I wanted to enjoy this one more than I did - I saw the comparisons to Anne Enright and got hooked. Alas it did not grab me in quite the same way. I found Kate a difficult character to warm to and a lot of her issues around food set me off slightly. Perhaps that should have made me empathise more with the protagonist but instead it rather set me against the book. I have a messy family similar to this myself - Northern Irish rather than from the Republic - and we have had our fair share of uncomfortable dinners too. This is a beautifully written novel with some fantastic character studies but it was just incredibly uncomfortable for me. I finished it feeling like I was starting a headache.

This was good psychological thriller but took a while to get into! It’s a good read when it gets going! Liked the characters too.

This is another debut author that, despite avoiding any egregious pitfalls, is more of a miss than a hit for me.

This novel follows Kate, a 30-something with no passion for her job and no family of her own. What she does have is a complicated and dysfunctional family of origin, complete with a wrecking ball of a mother and a dead twin sister, Elaine. Rounding out her character are anorexia nervosa, which is very realistically and tastefully handled, and a married ex-lover.

As the title suggests, the novel begins with a dinner party 15 years after Elaine's death, and from there the story jumps back and forth merrily though time before coming back to the present day and then past it.

Gilmartin has a deft grasp of detail and I really enjoyed the small slices of life in this book that I think will resonate with all readers. The bag for shopping bags; the shoes that are supposed to come off before entering the house; the slightly moldy smell of a dorm room. Kate's mother is also especially compelling, the kind of a woman who can and will turn on the edge of a knife, damaging herself and her family beyond recognition in the process.

What really holds this book back is the timeline. The journey back through time didn't serve the author well. The dinner party and brief lead-up to it are among the least engaging parts of the book-- had I not received an ARC it's probable that I would have put the book down and forgotten to pick it back up. It is hopeless trying to get a sense of Kate as a character in this beginning section; her brothers are equally impossible to differentiate and I kept forgetting which one was supposed to be which. We know the important information that Kate' twin is dead from the get-go, but this detracts from rather than enhances the rest of the book. I actually think the story would have been better told in a linear fashion, with the deaths and tribulations of the various characters coming as real surprises instead of things you are plugging steadily through the book trying to get to.

I also wasn't always sure exactly what the book was trying to be-- a family drama? A character study? A glimpse into how intergenerational trauma and ensuing mental illness can impact individuals, families, and society?

I would recommend this to fans of family dramas who are willing to tuck in for a slower paced read, and to those interested in getting a glimpse into Irish culture, which the book is rife with.

I will post my review to my blog and social media closer to the release date and update links then.

The titular dinner party takes place on Halloween 2018, at the Dublin flat of Kate Gleeson. It's the sixteenth anniversary of the death of Kate's twin sister, Elaine, and she has spent weeks preparing to host her two older brothers, Peter and Ray, and Ray's wife, Liz. As the evening unfolds, between the courses and the mundane exchanges about scallops and drainage systems, we begin to see hints of a strained dynamic between the siblings, underpinned by the absence of their mother, Bernadette, as well as of Elaine.

Thus begins an intriguing family saga, which follows the Gleeson family over a period of twenty years. It's an exploration of grief in its myriad incarnations, and the insidious effects it can have on those left behind.

Kate is utterly devastated by the death of her sister; she has only ever defined herself (and been defined by others) in the context of her twinship, and she fundamentally does not know who she is without Elaine. The author does an excellent job of depicting Kate as drifting aimlessly through life, making only superficial connections with friends, lovers and colleagues while she battles an eating disorder, a drinking problem and an identity crisis, as well as struggling with fraught relationships with her mother and brothers. However, because Kate spends such a large portion of the story not knowing who she is, it makes her profoundly unknowable to the reader too. I never had a sense of what Kate was like, what she might say or do in a given situation, or how she might react, which made it hard to really empathise with her or be invested in her, though perhaps this was the author's intention. 'Well, she was not that person now. But who was she? ... Who was she at all?'

The other central characters were much easier to 'know' and I particularly enjoyed the characterisation of Kate's two older brothers, Ray and Peter, who felt fully-realised and sympathetic. The different timelines worked effectively here, with each new phase of the story adding new insights and depth to their characters. Bernadette, the matriarch of the family, was a fascinating character, and I was disappointed by how the too-neat ending explained away her destructive, often volatile relationships with her four children.

The pacing is somewhat inconsistent; some parts were gripping while others were frustratingly slow and meandering. Although I enjoy a story which spans years and, as mentioned above, there were some aspects of the story which were really enhanced by this, I found the frequent leaps backwards and forwards in time, seemingly at random, confusing, and it only added to my lack of understanding of Kate as a character.

Overall though, there was a lot that I liked about this novel, and I will be interested to see what this author's next book is like.

Thank you to NetGalley and Pushkin Press for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.

A story about the dysfunctional family told over multiple timelines. I enjoyed this book and could relate to small town Ireland. I read this in a day and while it is a slow burn of a novel, I found it hard to put down and enjoyed it hugely. Looking forward to whatever comes next from Sarah.

A slow burn of a read dealing with decades of family dysfunction, trauma, and grief. Unfortunately, it was a bit too slow for me to give it a higher rating but I did enjoy how the book showed how past events and experiences resulted in missed opportunities and issues for the present day.
Thank you NetGalley and Pushkin Press for my advanced copy of this book to read.

This is another novel to add to the pile where the dinner table provides the set for a kaleidoscope of dysfunctional family, add rural Ireland, twins, a family farm and a critical, controlling mother/mammy and you can spot the derivative trope. Whilst this is a very readable novel, O'Brien, Toibin and Enright do it so much better.

The book begins and ends over a family dinner party. I found these events the best parts of the novel. The first subtly springboarding, without explanation, into the issues in this family and how they roll with each other. The ending, a year later, attempting to challenge and change the dynamic. I thought these episodes were well observed and for me, were the highlights of the novel.

The story in between was, however, for me, an overlong litany of tragedy and cliche. Bouncing back and forth in time as each sibling crashes and burns in their own way. Naturally with a fair few dinners thrown in. I found the pacing really weighted - some episodes tortuously long and others skipped over too quickly. The stop/start of the plot momentum didn't work for me.

I think this is a debut novel. I will look out for Gilmartin's work in the future but largely didn't warm to this Irish family version of the very shouty Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf.

Thank you, NetGalley for an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This book follows an Irish family in the 1990s to the present through multiple timelines.
I thought the book was just OK. I really liked Kate, and I liked the family drama and the overall story, however it just didn't grip me like other books have.
It's definitely a slow burn, which can be wonderful when done the right way.

this book was uneventful in a boring way, its characters uninteresting and I couldn’t get attached to them or even care for them.

its themes could have been interesting to me but as a whole, the book wasn’t.

I was quite enjoying this but there were so many errors in the document, mainly missing letters, especially ‘ff’. This made it annoying to read. I will have to wait for a proper copy.

This was a heart-wrenching story that explores loss and family dynamics and the ripples they can create across a person's life. It follows a classic Irish family who would rather bury their sadness than be open and vulnerable. This novel incorporates a delicate blend of sadness and humor that kept me engaged throughout. The story is not fast-paced, but rather relies on complex characters and the intricacies of their relationships to drive it forward. I found this to be a very touching read though slow at points. I look forward to reading what Sarah Gilmartin has next!

I was gifted this copy by Pushkin Press and NetGalley and was under no obligation to provide a review.

A very intense family drama about an Irish family spending a Halloween dinner together. Our main focus is Kate who struggles to find her place in the family. There are multiple timelines in the story giving us a more deeper understanding about family dynamics. A strong character driven novel.
I found the pacing very slow at times but enjoyed the interesting stories of a family from another culture. A solid 3 star read for me!

This book is beautiful in its sorrow and heartbreak as we feel for a dysfunctional family that has everyone's best interests at heart...but often don't recognize how to show or deal with genuine emotion! Kate and Elaine are twins and as close as sisters can be until tragedy strikes. We see them through time, from the 1990's to the present as they cope with siblings, death, jealousy, and their mother with her idiosyncrasies but devout love for her family and its hardships. I laughed, I cried, I kept hoping time would heal them. But we've all known sorrow, and love, and secrets we must hide. I can't wait to read more of Gilmartin in the future!
Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC!

I love a story about a dysfunctional family! Definitely on the slower side but that's to be expected in a character-driven story like this one. I'd agree with others that at times, the main character's decisions were frustrating to read about but also, the more you learned about their upbringing and family, the more it made sense. Overall, would recommend to anyone who loves to read about family drama (with a caveat to check out some content warnings before starting).

This is a slow burn and very psychological and interior. If you are expecting ordinary women’s/family fiction, you won’t find it here, but if you buckle in and go along for ride, it’s worth it.

Dinner Party is primarily a book about family dysfunction, I found it took a while to get into and I never really felt overly connected or invested with any of the characters. The Gleason family have had more than their fair share of trauma, Bernadette is ‘undiagnosed’ in the words of her daughter Kate, Kate is battling an eating disorder most likely triggered by her relationship with her mother, Ray is having difficulties with alcohol and difficulties with his marriage and Peter gave up his life to run the family farm. All of the Gleason children seem to have been impacted by their mothers turbulent behaviour. While an interesting read it didn’t overly captivate me.

This page turner is dripping with family drama and I just couldn't get enough. Wonderful writing and characters, can't wait to read more from Sarah Gilmartin.
I just reviewed Dinner Party by Sarah Gilmartin. #DinnerParty #NetGalley
[NetGalley URL

This family drama is Irish writer Sarah Gilmartin's debut novel, a forensic examination of family dysfunctions, the push and pull factors, that begins in Dublin with Kate Gleeson holding the eponymous dinner party in 2018 on Halloween, dwelling on a broken relationship. This is no ordinary small family dinner party, it's the anniversary of Kate's twin sister, Elaine's death as a teenager, attending is her older brother Peter, now running the family farm in rural Carlow, and her other more independent brother, Ray, with his wife. As matters unravel for Kate, we are plunged into a narrative that goes back and forth in time from 1999 to the present, family history that includes covering childhood issues that are to have troubling repercussions through the years that come, the tragedies, and the traumas.

We learn of the more introvert farmer father in comparison to the more volatile, demanding, tempermental, and abusive mother, Bernadette, a woman who insisted on being the central focus of the family. The mother guides them towards differentiating themselves from each other, overtly favoured Elaine, the more extrovert twin, we are given insightful glimpses of the family such as the Trinity College university period. We get a real feel for the sensitivities, tensions, resentments and silence that mark the Gleesons, like so many families, they know each other well, so familiar yet simultaneously unknown too, close yet distant, loving relationships peppered with exasperation. As is apparent at the fraught dinner party, there is an increasing emergence of Kate's vulnerabilities, her disturbing relationship with food, the eating disorder that is rooted in her deeply buried traumas.

There is a follow up dinner party in 2019, a more cathartic affair with many truths finally being aired openly. This is a engaging character driven, non linear Irish debut that will appeal to readers interested in the nature of families, the core structure around which society is built, its potential strengths and frailties, the secrets and silences, the heartbreaks, the traumas, tragedies, grief and a particular mother-daughter relationship. Many thanks to the publisher for a review copy.

I only read about half of this and then gave up. Nothing really seemed to be happening. This is about a family, mainly Kate, before and after the loss of Kate's twin sister.

Thank you NetGalley and Pushkin Press for sending me this advanced copy for review.

tw: eating disorder, anorexia, bulimia

Dinner Party follows the Gleeson family over a number of years as they deal with trauma and loss, and particularly Kate Gleeson’s mental health and difficult relationship with food.

Kate hosts a dinner party for her family on the 16-year anniversary of her twin sister’s death. It is clear as the story develops that the characters’ lives are heavily influenced by their difficult and controlling mother and her feeling that the less-favoured twin was taken away from her.

Sarah Gilmartin’s writing around Kate’s eating disorder was incredible, but the remainder of the story was extremely slow with super long chapters. I felt that a deeper dive into Kate’s mother’s mental health could have been explored, as her own issues had such a huge impact on her children’s adult lives and their relationships with others.

I’m glad I read Dinner Party but I’m not sure I’ll be picking up a copy or recommending it to anyone.