When describing what Supper Club is about - women seeking to have a positive relationship with food and their bodies, female friendships, women who want to take up space and reclaim their bodies, bodies which men have often taken advantage of. I've seen comparisons made to Fleabag: The Original Play, My Year of Rest and Relaxation, Animals and The New Me, other recent novels with (the very of the moment) "unlikeable female protagonist(s)". Of these I'd say Supper Club is probably most comparable to Animals and The New Me, but Supper Club is something else entirely.

And yet... it didn't come together for me. There was a bit too much going on, the pacing was off at times and the random descriptions of food jarred for me. Unfortunately the great premise wasn't enough to make up for the issues with the story.

Deliciously dark, this novel tells the story of Roberta, a shy, introverted girl who, upon reaching her late twenties, finds herself creating the Supper Club, alongside her extrovert friend Stevie. Supper Club is a secret society for women. Women who love to eat. Women who want more. Women who want to take up space – eating and gorging themselves at each themed night. Roberta cooks sumptuous food from the dumpsters through which they forage, stealing into buildings for each Supper Club night, tidying up after and leaving no trace. But as time goes by, Roberta finds herself craving more and more of what the members of Supper Club rebel against – the mundanity of life, the hum drum existence of a relationship, fitting in to other people’s perceptions of who you think you should want to be. Friendships are threatened, relationships hinging on how society sees you. Witty and visceral, Williams has written a novel that is frank and unapologetic.

A brilliant, often funny, often poignant novel about female friendships and empowerment. Roberta and the other women in the Supper Club shove a big middle finger up to society and the injustices they've faced, through their incredible parties, which often involve trespassing.

There is a definite nod to Heartburn with how it immerses you in the food with the brilliant recipes and meals, but takes it further with the gluttony. It also reminded me of Conversations with Friends with the dysfunctional relationships, and the way both writers brillaintly deal with the more serious topics that are often hard to read.

I loved Lara Williams' accessible and humorous writing style, and can't wait to see what she brings out next. I will be recommending this novel to all of my friends when it's out!

Supper Club is a bold and exciting and occasionally challenging book. It follows Roberta as she learns to push back and explore and accept her own identity, in partnership with a diverse group of women with one thing in common: Supper Club. Started by Roberta and her best friend Stevie, their anarchic feminist supper club is about taking up space, experiencing food, indulging and expressing themselves. Their hedonistic evenings are framed by a back drop of Roberta’s personal life, a history of controlling and abusive relationships and a fear of putting herself out there. Lara Williams writes extremely well, and I really enjoyed the way that she used detailed descriptions of food and recipes to echo what was happening in Roberta and Stevie’s lives. It is a timely and thought-provoking book, slightly uncomfortable at times - but isn’t that a good thing?

I loved this book - a glorious tale of female empowerment told through the eyes of misfit Roberta. Observant, eloquent and poignant with the supper club events and the recipes that accompany forming a backdrop throughout the book.

Supper Club is a powerful novel of female power and rage. I felt alternately enthralled and hungry. Lara Williams writes really well on female friendships, and how these women unashamedly eat and celebrate themselves away from the male gaze.

Fed up of being pushed to conform and keep quiet, Roberta and Stevie set up Supper Club; a club for women to eat and drink to excess, to gain weight if they wish to, and to behave in ways that society says they should not. Every woman at Supper Club has their own story to tell and their own reasons for wanting to join the club. From unhappy childhoods to abusive relationships, the women come together to celebrate themselves, their bodies and their desires.

Recipes are woven into the text, each one relevant to the plot, and written in such a way that you can almost taste the menu. The book has a visceral feel to it, leaving the reader feeling both hungry and sickened. There are many clever observations within this novel. Towards the end there is a particularly poignant passage about the weight that women carry around with them. In addition to this, others put more weight upon us and expect us to carry this without complaint, whilst we struggle to meet our own needs.

Frank and unapologetic, Supper Club is an exciting and refreshing read. It digs deep into the injustices women put up with and sometimes do not even notice. It considers the way women might behave in relationships, and the way relationships with men might affect our friendships with other women. Above all, it is about allowing ourselves to take up the space in the world that we need, and that is rightfully our own.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read this novel in exchange for my honest review.

This is a big and bold book. Don't come here if you're looking for Julia Child's 'My Life in France' gentle and beautiful descriptions of food, this is visceral and gritty and real. It took me back to my university days and moving to London, I think a lot of girls will connect with it on some level.

I consumed this like one of Supper Club’s banquets - in big bites with not too much time in between courses - and finished it in less than a day. It’s not only an exploration of the ideas around taking up space in a patriarchal and fatphobic world, it’s also a joyous account of female love in all its forms, with representations of maternal, familial, sisterly, lesbian, platonic, and difficult love amongst women. I’m not sure I liked any of the characters, but I definitely identified with them. On top of all of this, the novel also has little interludes of food writing that are just absolutely perfect. Basically, I loved it all, and Williams is the voice of a (my) generation. Anyone who enjoyed Treats, her 2016 short story collection, will love this too. That said, the word millennial will be tossed around a lot when this book is reviewed, and will possibly even be used as a criticism, but I think that Lara Williams speaks for us all.

I really didn't enjoy this book. I understood some of the points she was trying to make e.g. appreciating our bodies whatever the size. I thought the gorging and vomiting was disturbing and really unpleasant to read about. I feel she's missed the point she's seemingly trying to make. and I found it uncomfortably lacking in the feminism for which she's reaching..

This book is engaging, thought provoking and entertaining.
I loved how themes like friendship, feminism and body acceptance were handled and how the author is able to make you think and have fun at the same time.
A really good book that keeps you hooked till the last page.
Recommended!
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

What a rollercoaster of food heaven and love chasing. If you have ever had a secret you need to hide or a fear of loving life and needing partners in passion this is for you. It drives you forward on a food scented discovery of sensual sensations and fun, the supper club venues and menus are a cross between women only orgies of gluttony and a sneak into the back alleys of petty crime . I shall never eat beetroot risotto and thank heavens for wet wipes... { } ...and beyond.

This book is about women bending and swerving, crashing into people trying to find ways to exist in a world that wants to keep them flat, skulking and fettered.

For me, this book is about how we are changed and always changing, how we come to fully inhabit our bodies, and how the space we exist in should bend to us, not the other way around.

Glorious, important, heartbreaking and funny.

I devoured this book (pun intended). The idea of women wanting to gorge themselves and take up more space physically as a precursor to taking it up mentally and socially, is delightfully and annoyingly radical. That pressure for the feminine to be neat, contained, and, if possible, small, quiet and submissive is deliciously subverted by a rowdy supper club where women gorge themselves silly on food, drink and drugs, taking up space with their loud voices, dancing and messy eating. The physical expansion of flesh that ensues is less embarrassing because all the individuals in the group put on weight collectively and celebrate the extra flesh rather than hiding it behind modest outfits and downcast eyes.

This rebellion of gendered flesh, where women become as happy with their girth as men with beer-guts who display their torsos on a summer’s day, is what excites me as a reader. I enjoy the story of Roberta too, her friendship with the would-be artist, Stevie (note their feminised masculine names), and how this friendship affects her ongoing relationships. However, I am left feeling frustrated.

As the novel goes on, the radicalism drifts. The desire to be defined outside of patriarchal constraints diminishes as the women make space for themselves. I suppose I should see this as beautiful - as they become more comfortable in their own skin, they give themselves permission to take on new roles within the patriarchal structure - but it feels like growing old, giving up, like settling.

I can’t say that I live an especially feminist life. I’m rather pathetic in that regard. But I wanted this book to be more stridant than me. The characters use the supper club to speak out and they gain confidence personally too, but is that enough?

Supper Club is a brilliant read but what it sells is really only part of its own, safer, extended narrative. I love it for its ideas but wish it had taken them further. It has does have bite, but did it take a mouthful a little too big to chew? Out in July of this year, I look forward to seeing what others make of it. Read it and let me know what you think.

I have to admit that when I saw the author's previous work advertised on Goodreads under this title I thought, “oh dear!” and, having started the novel, feared I'd inadvertently strayed into God territory. After reading about a quarter I thought “don't judge a book by it's author”, swiftly followed by “this cannot be the same writer who produces Bible study books.” And I still don't know. I think they're two completely different women, in which case Goodreads “other books by this author” is very, very wrong! Anyone shed any light on that for me?

As a debut novel, I thought Supper Club was bold and unapologetic. The coffee shop scene features one of the best descriptions of social anxiety and PDA that I've ever heard. I found it a little confusing in the beginning because of dual timelines, and different characters speaking without clear indication, but it got better when a clear protagonist and narrator emerged. My overall takeaway is ballsy women and food - what's not to love about that? Supper Club is the best club in town!

I enjoyed this novel about Roberta and her friendships and relationships at different times in her life.

Supper Club is is a riotous and cutting book about food, taking up space, and female friendship. Supper Club is started up by Roberta and Stevie for fellow hungry women, looking for a chance to eat and drink to excess and to exist in ways and places that society doesn't want. Roberta got into cooking at university, feeling alone and looking for something to take up her time, something to feel, but now, aged twenty-nine, she finally wants to revel in sharing food together. She and Stevie gather women looking for something else, fed up of other people and men and societal expectations, looking for a way to fulfil that hunger.

This is a clever, modern novel that focuses on bodies, anger, and relationships with other people. It moves between the story of Supper Club and Roberta in the present, and the story of Roberta at university and how she was formed into the person she is. Williams mixes in with these descriptions of cooking and recipes that make the book feel fully infused with food and with the joy of it, the smells and textures and processes. It is a very visceral book, reflecting the subject matter, and will delight anyone who enjoy modern stories with satirical edge and a harsh eye on women's treatment in society.

A book that will make you hungry and disgusted at once, Supper Club is a bacchanal for the modern day and a story of female friendship and power.