Dinner Party starts with just that as Kate hosts her family for an anniversary dinner dedicated to the memory of her twin sister. As she sits at the table with her two brothers, Kate can’t help but think of all the tensions and things left unsaid, while her own mental health dips in and out. The story then switches between past and present as we learn bout Kate’s childhood, her sister and her adult life.

This is a very character focused novel where we get a lot of slices of Kate’s life and her interactions with the important people that shaped who she was. We also learn what it’s like for her to grow up as a twin, and despite their differences, how severe that untethering is when her twin dies in a tragic accident.

A big part of this book focuses on Kate’s eating disorder and how affected a lot of her life including college and relationships, and how in her early thirties it has resurfaced as she has fallen into a toxic relationship with a married man. I think the book personally could do with a content warning at the start to make this more clear for people as I was surprised that the book focused so heavily on an ED but thankfully wouldn’t be affected by it personally. There is also a very toxic relationship between Kate’s mother and pretty much all of her family - it’s clear her mother is a narcissist and likes to bring down her family while also drawing them close. While the end of the book did see little steps made in everyone confronting this behavior, it still wasn’t quite enough for me as I felt the mother was such an awful character and I hated how she treated her children.

Once I was past the initial first chapter which for some reason was slow for me, I read the rest of the book very quickly and easily. I think Sarah Gilmartin is able to create flawed characters going through their own trauma very well, and telling a story in a pretty addicting way but I do prefer her second novel Service over this one.

The book was alright but it really seemed to be lacking in a few different areas. It was just sort of lackluster. I needed more umph to make it really hit and I think it wasn’t anything special, nothing that really made it stand out to make me think about it later. The family dynamics were interesting but it was the same rehashed story I feel like I’ve read before.

Sarah Gilmartin’s Dinner Party is a compelling narrative that delves into the complexities of sibling relationships and the burden of family secrets. The story centers on Kate, who meticulously organizes a dinner party to mark a family anniversary. Despite her efforts, the evening spirals into turmoil as past tensions resurface, revealing the intricate dynamics within her family. The novel’s dual timeline, shifting between the 1990s and the present day, provides a rich backdrop for exploring the impact of unresolved issues and family trauma. Gilmartin's writing is both sharp and elegant, capturing the emotional weight of the characters’ experiences. However, while the prose is engaging, the plot occasionally feels slow, and the unfolding of family secrets can be somewhat predictable.

I'm afraid I found this dreary and too much of a struggle to finish. The narrative voice lacks character, the whole dysfunctional family thing is such a well-established trope that it needs something to make it feel fresh or different and this one didn't manage that. This may work better for fans of family sagas than fans of litfic - just not for me.

"The Dinner Party" revolves around Kate, who is in her mid-30s and living in Dublin. When the book opens, she decides to host a dinner party to commemorate the death of her twin sister. This event becomes a catalyst for unveiling a multitude of family secrets and past tragedies, highlighting the intricate relationships and unresolved issues within her family. While I initially found it interesting, the narrative structure threw me off with its fragmented shifts in place and time, making it difficult to piece together the story. There were other issues, as well. For this reason, I decided to DNF the book.

Had a hard time getting into this one, so DNF'd pretty early on. It wasn't a quick paced thriller like I was hoping it would be... one of those books where a whole lot doesn't happen which I don't always mind but not what I wanted in this case.

I couldn't really get on with this one, there was something about the way it was written that didn't gel with me, maybe I should've stuck with it a bit longer but it wasn't really my sort of book, although it sounded like it was from the cover.

Review: Dinner Party ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
Author: Sarah Gilmartin
Publication Date: 07 March 2023
Publisher: Pushkin Press
General Fiction (Adult) | Literary Fiction | Women's Fiction

I received this book from Sarah Gilmartin and Pushkin Press, as an advanced eArc for my honest review any opinions that come from this review are my own. Thank you to both the Author and the publisher and Netgalley for allowing me to read and review this book.

This was a nice and easy read for me. The author kept me engaged the whole time I was reading. The story itself provided real-life situations that I could relate to. I see a lot of reviews saying it was slow-paced I didn't think it was it was paced nicely for me. It was a page-turner dripping with family drama and I ate it up.

Unfortunately this wasn't for me.
A bit of a "non-novel", nothing really "happens" if you know what I mean.
The story didn’t resonate with me at all. It lacks... something

I was lucky to receive an advance copy of Dinner Party by Sarah Gilmartin from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review and opinion. I had a bit of a struggle reading this as it was a bit slow moving but I did stick with it and am glad I did. It turned out to be a really good book and I was pleased with the ending. Don't give up! It's worth the read.

I was delighted to be approved to read this book but sadly it ended up not being a book for me. I think perhaps it may be a case of right book wrong time as it seems like everything I should enjoy in a book but I just couldn't connect with it. I would try another book by this author in the future and I may well come back to this one but for now I unfortunately couldn't finish it.

A fantastic read that had me hooked all the way through, it is an absolutely gripping read. Be warned if you are going to read this book set aside a day or two because you won't be able to put it down

Sarah Gilmartin's "Dinner Party" is a family drama that starts with a disastrous reunion dinner hosted by Kate to commemorate her deceased twin sister's anniversary. Unfortunately, her mother couldn't make it. Kate's brothers and sister-in-law argue and criticize each other, causing her to feel even more fragile as her well-planned event falls apart.

Based on the title alone – Dinner Party: A Tragedy – I thought Sarah Gilmartin’s debut novel would be exactly my thing. Unfortunately it wasn’t.

To mark the anniversary of the death of her twin sister, Elaine, Kate meticulously plans a dinner party for her family. However, before dessert can be served, old tensions flare, revealing strained relationships.

The story then rewinds to Ireland in the nineties, when the family was complete – Kate’s parents, Elaine, and her two older brothers. We learn that her mother is an extremely demanding and narcissistic person, who presents one way to the world, and another way to her family.

When Kate’s father dies, and then Elaine, those remaining each deal with their grief differently.

First her father and then her sister – two deaths in one family in a matter of years. You didn’t come back from that. Hereabouts they were no longer the Gleesons, but the poor Gleesons.

Gilmartin focuses predominantly on the relationship between Kate and her mother, with Kate painfully aware that she will never meet her mother’s expectations.

Her mother resented her being alive, and resented her claim on Elaine too. A child’s mother misses them most of all. She had said that to Kate… Her mother had told her to stop monopolizing the pain.

Although the idea of ‘who owns the grief’ is interesting, it was poorly executed, with the addition of distracting subplots (an eating disorder and an ill-fated affair for Kate). As a result, the threads of the various subplots peter-out rather than being resolved in a satisfying way.

My biggest issue with this book was the superfluous detail and, once I noticed the excess, it was everywhere. Felt like I was playing whack-a-mole but with flowery sentences. For example –

…the desk was a glossy, public prison of faux botanical hell. Although her boss Anthony loved to drum the marble counter when he came out to meet clients, to Kate it was just a cold, expensive piece of rock with the ghost of a thousand fingertips. And the stains! The cappuccino froth and ink marks – and once, a baby’s vomit – that tarnished the marble so quickly, so permanently if you didn’t catch them in time, each one noted in the imaginary but extremely real report card that Anthony kept hidden behind his eyes.

and

In the centre of the table, the rice was in a ceramic bowl with a clear glass lid.

and

A blister on her heel was flapping, half-open, a glimpse of ruby.

There were dozens of other examples but essentially united by either imagery being icky (baby vomit, blisters…) or too many words (glass is usually clear… but what does it matter about the rice, anyway?).

I received my copy of Dinner Party: A Tragedy from the publisher, Pushkin Press, via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.

1.5/5

I found this story of a dysfunctional family relatively enjoyable and certainly pleasant enough to carry on with, but it really didn’t seem to amount to very much in the end. It covers some weighty themes – anorexia, the loss of a twin, controlling mothers, grief and loss – but failed to bring anything new or fresh to the subjects, no new insights. I kept feeling that maybe I’d read it before (I hadn’t, I had to check) because I’ve read such similar tropes in so many other novels. So not terrible just not very good.

A well written character-driven family saga, “The Dinner Party” is a sad story of layers of grief within Kate’s family and the life long impacts on self and relationships of childhood trauma. Family should be a place of safety and solace. Kate craves this desperately but her experiences of family in the current timeline is tinged with tensions and unspoken (and spoken) competition with family members about who is grieving the most. Kate’s grief is all encompassing to her physical and mental health. And I was compelled to read on to see how she processes it. Whilst slower in pace than I normally enjoy, there was plenty in the characters to keep the pages turning. Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the advance copy.

Brilliant stunning book and the author is just the best. I found the characters relatable and loveable and loath able too!! Thanks for sharing early

Absolutely loved this book!

Sarah you are amazing!

I was hooked throughout and couldn't put this book down.

Thank you for accepting my ARC request

This book SOUNDED so good. The synopsis pulled me in. Unfortunately, the actual story did not seem to line up with the synopsis at all. There was nothing twisty or thrilling about the book. I gave up before the halfway point, and I rarely DNF books. I felt nothing at all for the main character and found the storytelling very disjointed. I had high hopes, but this one missed the mark for me.

I’m finding writing a review for this book a bit complicated. I always love family drama stories and this one is good but it is very slow. This story is about an extremely dysfunctional family that has a lot of mental health issues which affects the family dynamics over two generations. While I appreciate the seriousness of these issues it really made it hard to keep a good pacing throughout the story. I enjoyed that the book is in current day plus back to when the adult children in the family were little. Overall this is a good book but it definitely takes a while to get to the final chapter.