him.
Noah asks Rachel if Josh could be his child. Rachel tells him the dates don’t add up, though she’s clearly not really sure. Rachel says they made their choices and have to move on, but Noah says he loves her.
Rachel sees Ali watching her and Noah talk and worries that Ali overheard what they were saying.
Paige corners Rachel and says that she overhead Ali talking to someone about Rachel, asking them “does his wife know?” Paige says she and Jack were dancing and Ali came up and whispered something to him.
DAY THREE:
Noah apologizes to Rachel for his outburst the night before. Rachel tells Noah she’s afraid Ali heard them talking.Rachel goes to Ali and Will’s room to look for her. The room is empty so Rachel looks through Ali’s drawers and finds Jack’s watch.
Rachel finds Noah on the terrace. He’s got binoculars and shows her Paige talking to Ali on the beach. This makes Rachel extremely nervous that Ali heard Rachel and Noah talking about their fling twenty years ago.
Later, Rachel asks Paige what she and Ali were talking about earlier that morning. Paige denies talking to Ali, then claims that she confronted Ali about what she was up to.
Rachel wants to talk to Ali but Paige discourages her.
Rachel and Jack are getting dressed for the wedding and he can’t find his watch. Rachel doesn’t tell him that she saw it in Ali’s room but offers to go look for it.
Jack leaves and she decides to look at the receipts in his wallet. She finds one for a silver heart from Tiffany & Co.
Ali texts Rachel for help with her dress and also asks Rachel to help her put on her silver Tiffany heart necklace.
The group heads to the wedding, at a remote cliffside restaurant located on a steep road.
After the service, Rachel meets an old friend of Ali’s. The friend talks about Ali’s mom’s accident, a car crash that left Ali’s mom in a wheelchair. The friend also reveals that Ali was once morbidly obese. Paige convinces the friend to show them old photos of Ali.
The wedding breakfast is on the terrace. During the toasts, Rachel runs to the restrooms. She’s upset that she didn’t stop the wedding, didn’t confront Jack and Ali. Paige follows her and tells her to just get through the rest of the wedding.
After the toasts, Jack heads out to smoke with Paige. Noah comes over and tells Rachel he wants Josh to take a paternity test. He says he if he is Josh’s father, he wouldn’t tell Josh or Paige, but he needs to know.
Ali leaves the restaurant, Jack follows her. Rachel goes after them. She finds them in a cave on the beach, arguing. Jack is threatening Ali.
Ali sees Rachel and tells Jack to confess to her, or she’ll do it for him.
Ali leaves and Jack says he kissed Ali one night when drunk and ever since that, she’s been stalking him. He got her fired by finding a fake job on her resume.Rachel asks Jack why he didn’t try to dissuade Will from marrying her, and he says he tried.
They return to the restaurant, where Rachel goes back to the ladies room. Ali and her friend are there. Ali apologizes to Rachel and it’s soon obvious that Jack didn’t tell Rachel the truth. Jack isn’t cheating with Ali. He’s cheating with Paige. Rachel accuses Ali of lying.
Rachel heads back out to the wedding and grabs the mike. She tells the group that Ali’s not who she seems. Jack grabs the mike away and Rachel tells Paige and Jack that Ali says they’re having an affair.
Rachel begins to believe that Ali is telling the truth. She and Noah start comparing notes. She notices Paige has a Tiffany heart bracelet.
Rachel talks to Ali who says she’s known about Paige and Jack for over a year and has been trying to get Jack to come clean. Ali found Jack’s watch after he and Paige had a liaison on the roof of the villa.
When Rachel and Ali join the group on the terrace to watch fireworks, they find out that someone shared the photo of fat Ali with the entire wedding.
Rachel suspects Paige and reflects the only reason she ended up with Jack because she was pregnant. Suddenly she sees a blinding light. It’s a car, coming right at Rachel and Ali at high speed. The car hits Rachel.
When she’s able to get up, Rachel sees that Jack is injured. Noah is all right. Ali is unconscious. Paige is missing.
In the Hospital After the Accident
Rachel wakes up in the hospital. The police want to know who she was with right before the accident. She says she was with Ali. That she didn’t know where Paige and Jack and Noah were, but she thinks Paige and Jack were outside.
Noah comes back and says Paige is dead. The police say her body was found in the car.
Rachel worries that Paige might have heard Rachel and Ali discussing the fact that Noah could be Rachel and Jack’s son’s father.
Rachel tells the police that Paige and Jack were having an affair. The police say that someone else may have been in the car with Paige.
Rachel drifts off and wakes up to hear Jack telling the police that he was going to leave Rachel for Paige. He claims he was on the terrace and hit by the car.
Jack suggests Ali was in the car, and that she was jealous because he slept with her before Paige. Jack lies to the police, saying that Rachel was furious and violent after she found out about the affairs.
The police tell Jack they found his watch in the car.
Spoiler Discussion for The Guilt Trip: What Was the Ending?
Months after the wedding
Rachel is attending a service for Ali.
Ali’s mom tearfully tells Rachel that Ali thought exposing the affair was the right thing to do.
Ali’s mom Maria fills in what happened at the wedding. Maria overheard Paige tell Jack that they were finished. Jack was furious, saying if he couldn’t have Paige, no one could.
Everyone assumes Paige and Jack both got in the car and he was the one who drove into the crowd.
Surprise: the service is not a funeral, but Ali’s re-do of her wedding to Will.
Ali suffered a brain injury in the accident but is doing well.
Rachel has started her teacher training.
Rachel tells Ali that Jack IS their son’s biological father (I think she’s lying.) We also learn that Ali (and perhaps her mom) testified against Jack, who was convicted of manslaughter.
Ali’s mom says that the fact that Jack’s watch was found in the car also helped get him convicted.
The Guilt Trip: Epilogue and Last Minute Plot Twist
The person narrating the epilogue says that before the accident, they saw Rachel put Jack’s watch into Paige’s bag. We will get to that below:
Spoiler Discussion for The Guilt Trip
What did you think of this one? I thought the twists and turns were fun, and that the misdirection about Jack’s affair being with Paige, not Ali, worked well.
But there was SO MUCH dialogue. That got a little tedious for me.
My questions about The Guilt Trip:
Who do you think the narrator of the epilogue in The Guilt Trip was?
My initial guess was Ali. That’s because I think the narrator refers to the conversation between Ali, Maria, and Rachel.
The narrator says “I wanted Rachel to tell me what I already knew. But just as she was about to, I realized it wasn’t important.” That “just as she was about to” had to refer to the conversation at the second wedding, where Ali says there is no other way Jack’s watch got into the car.
Also in that conversation, Ali looks at Rachel “so intently that it feels as if she can see straight through her. Perhaps she can.”
To me, that means Ali knew what Rachel was about to tell her and stops her. Because she knows that Rachel put the watch in the bag and is telling Rachel that it doesn’t matter anymore.
However, Meredith in comments suggests Noah as a possible narrator and I like that idea!
The arguments for Noah are 1) Noah and Rachel are closer and he would be more likely to expect Rachel to tell him the truth and 2) the narrator says “knowing Rachel as I know her” and Noah knows Rachel much better than Ali does.
I’m still going with Ali, but I think Meredith’s Noah guess is a good one. What do you think?
Who drove the car into the wedding party?
Thanks to Laurel-Manette for her excellent question in comments. Here is my answer (from the comments):
What we do know: The car ended up in the water. Paige’s body is found in the car (the police don’t say if she was in the driver’s seat or the passenger seat).
After the accident Rachel finds Jack lying on the terrace. The police say that Jack’s watch was in footwell of the car (presumably it fell out of Paige’s bag during the crash.)
No one seems to have seen the driver, and Paige is dead, so we can’t hear her side of the story.
Possibility #1: Paige was driving the car, either alone or with Jack in the car.
In this scenario, Paige overheard Rachel and Noah talking about how Noah could be Rachel’s son’s father and flew into a rage.
As Rachel says earlier about Paige, if someone is capable of sleeping with their best friend’s husband, they are capable of anything. In this scenario, Jack gets blamed because Rachel put his watch in Paige’s handbag as a way of saying “I know you are sleeping with my husband.” BUT was Jack in the car with Paige?
Paige could have told Jack what she’d overheard. Jack would have also been extremely upset and, in their hurry to leave the wedding together, maybe Paige (accidentally or on purpose) drove into the wedding party.
Possibility #2: Jack was the one who was driving, with Paige in the car.
Maybe Jack was the one who overheard the conversation between Rachel and Noah and was shocked and hurt to realize he might not be his son’s biological father.
So maybe, in a rage, he told Paige he wanted to leave and then (accidentally or on purpose) drove into the group. BUT: he was found on the terrace after the accident, not in the car.
When he’s questioned by the police, Jack suggests that maybe Ali was driving and jumped out of the car, which is an absurd theory.
But maybe Jack got the idea because that is what Jack did himself. When Rachel reaches Jack after the crash, he does seem badly hurt.
Could he have managed to jump out of the car before it flew into the water? I feel that’s sort of doubtful. At the end, Ali’s mom suggests to Rachel that Jack was driving, with Paige in the car.
BUT if Paige’s body had been found in the passenger seat, wouldn’t the police say that?
While I think Jack had a stronger motive to drive the car into the wedding party, I still think the evidence seems to suggest that Paige was driving the car alone, but I am curious to hear other people’s theories!
How did Jack get framed by his wife (and Ali) for causing Paige’s death?
The book suggests that Rachel put Jack’s watch in Paige’s bag as a way of telling Paige that she knew she slept with Rachel’s husband Jack.
Then when the police found Jack’s watch in the car, they assumed Jack was in the car with Paige. I’m assuming that Jack denied being in the car and claimed he was being framed, but Ali testified that Jack was a known liar, which got him convicted.
Other Questions:
Where does Paige (or Jack) get the car to drive onto the terrace? Noah, Rachel and Paige take a cab to the wedding. (Jack goes earlier with the bridal party.)
When Rachel is upset at the wedding, Paige offers to call her a taxi. Also if you were going to impulsively steal a car and run down someone with it, would your first thought be to grab your purse? Why? You don’t need car keys or a driver’s license.
Maybe this suggests that Paige and Jack just intended to leave the wedding, and the crash was an accident.
I didn’t understand the timeline of the wedding day. The group get up, shower and get dressed, and head to the wedding. After the ceremony, an announcer invites everyone to the “wedding breakfast.” But when Rachel follows Ali and Jack outside to the caves, Rachel says the sun is setting.
The accident clearly happens at night, because there are fireworks and Rachel sees the car’s headlights as it bears down on her. How long is this wedding, anyway? (Someone in comments pointed out that in the UK, “wedding breakfast” is used for any wedding meal. Thanks!)
Was the book suggesting that Jack IS Josh’s biological father?
Rachel tells Ali that yes, Josh did “lose” his father. To prison? This was a little vague for me, but I think Rachel means 1) Josh lost the only father he has ever known and 2) she’s not telling Josh the truth, which is that Noah is his father.
Was Jack trying to get caught cheating? Carrying around the receipt for Paige’s bracelet seemed odd.
I hope you enjoyed my Spoiler Discussion for the Guilt Trip
What are your questions and do you have any answers to mine? Please comment and if you want to be notified of responses to your comments OR all future comments, there are options for that!
If you’re looking for similar books to read, you can try Her Dark Lies by J. T. Ellison OR The Guest List by Lucy Foley, both about murder and mayhem at a destination wedding. I have spoiler discussions for both:
Spoiler Discussion for Her Dark Lies
I think it’s Noah telling the epilogue. That he saw Rachel put the watch in Paige’s bag. And as information comes to light (the affair) he keeps quiet to keep Rachel safe.
I think the timeline of the wedding is that it’s an all day affair. They are there long enough for low tide (the beach is visible) to high tide (which swallows the beach and then some).
As far as Josh losing his father – I interpret it to mean he lost the only father he has known (to prison). I don’t think Rachel would tell him that Noah was his father – even if they found it to be true.
Ooh interesting on the Noah narration. Going to go back and look. And yes I agree that I don’t think Rachel will tell Josh
But the narrator mentions the watch inscription which Ali knew but I doubt Noah would
Ooh great point. Thanks, LiliAnn!!
I don’t think it’s Noah because in the prologue the speaker wakes up in a hospital bed and is asked if they knew the deceased which noah was the one to identify the body so the police wouldn’t ask him that and also he wasn’t injured so he wasn’t in a hospital bed.
This sounds so dumb but I just finished it and I’m confused at who was driving the car?? If it wasn’t Jack, and Rachel put his watch in the car, does that mean rachel killed Paige? Help lol!
There are no dumb questions here! Also, the book doesn’t really give a definitive answer. Who was in the car, and who was driving??
What we do know: The car ended up in the water. Paige’s body is found in the car. Rachel finds Jack lying on the terrace. Jack’s watch was in the car (and presumably Paige’s bag, since the watch was in the bag.)
Possibility 1: Paige was driving the car. She overheard Rachel and her husband Noah talking about how Noah could be Rachel’s son’s father and flew into a rage. As Rachel says earlier about her, if she’s capable of sleeping with her best friend’s husband, she’s capable of anything. In this scenario, Jack gets blamed as well because Rachel put his watch in Paige’s bag as a way of saying “I know what you did.” BUT was Jack in the car with her? She could have told him what she’d overheard and they agreed to leave the wedding and then she (accidentally or on purpose) drove into the wedding party.
Scenario #2 Jack was the one who was driving, with Paige in the car. Maybe HE was the one who overheard the conversation between Rachel and Noah and was shocked and hurt to realize he might not be his son’s biological father. So maybe, in a rage, he drove into the group. When he’s questioned by the police, he even suggests that Ali was driving and got out of the car, which is perhaps what Jack did himself. When Rachel reaches him after the crash, he does seem badly hurt. But could he really have managed to get out of the car before it went into the water? At the end, Ali’s mom suggests that Jack was driving, with Paige in the car. But not sure why she says this.
My theory is still that Paige was alone in the car, but curious to hear other people’s theories!
Thank you! Super helpful!! Thanks for taking the time to write this all out! 🙂
No problem. And thanks for making me think about the possible driver in a different way. I wouldn’t have considered Dan except for your question 🙂
It’s a small part of one of your questions, but in England, a wedding reception is usually called the wedding breakfast even if it’s lunch or dinner.
Dale, thank you! I am an Anglophile but I did not know that 🙂
There are lots of lies and half truths.
Ali is lying. Her and Jack did sleep together and when Jack finished the affair to be with Paige he made sure Ali got the sack.
Ali wants to make out that Jack is a fibber so that she can claim they didn’t sleep together in order to protect her relationship with Will. That’s why she’s happy to give evidence that puts Jack into prison. Perhaps she only went out with Will in the first place to get back at Jack, but then fell properly in love.
Rachel is happy for Jack to go to prison because he lied about his affair with Ali and with Paige and who knows who else. He may or may not have been driving the car but she’s been manipulated so much who can say. It also leaves Rachel free to be with Noah who she realised she really loved when he nearly died.
I personally think Paige drove the car in a suicide mission because she knew that Rachel knows about the affair (from the watch Rachel put in her handbag) and can’t live with herself.
Paige realised that Rachel loves Noah too because of how she was when he nearly died and maybe the suicide was also her gift to Rachel to say sorry.
Hi Sally,
Ooh, I love all your excellent observations. I agree with everything you said except maybe your theory about Paige. To me, Paige didn’t seem the slightest bit guilty about betraying her best friend.
I think it’s definitely possible that after Paige overheard Rachel say that Paige’s husband Noah could be the father of Rachel’s son, she ran off in a blind fury and accidentally crashed the car. That, or she was furious at Noah and Rachel and meant to drive the car into them. I think she always resented Rachel and Noah’s closeness and slept with Jack as revenge.
It says the only one not hurt was Noah so I’m thinking Paige ended things with Jack because she realised she loved Noah after the surfing accident then after finding out about Rachel and Noah, tried to run Rachel down out of rage. She was a very fiery person. She specifically avoided Noah because she still loved him. Jack’s comment about if I can’t have you noone can was potentially just a spur of the moment comment or something he planned to act on in the future. She didn’t live long enough though.
That makes so much sense. She decided to re-dedicate herself to Noah and then after finding out about Noah possibly being Rachel’s son’s father and Rachel having a thing for Noah, she just lost it.
The one thing that made me question if the ridiculous story of Ali jumping out of the car might have happened was the fact that Ali’s mom was in a wheelchair from a car accident. Like I want to know did Ali also cause that car accident? Is that why they kept talking about how her mom ended up in a wheelchair?
After the surfing accident, Paige has sex with Jack in the rooftop hot tub so I don’t think she suddenly realizes how much she loves Noah.
I listened to the audiobook and it is Ali’s voice in the epilogue.
Very interesting! So what is your take on what happens in the car crash and why?
One of the most poorly written books I’ve ever had the displeasure of reading. And so frigging dumb!! I skipped over so many paragraphs of idiocy! Ridiculous that it gets such high praise.
Hi Mary,
I hope you enjoy your next book more!
I just finished reading the book and I’m also a bit confused. Why didn’t the police mention whether Paige was in the driver’s or passenger’s seat.. that way she wont be a suspect if she is in the passenger’s seat (maybe I missed that part). Also could there be a chance that Noah was driving? And jumped out right before the car fell off? How could it be Ali if Ali was talking to Rachel while the incident happened. Also maybe Ali put the watch in Paige’s purse since she is the last one to have it.. I’m no investigator but the fact that Jack had facial injuries wouldn’t that suggest that there is a bigger chance that he flew out of a moving car and rolled around verses if he got hit by a car he would fall backwards? I’m reaching at this point haha! 🙂 I have too many questions but no answers!
Hi Hilda – I think a lot of us felt that way. The book ended, and then all our questions didn’t get answers! I think Paige got thrown from the car, so it couldn’t be proven where she was sitting. I’m going to have to review my notes before answering all the rest of the questions, so stay tuned!