Girl Dinner is a knife-sharp examination of what it means to be female. The juxtaposition of Nina's desperation to find sisterhood and belonging within The House (the elite sorority on campus) and Dr. Hartley's return to work as an adjunct professor after the birth of her daughter is excellent. Full of female rage and the contemplation of what it means to be a Good Woman, Blake's satirical examination of the cost of living well and feminine power strikes many thoughtful chords. There is something sinister lying beneath the surface of the perfection of The House, and Blake maintains the dread and tension skillfully throughout the entire book. Give to readers who enjoyed Bunny by Mona Awad.

Girl Dinner" felt like taking a bite out of a satirical feminist horror story. The concept was both unique and captivating, but unfortunately, the ending didn’t quite satisfy. It left me — no pun intended — craving more of the story’s substance. Overall, I really enjoyed the bold narrative, the powerhouse female characters, and the strong horror vibes. I just wish a few elements had played out differently to fully align with the empowering 'girl power' theme it set up.

4.5 stars

The House is the most exclusive sorority on campus and all of its alumnae are gorgeous, accomplished and highly respected.

Nina Kaur had a rough freshman year so she knows being accepted into The House will give her a second chance to reach her potential and achieve her goal of being admitted to a top twenty law school. And will give her power.

Meanwhile, adjunct professor (and not by choice) Dr. Sloane Hartley is struggling after accepting a demotion to support her husband’s career at the University. She’s spent the last eighteen months at home with her newborn daughter and now her life is both incredibly stressful and flat. She’s offered the position as The House’s academic liaison and she hopes some of the alumnae’s perfection rubs off.

Both Nina and Sloane are in for some unpleasant surprises as they are drawn deeper into the rituals of The House and as they determine how far they will go to get what they want.

This was a wonderful surprise. This satire won’t be for everyone, but, for me, a former sorority girl turned top twenty law school lawyer who spent years looking for extra hours in each day and was often mistaken for the court reporter when I showed up for depositions (Yep. You’ve come a long way, baby, now could you go a few steps further and get me some coffee?) so much of this, both from Nina’s perspective and from Sloane’s felt like the story of my younger days.

And Blake can write. “He smelled like fresh linen and a previous life.” Exactly. And she cuts, too…”She’s not changing anything…like, we lost abortion rights under her watch, you know?” Oof. That hurts. A lot.

Everyone here is selfish in his or her own way. Compare Alex’s idea of feminism to Sloane’s thoughts to whatever the hell is in the minds of the girls currently in The House (I don’t think that it is feminism any more, just WANTING, for themselves, and to hell with who gets hurt. Depressing, but likely largely true. I really enjoyed this a lot and would highly recommend.

A book by THE Olivie Blake titled 'Girl Dinner' was enough to have me sold... but feminine rage and dabbles in cannibalism? Absolutely SAT!

Girl Dinner whilst satire, is painfully relevant to today's perception and lived experience as women. We follow two perspectives through a sorority in a University. First we have Sloan, a new mother returning to teaching, isolated and finding her new identity and friends in this chapter of life. Sloan thinks her husband is a feminist and equal partner, until she self reflects deeper into the excuses and nuance she's allowing in the house. We also follow Nina, a sophomore desperate to find her place of belonging as she rushes with the sorority.

I can't even begin to explain the complexities in this book! It's one I'll be thinking about for a long while. The authors note at the end so perfectly explained the intentional use of privileged, educated mostly white passing women in this as well and the vapid reality we exist in. By the halfway mark I was starting to wonder how this would piece together with elements of horror, and what a delight it was when it all came together! I still can't quite make sense of the ending, and cannot wait to hear the discourse when this comes out in October. I love an unreliable narrator!

Thank you to Tor Publishing Group & NetGalley for this eARC in exchange for a fair and honest review!

Girl Dinner is risky, daring, and entirely in its own lane. I would describe this book as peak satirical women’s fiction with more grit than a southern diner. It feels reminiscent of Jennifer’s body in that dark and salacious way — but also evokes that underlying message in America Ferrera’s speech from the Barbie film to give it a little heart.

You’re following two main interconnecting POV’s in this story: a student and sorority pledge named Nina, and a professor/new mother named Sloane. The contrast of their individual experiences on campus mixed with the inspired way Olivie Blake weaves their stories together (along with the side characters) is just flat-out cool.

I have read most — if not all of Blake’s published works, and this one did not disappoint. If anything, you are guaranteed a uniquely inspired plot with morally ambiguous characters when you pick up her books — which is exactly what I ordered.

Side note for those wondering: Blake somehow implemented pop culture references in a way that didn’t read cringey to me. Others should definitely take notes!

If you’re a fan of her other works — this one more-so fits the tone of Gifted & Talented than, say…the Atlas Trilogy.

The conflict in Girl Dinner was more of a slow burn (picks up around 50%), but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

Highly recommend!

(Booktok Review coming)

In Girl Dinner, author Olivie Blake tackles themes like womanhood, motherhood, sisterhood,… oh, and cannibalism as a wellness trend. However, ever y time the characters debated those topics, it felt too intentional.
The main characters were Sloane and Nina. Sloane is an academic and mother who’s trying to be a good mother while also working at university. Nina is a student at the university who wants to get into a prestigious sorority. While I found Sloane to be an unlikeable character, I found Nina to be incredibly bland. She barely had any personality at all.
I could have enjoyed the book despite those two main characters had the story been great otherwise, but there was barely any plot and I myself bored rather early into the book.

Overall this one wasn’t for me.


Thank you to the publisher for providing me a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Compelling, consuming, and spine-chilling.

What is the secret to the perfection of all who graduate from The House? Dr. Sloan Hartley is desperate to be a good woman, a good mother for her baby, but is having it all a myth? Or does it just require a little morality shift? Deeply concerned with the contradictions of womanhood, Girl Dinner places wellness trends against their inherent cause: a yearn for power that women constantly fail to inherit. The most exciting thing about this cannibal sorority is the way the characters come to understand and accept it. Wicked and wonderful.

“Girl Dinner” by Olivie Blake is a satire women’s fiction book. It deals with what it’s like to be a woman in modern day society. It comes with horror, cannibalism and completely unhinged characters. It gave me the series Yellowjackets vibes, mixed with sisterhood and women’s lust for power. Be sure to read all of the content warnings on this book! I recommend this book to anyone that enjoys reading a great dark, feminism fiction book! Also, someone who is able to read about cannibalism. Overall, I rate this a solid 4 out of 5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley, author Olivie Blake and Tor Publishing Group for this digital advanced reader’s copy in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

This book is expected to be published on October 21, 2025!

I picked up Girl Dinner because I’m a member of a sorority and love plots involving Greek Life, especially with the added dynamic of a dual narrative. As a mom, the idea of following both a college student/sorority member and a mom/sorority advisor really appealed to me. I’ve enjoyed Olivie Blake’s other writing, so choosing this book felt like a no-brainer. Unfortunately, I really struggled to connect with either of the main characters, which made it hard to stay invested. The premise had so much promise, but the emotional depth and character development just didn’t land for me. I wanted to give it more than two stars, but I honestly can’t.

Topical, attention-grabbing, a page turner. A satirical book about sororities, tradwives, the myth of "having it all", and the in-fighting within the feminist movement. And of course, cannibalism. I can see this being a popular booktok title.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group for providing this book, with my honest review below.

Girl Dinner is a refreshing look at womanhood and how a certain group of women may take their power back. Focusing on two characters, Sloane, a doctoral professor with a new baby who is at a local university in a job her husband got her (after leaving her own tenure track position for him to pursue his) and Nina, a sophomore who is working towards being a lawyer and trying to get into a local sorority with high achieving woman. Both are struggling with defining who they are and will be, and both get caught up in The House and its secrets.

I found Sloane a bit pretentious to start in her thoughts (which seemed to be the point) but she grew on me. Meanwhile Nina endeared me from the start through her conversations with her sister Jas, though her motivation behind joining The House was a mystery that went nowhere for me. The two are in very different positions but their search for meaning in sisterhood and themselves was fascinating. More than that the mystery to The House and the girls and women in the sorority was fascinating and I loved the reveal there. A bit scattered maybe but a solid addition to the horror and mystery genre that appeals in these fraught time for all of us (and especially women).

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC!

This was hard for me, the concept sounded really engaging but I was just bogged down in the psychological debates between the characters, to the point where I was just begging for more plot. This felt more like a non fiction book that had the light set dressing of fiction.

Jennifers Body x Fresh x Promising Young Woman in this story about a unique exclusive sorority that has an unlikely answer to why they are all so beautiful and perfect... and two women are about to discover the lengths that they will go through for community, love, and acceptance.

I had really mixed feelings about this. I thought it was fairly boring until halfway through, and then it didn't go far enough. I wanted it to be more visceral, more violent, more cannibalistic. I have read so many books about how hard it is to be an academic and a mom and a married woman - 2024 was really full of marriage plot books - and nothing about Sloane's particular version of this was interesting or special. Like I literally read Liars and Colored Television in the last month!!! Nina was compelling and if the book had leaned more into horror and dark academia I think it could've been more memorable and special.

This was. Unhinged. As someone with a sociology degree, reading the first half of the book in many ways felt like my entire undergrad experience. The sociological dithering in the first half made sense in the second in that it was like watching a woman who has done nothing but think and consider and ponder the ethics of womanhood realize that maybe nothing matters. Like watching a life’s work collapse or perhaps find it’s inevitable correct conclusion. In the end, white women are gonna white woman, and loneliness is a hell of a drug (we all long for The Sisterhood). What would you sacrifice to get everything society tells you you should want (and that you might also just… want)? Would you sacrifice your womanhood? Your goodness? Your humanity? What do those words even mean?

I will say that parts of the first half read kind of like a sociology article and were a little bit harder to get through, but otherwise this was really fun.

Thank you to netgalley and Tor for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

This is a "eat or be eaten" kind of world, and these girls are ruthless. The story is told from two different perspectives: Dr. Sloane Hartley, a struggling new mom who is trying to juggle raising a child, an absent husband, and getting back to work, and Nina Kaur, a girl who had a bright future... but is trying out for a sorority in her sophomore year in order to find a community of her own and a way to success. Sloane is tired, she's tired of her clothes not fitting, of her husband who isn't around and always neglecting both her and their daughter, and trying to get back to work at the university. Sloane years for some peace, for some time for herself, to be a good mom... but it's just all piling and the pressure is making her slowly lose her mind. Then there is Nina, a girl who is determined to succeed, driven to find a way to get into the best sorority that would offer her not only sisterhood but connections into her future dreams of being a lawyer. Nina has gone through things in her Freshman year and hopes that despite that, she can win over the girls at The House, an exclusive sorority. Nina and Sloane both find themselves being drawn into the House, as Nina is accepted as a new pledge and soon finds herself dealing with not only the power plays within the group, but a dark secret to success while Sloane finds herself as the new academic advisor to the girls... and discovering that her husband might not be as innocent as he says... and that Sloane herself might be the only person to find a solution to her problems. When I tell you I was absolutely gasping and had my jaw wide open while reading the last 40% of this book!!! It starts off slow but when it picks up it immediately picks up and things go wild. This was such a delightful read and definitely one I would highly recommend for my female rage girlies, because the commentary on women, on the way we grow and how aging, beauty, and relationships all impact us in this was just so well done. I had an absolute delight for this one and I will say, my appetite is fed!

Release Date: October 25,2025

Publication/Blog: Ash and Books (ash-and-books.tumblr.com)

*Thanks Tor Books for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*