Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.
This wasn’t a bad read but it wasn’t for me either. A lot of back and forth timelines and I struggled with the overall point of the book. I guess I was expecting more.

I enjoyed this book and it was a nice, easy read for me. The author has produced a well-written story which at times was enticing and engrossing. The story provided some real-life, down-to-earth themes which can be relatable to most readers.

I felt some areas of the book were slower than others, however, I would recommend this to fellow readers!

Dinner Party by Sarah Gilmartin is a family drama that begins with a disastrous family reunion dinner,minus her mother, organised by hostess Kate to celebrate the life of her twin sister on the anniversary of her death. With her brothers and sister-in-law bickering and sniping at each other an already fragile Kate is overwhelmed as her meticulous planning goes to waste.
From there the book goes back to Kate's childhood in rural Ireland ,the feuding brothers, the controlling mother not averse to physically or verbally lashing out at her children, the father more interested in his farm than his wife and not least the bond between her and her twin sister, who as a teenager becomes increasingly distant before disaster strikes and Kate begins to unravel.
I don't know if any of this book is autobiographical but Sarah Gilmartin lays open Kate's struggles and frequent dysfunction in a moving and often disturbing way.
The book is slow moving but beautifully written, I did fear at one point that the whole thing might be a catalogue of misery and misfortune but I ended it feeling quite uplifted.
A great piece of writing.

I read this book in early 2022 when it came out in Ireland and I was blown away. Meg Mason is right to call this book stunning - I couldn't put it down once I started it. I stayed up way past my bedtime to finish reading it and the tiredness the next day was well worth it.

Kate is not well. She looks well, her life looks like it's a good one from the outside but we all know that's a lie. The story goes back and forth between now and 1990s, introducing us to Kate's life and family. Yes, this book does include a dysfunctional family and it's one of the best portrayals I've ever read. Though it may seem like it's starting slowly, with every page you will be pulled further and further in until, like Kate, it unravels completely.

I've recommended this to several patrons in the library and they all said they were glad to have read it.

And big hup for county Carlow representation! ;)

oof . . . this just felt like yet another dysfunctional family drama. which isn’t bad per se, but i’m afraid it didn’t do much for me — it just didn’t bring anything new to the table.