I will read Olivie Blake forever. I love these succinct and detailed concepts. And while I had a bit of a roller coaster ride with Girl Dinner, I enjoyed this ride. Keep reading this book review of Girl Dinner for my full thoughts.
Summary
Every member of The House, the most exclusive sorority on campus, and all its alumni, are beautiful, high-achieving, and universally respected.
After a freshman year she would rather forget, sophomore Nina Kaur knows being one of the chosen few accepted into The House is the first step in her path to the brightest possible future. Once she’s taken into their fold, the House will surely ease her fears of failure and protect her from those who see a young woman on her own as easy prey.
Meanwhile, adjunct professor Dr. Sloane Hartley is struggling to return to work after accepting a demotion to support her partner’s new position at the cutthroat University. After 18 months at home with her newborn daughter, Sloane’s clothes don’t fit right, her girl-dad husband isn’t as present as he thinks he is, and even the few hours a day she’s apart from her child fill her psyche with paralyzing ennui. When invited to be The House’s academic liaison, Sloane enviously drinks in the way the alumnae seem to have it all, achieving a level of collective perfection that Sloane so desperately craves.
As Nina and Sloane each get drawn deeper into the arcane rituals of the sisterhood, they learn that living well comes with bloody costs. And when they are finally invited to the table, they will have to decide just how much they can stomach in the name of solidarity and power.
Review
(Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)
Girl Dinner begins at the intersection of new parenthood and sexism. The ways in which sexism is ingrained in these experiences, the different treatments, and even how we see ourselves. As someone who’s thought a lot about becoming a parent, Sloane’s character was the one I was most drawn to. The conversations she has, and thinks about, in terms of her own image of as ‘mother’ and how she navigates it was fascinating. How her identity almost becomes swallowed up by this role, the new divisions of tasks, but also the ways she feels. How she feels this overwhelming love, but also this complex relationship. These identities clashing and how we exist in this malestrom of society expectations, our own ideas, and how we explore.
But in terms of the other elements of Girl Dinner, they fell a bit shorter for me. The whole sorority was an added angle and I appreciate what it does for Sloane, but in general it felt a little underbaked in certain areas. While Sloane receives no easy answers about the capital M motherhood, I found the development of her character in relation to the sorority – especially in the latter half – to be a bit frustrating. I liked the way she examines the hunger of ambition, the loss of ambition, and the playing with power and imagery. But in general the latter half of the book felt looser. There are no concrete resolutions on the question if we win if we have a seat at the table no matter the quality.
Overall,
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In the questions of whether there is power in a subversion of power. Girl Dinner explores and begins some interesting conversations of power, image, and parenthood today. The construction of what it means to be a ‘good mother’, a ‘good wife’ and more. This effortlessness, this open playing field of opportunity, that we too could only be that ‘good’ if we had x,y,z. And in general the ending let me down. Girl Dinner is a good appetizer, but it left me wanting more. If you’re interested in questions of motherhood and ambition, I still think it’s worth a read. Find Girl Dinner on Goodreads, Storygraph, Amazon, Bookshop. org, Blackwells, & Libro. fm.