Girl Dinner
A wickedly smart and biting novel about power, lust and female rage
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4.0 • 2 Ratings
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- £11.99
Publisher Description
From the Sunday Times and New York Times bestseller Olivie Blake, this is a powerful and darkly fun novel about ambition, lust and eating your fill – as wealthy moms and sorority girls practice a sinister new wellness trend.
'Deliciously twisted and lipstick-stained, Girl Dinner serves up a feast of ambition, privilege, and the deadly price of belonging. I loved it.'
Lucy Rose, author of The Lamb
Good girls deserve a treat . . .
The House is the most exclusive sorority on campus, and all its alumni are beautiful, high-achieving and respected. After a freshman year she would rather forget, sophomore Nina Kaur knows being accepted into The House is the first step to the brightest possible future. The House will surely ease her fears of failure and protect her from those who see a young woman on her own as prey.
Meanwhile, adjunct professor Dr Sloane Hartley is struggling. After eighteen 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 a level of collective perfection that she 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.
' This book is the fever dream I never knew I needed, and I'm going to recommend it to everyone I meet!'
- Ali Hazelwood, bestselling author of The Love Hypothesis and Bride
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Greed, lust, feminine rage and a strangely perfect sorority house. Girl Dinner, from New York Times bestselling author Olivie Blake, is satire and horror, as well as a commentary on what young women need to do to become exceptional—or even acceptable. Nina Kaur, having had a difficult and traumatic first year at university, is accepted to join The House, an exclusive sorority where every member, current or alumni, is beautiful and successful. Dr Sloane Hartley, struggling with a postpartum body and a post-maternity-leave return to work, accepts an offer to be the academic liaison for the girls at The House. But as both women discover, the gloss and the shine of the girls in The House comes at a horrifying cost. Girl Dinner takes on societal expectations, wellness fads and toxic relationships. You will swallow it whole.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Bestseller Blake (The Atlas Six) serves up a lightly satirical and somewhat drawn out feminist horror novel about the extreme toll that comes from trying to "have it all." It follows Sloane, a sociology professor who's returning to work after being home with her infant daughter for 18 months, and Nina, a sophomore at Sloane's university who's rushing the most sought-after sorority on campus, referred to only as the House. Sloane struggles with feeling as though she has abandoned her daughter and still doesn't have enough time or brainpower to devote to her work, including her new position as faculty adviser to the House. Nina, meanwhile, yearns for the clout that comes from membership in the House, whose sisters are the most successful and beautiful girls on campus. There's a lot of delicate buildup hinting at the House's hidden darkness, but it takes a frustratingly long time to amount to anything. Instead, much of the book is taken up by philosophizing that covers what is essentially feminism 101—from the Madonna/whore dichotomy to the rise of tradwives—which may be enlightening to younger readers encountering these concepts for the first time, but to most will feel familiar and obvious. Fortunately, the bloody payoff, when it finally arrives, is well worth the wait. There's nothing groundbreaking here, but Blake's fans will find plenty to hold their attention.
