think it took about one page to know I would entirely relate to Sloane. Not only do I love her name but as a mother of a 1 year old it felt like she was me.

Now I didn’t fully know what I was going into with this book and omg it was absolutely ridiculous in all the best ways. Nina is who I want to be and Sloane is who I am but like obviously minus a few bits.

Having not read many sorority based books I found that aspect fun but to be honest the relationship between Alex and Sloane was my favourite thing. We are all just out her searching for our mom friends who understand us.

Such an interesting read. There were so many lines that hit home about a woman's place in the world and the expectations of what we must be. I think I would've liked a more active look at the lives led by these women (as much of the action is reflective, coming through conversations) but overall, I found it to be an intriguing examination of womanhood and societal expectations.

Olivie Blake the woman that you are!! This is one of my favorites ever from her-i was completely totally hooked from the beginning. An observational, smart horror/thriller (the gore is minimal) i had such a fun time despite feeling a low level anxiety that permeated each chapter with insidious female rage. Also not for nothing, as the mother of two young children Blake’s observations on the inequality of parenting EVEN in a “liberal” household rang extremely true and cut to the quick, in my personal experience.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for my copy of this e-arc!

Olivie Blake strikes again. Wow. I loved this. A solid 4.5 stars. Everything she writes I adore.

The conversation of the book is astounding, the way she puts sentences together is chefs kiss and it really is showing how multi-faceted women are. I really like the 2 POVs and how they work in sync with one another. Yeah some of the descriptions are a bit weird and out there but I feel it’s more to do with a commentary on society than her being overly weird.

I think the whole cannibalism part is weird and wacky but she always has something like this in her books that’s different and it fits in really well with the details of the book. It’s what draws you in with her research.

The ending is somewhat ambiguous which I enjoyed. The book in itself was never going to give a well rounded answer or ending due to the topics in it. You come away with a feeling of wow, I enjoyed that and I could read more because of the type of book it is.

I have such high praise for Olivie Blake and will continuously read everything she puts out!

Firstly, there is no doubt Olivie can write, and I mean WRITE. I’m fascinated by her brain, each book is wildly different, incredibly thought provoking and so unlike anyone else. Not all of them hit the mark with every reader and with Girl Dinner, as with each one I’ve read, you really just have to suspend what you think you’re getting and go with it.
I went in to the arc blind so benefitted from the real time unraveling of the plot and the gruesome secrets behind The House, which I think added to the experience.
I preferred Nina’s storyline to Sloane’s. Mum guilt, particularly repetitive self doubt and parenthood struggles really isn’t my bag, though I can see how mothers might relate.
I enjoyed the way the storylines came together, this was creepy and alarming with a nice little twist at the end. I’m almost scared to wonder what Olivie will come up with next 😆

Thank you for the eARC!

This book was so unhinged, funny, slightly dark in some places, I LOVED IT!! My gosh, it was the funniest thing I have read, I was laughing from page 2, just so unhinged and it was just the definition of girlhood at certain points. 4.5/5 stars.

I had not read anything like this - it’s told from two women’s perspectives and a very successful soreity house and what they do to achieve success
I really enjoyed it

Girl dinner
⭐️⭐️.75

Over the years I've read several Olivie Blake books and even tho, they are not always a hit for me, one thing I know about this author is that she can write, and there's something intriguing for me cause on top of that she moves around several topics, genres and styles, so it's kinda unpredictable to tell what it she gonna come up next.

Girl dinner inmediatly caught my eye, the cover is gorgeous and the premise sounded promising, I'm a big fan of plots with cults, drama and friendships, dark academia style, however this book ended up delivering less than I expected.

I get that it was a satire on womanhood, the new of wave of a feminism often marked by social media and privilege but I was expecting more depth and not so much feeling like I'm reading a trend for booktok. It kinda gave me the same feeling I had while reading Yellowface by R.F. Kuang: good on paper and I know it will find it's place on the corners of booktok but personally, I was left starving (pun intended).

The characters were very interesting but at the same time, their thoughts were a little overwhelming and too niche for me. For example, the POV of Sloane had me so lost at times, I mean, I don't expect to relate to every single character I read but damn, there was so much fuss about baby fart and stuff like that, that I didn't knew if I were supose to be just laughing or if I was missing some deeper message underneath 😅, but again, I'm sure mothers reading this will probably have a different experience than me, founding it even cathartic.

Lastly, I would have wished for the setting to be more explored, I was told about The House but I wanted to live it, yet again, maybe this wasn't also the point of the book.

Overall, this wasn't for me but I recognize the appeal it's going to have and I'm still looking forward to read anything else Olivie writes.

Girl Dinner is a satire about sorority sisters and motherhood, the plot here is very vague and doesn’t even starts until way over the half point of the book. I would say this is a negative but it was definitely different from what I’ve expected. The writing was very dense and heavy on the eyes, long sentences and continues ramblings, but it was also funny so that was what kept me going. Reading merely 30% I felt like I was reading this book for weeks, but something kept me interested and I didn’t consider even for a moment to DNF it. Unfortunately the ending was a big disappointment for me, but keeping up with the satire and the humor and the ridiculousness of it all, it’s hard to be mad at it.
Here we have a split narrative and two main characters – Nina, a wannabe sorority girl and Sloane an intelligent and driver mother, who actually love her daughter and is a great mom. This is a fresh take on the motherhood, as we are used to reading about mothers with postpartum depression, rejecting the child. The other parts of her life are quite cliché, even the husband. Nina on the other hand is a fresh young girl seeking security and fellowship in The House. From the beginning it’s clear that there is something sinister about The House, but I cannot justify this being a horror just because there is an idea about a horrific practices. We get nothing much on page, besides some good creepy scenes and only implications. I feel like if this was more of a dark setting with more pronounced horror elements; it could give more of an impact.
Our main characters cross path pretty later on and we get their connection through other characters. For me Sloane’s narrative was more endearing and relatable. With Nina there are more of an unexperienced girlhood traumas and secrets and the desire to belong, which was also interesting, but I’ve read so many similar characters, so I wasn’t impressed with her arc. There is a bit of a smut, which I enjoyed very much. It’s not my thing in books, but here it was done well.
Overall, the premise is interesting, but how we got to the ending and why, were a miss for me. It’s too much suspension of disbelieve and I don’t like that in books even when they are a satire. But I actually enjoyed it. This is my second book by the author; I tried to read Alone with you in the ether years ago, but dnf-ed it, because of the writing. Here the writing is also not my favorite part, but the story kept me going. I know this is a well-loved author and if you’re a fan, you should absolutely read this. Actually I would recommend it either way. 3.5 stars
Thank you to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan | Mantle for providing me with the ARC.

Sloane is returning to work as a professor after caring for her newborn daughter for 18 months, during which time her husband got on the tenure track at the same university. Sloane is struggling with leaving her daughter to be a working mother, as well as what it means to raise a daughter in this world.

Nina is a sophomore pledging The House - a sorority with mysterious rituals and questionable motives. She is still naive about the world and what it means to be a women, but The House just wants everyone to eat well….

This was not something I would usually gravitate towards but I really enjoyed it!
It’s sort of Barbie Movie, meets college, meets creepy (so I was totally unsurprised to read that the Barbie Movie inspired some of this book in the acknowledgments). This is a commentary about womanhood conveyed in quite a unique way, what till potentially reach audiences would otherwise wouldn’t have chosen this book.

From the start I was on edge. While I didn’t think the twist was that surprising, not knowing how it all comes together kept my heart pounding until the end.
I really just need more people to read this book so we can talk about the ending!

Sisterhood, relationships, and power battles are just some of the topics this book covers. Let's face it, this is the story of today's society living as a woman.

As Sloane and Nina uncover the rituals of The House, one as part of the sisterhood and the other as their advisor, the tensions sure do rise. Just how far will either of these women go to achieve.?

When reading, it was easy to picture this story as a limited edition series on Netflix or something. I'd definitely give it a watch.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with a digital ARC

This book follows Sloane, a new mother in her journey back into the working world and Nina a college student who’s just been accepted into a sketchy sorority.

The vibes as always were immaculate. I just adore the way Blake tells stories and her writing style is always on point.

Even though the twist was very easy to spot, I love a bit of satire in a book and this was pretty much a whole satire on how society treats women which was right up my street.

This offering combines undertones of Mean Girls with a Stepford Wives element of perfection that seems too good to be true. The House is a sorority that combines enviably attractive people with a cachet that makes everyone long to be part of it.

Seeking a do over after a challenging freshman year, Nina is one of those yearning to have a shot at becoming one of the House girls. Ditto Sloane, whose early days of motherhood are leaving her feeling less than well put together. But both women may be entering waters deeper than they expect...

An interesting look at the darker side of the female college (and life) experience, with its pleasures and pressures, this one will particularly appeal to those who enjoy dark academia, and gets 3.5 stars.

Girl Dinner is a new standalone from Olivie Blake. The story follows Sloane who is a professor and has spent the last eighteen months with her newborn daughter. Sloane worries about her daughter and her husband doesn’t pay enough attention to her or his daughter. The story also follows Nina Kaur who is a sophomore who joins The House. The house will ease her years of failure and make her a success. Nina and Sloane will both be drawn into the sisterhood but will have to decide if they can stomach the cost.

Wow. I really enjoyed this and I can see this being super popular. It’s a sad girl novel in disguise and I loved it. The girlies who love weird fiction will really love this. The writing was accessible and I found it easy to get into the story. I enjoyed reading from both Sloane and Nina’s perspective. I particularly appreciated Sloane and how much she had to deal with. This had some absurd moments which just made me laugh out loud with shock. I loved the twists in this and thought it was perfect. This had so much to say about womanhood and motherhood. Sloane worries she’s not good enough for daughter and whilst I don’t have children I’m sure many women will be able to relate to that. It’s clear from reading the author’s note that Olivie Blake put the love she has for her son into Sloane’s love for Isla. That was really beautiful. This was so good and I can’t stop thinking about it. I hope Olivie Blake writes more stories like this. I loved it and will be recommending this to everyone I know.

as an academic, sloane's pov from girl dinner resonated so heavily as a woman in academia trying to get a tenure track position. with spousal hires, the system is so stacked against women. do universities actually want to hire female academics or are they just appeasing their partners by offering adjunct positions and then cutting their position later on? besides the excellent commentary politics in academia, i loved blake's commentary on feminism as it exists in the current age as well (for ex. the discussion of tradwives and social media). the two perspectives in sloane as well as nina, a university student who joins a sorority that sloane happens to become the faculty advisor for make the commentary more well rounded although sloane is a bit more developed. i will definitely have to read this one again as this is probably the most rewarding of blake's books since many loose ends are not tied up and are open to interpretation. preorder this one for october!!!

A huge thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to read an advance copy of this book!

“𝙒𝙝𝙚𝙣 𝙬𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙣 𝙝𝙚𝙡𝙥 𝙬𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙣, 𝙬𝙚 𝙖𝙡𝙡 𝙬𝙞𝙣.”

Girl Dinner is a satirical and gritty feminist take on sorority sisters, motherhood, and what it means to be a woman. Think 𝘼𝙢𝙚𝙧𝙞𝙘𝙖 𝙁𝙚𝙧𝙧𝙚𝙧𝙖’𝙨 𝘽𝙖𝙧𝙗𝙞𝙚 𝙢𝙤𝙫𝙞𝙚 𝙢𝙤𝙣𝙤𝙡𝙤𝙜𝙪𝙚 𝙭 𝙁𝙤𝙡𝙠𝙡𝙤𝙧𝙚 𝙗𝙮 𝙏𝙖𝙮𝙡𝙤𝙧 𝙎𝙬𝙞𝙛𝙩.

Switching between two perspectives and two different campus experiences, we meet: Nina, a student and sorority pledge, and Sloane, a professor at Nina’s university just returning to work following the birth of her daughter 18 months ago. Both POVs are interconnected in an interesting way — I enjoyed the fact that these two women are at very different stages in life, yet their on-campus experiences overlap in the way that they do.

This lent much more into satire than the horror/thriller element and I don’t think the book really found its feet until past the halfway point, however I really enjoyed this book the entire way through and then Blake delivered an ending that hit me like a freight train — gruesome and wholly unexpected!

Well,

This book was objectively terrifying and awfully disheartening. Why you may ask? Because Olivie Blake is asking questions we all are and the answers she's come up with are less than savoury. Because there is one hard truth that living in 2025 has taught me- the world hates women and in the midst of states losing abortion rights and the rise of the 'trad wife' narrative, there is literally nothing I can do to fix it. Girl Dinner feels like a collective scream into the void.

At its core Girl Dinner is satire, and perhaps I read it a little too literally- but the concept of it all the sorority, the cannibalism didn't really feel that far fetched.

Blake's story follow two women and I definitely felt myself more in tune with Sloane's point of view (the new mother, trying to balance work and career) as opposed to Nina our university student. Perhaps it's age, but watching Sloane beat herself up constantly over motherhood and being a wife and having a job and trying to attain the elusive "she does everything" title. Well it felt pretty familiar, because didn't most of us grow up watching our mothers agonizing over this? Food for thought.

I think I could sit here for hours speculating on my thoughts and feelings about Girl Dinner and how although the idea of cannibalistic sorority girls feels crazy, it feels like a very fitting metaphor. While I did laugh a few times, Blake was absolutely RUTHLESS with her comparison. It was absolutely insane, but I felt it so deep into my being that I will be talking about it for the rest of forever.

If you read Yellowface, I really feel like you will enjoy this book. It's so satisfying to read. I promise you will finish and finally be full.