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The Dinner Party: A Novel
For fans of Cleopatra and Frankenstein and Assembly, an intimate and darkly propulsive story told over the course of a dinner party, from its careful preparation through its explosive, irrevocable finish, about the tensions of love and autonomy, grief and female rage, and the surprising moments when they come crashing to the surface.
Franca left the Netherlands behind to start her new life in England with Andrew. Andrew, whose parents lived in South Kensington but had a flat their son could “borrow” nearby. Andrew, an old-fashioned British gentleman who encourages her not to work but to instead focus on her writing. Andrew who suggests a dinner party with his colleagues to celebrate their big upcoming launch.
A dinner party that Franca must plan and shop and cook and clean for. A dinner party during a heatwave when the fridge breaks, alcohol replaces water, and an unexpected guest joins their ranks, upending the careful balance between everything Franca once was and now is…
Expertly weaving the past and present with precision and delicious tension, The Dinner Party is a thoughtful and thought-provoking look at female rage, body autonomy, and all the concessions women make throughout their lives—big and small—until the surprising moment when they decide they can make them no longer.
Franca left the Netherlands behind to start her new life in England with Andrew. Andrew, whose parents lived in South Kensington but had a flat their son could “borrow” nearby. Andrew, an old-fashioned British gentleman who encourages her not to work but to instead focus on her writing. Andrew who suggests a dinner party with his colleagues to celebrate their big upcoming launch.
A dinner party that Franca must plan and shop and cook and clean for. A dinner party during a heatwave when the fridge breaks, alcohol replaces water, and an unexpected guest joins their ranks, upending the careful balance between everything Franca once was and now is…
Expertly weaving the past and present with precision and delicious tension, The Dinner Party is a thoughtful and thought-provoking look at female rage, body autonomy, and all the concessions women make throughout their lives—big and small—until the surprising moment when they decide they can make them no longer.
290 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 4, 2025
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20118 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 131 reviews
September 22, 2025
ARC for review. To be published November 4, 2025.
2 stars
Franca is preparing for a dinner party hosted by her fiancé, Andrew. They met while both were at school in the Netherlands; Franca dropped out to return to the U.K. with Andrew after a quick romance following the breakdown of Franca’s friendship and subsequent departure of her only friend, Harry, from the program. The novel looks back and forward from the party (through Franca’s visits with a therapist,) the guests and at Franca’s life.
It is hard to talk about this book without spoilers so I’ll just say that there are a couple of bait and switches/twists here. Plus of the major things that happen, one I didn’t see AT ALL, and by that I mean I totally missed it in the text. Did I skim through it because I was reading too quickly? Am I just a bad person? I don’t know, but when it what raised, I honestly had no idea what she was talking about. I kind of felt like a bad person.
Anyway, I found the book tedious. I hated every character except the cat.
2 stars
Franca is preparing for a dinner party hosted by her fiancé, Andrew. They met while both were at school in the Netherlands; Franca dropped out to return to the U.K. with Andrew after a quick romance following the breakdown of Franca’s friendship and subsequent departure of her only friend, Harry, from the program. The novel looks back and forward from the party (through Franca’s visits with a therapist,) the guests and at Franca’s life.
It is hard to talk about this book without spoilers so I’ll just say that there are a couple of bait and switches/twists here. Plus of the major things that happen, one I didn’t see AT ALL, and by that I mean I totally missed it in the text. Did I skim through it because I was reading too quickly? Am I just a bad person? I don’t know, but when it what raised, I honestly had no idea what she was talking about. I kind of felt like a bad person.
Anyway, I found the book tedious. I hated every character except the cat.
dnf
December 18, 2025Slow and a bit strange. There’s a lot of anticipation of what exactly happened at the dinner party and many words describing the prep work of rabbits rotting in the fridge and nasty descriptions of stuffing chicken carcasses.
It’s enough to make you a vegetarian.
The rest of the narrative involved many words describing her super boring therapy sessions
It’s a short book but I dnf’d at 38%
It was enough to know it’s not for me
* I received a digital audio via NetGalley
It’s enough to make you a vegetarian.
The rest of the narrative involved many words describing her super boring therapy sessions
It’s a short book but I dnf’d at 38%
It was enough to know it’s not for me
* I received a digital audio via NetGalley
December 22, 2025
This started out as such a promising 4 stars, and I'm truly sorry that it slipped to 3.
I was enthralled from the beginning by the powerful and intense language. The narrator, Franca, is a young and emotionally lost Dutch woman, now living in London and engaged to a charming British tech entrepreneur, Andrew. Having made a small fortune by selling his first startup, Andrew is about to launch a spaceship that will carry samples of the (supposed) best of human creativity to whatever intelligent life may be in the universe--an admitted "update" of the Golden Record carried by the Voyager spacecraft in 1977.
Franca has been desperately alone since her father died when she was 12. Her mother ignored her; she withdrew from her friends; she has never held a job; she even abandoned her university studies in Utrecht because Andrew appeared and swept her off her feet in her senior year. Her only friend, during her first two years at college, was Harry. But when Harry wanted to move their deep friendship into a love affair, Franca panicked, and Harry left.
The narrative is beautifully written and so vividly honest that I wanted to jump in and fix the chicken that Franca is totally messing up for the eponymous dinner party. Franca is, indeed, frank, unsparing, and shocking.
Except for the tricks.
And as they became more and more apparent, they drove my rating further and further down.
First: I was annoyed with the phony framework of Franca telling her story to her therapist. It's too convenient to have a wise therapist ask just the right questions. (Someday, I'd like to read a novel with an incompetent therapist.)
Second: It's a bit too cute to start with lots of hints about something that happened with a knife at the aforementioned dinner party. Sure, the hints had me turning the pages. But again, it's a phony setup in some ways.
Third: Another all-too-convenient cliche is that Franca just can't remember what she did with that knife.
Fourth: You could say that the ending is wham! Or you could say it's a trick. Take your pick.
Still, this is a vividly original novel that probes deep into a character, and well worth reading.
I was enthralled from the beginning by the powerful and intense language. The narrator, Franca, is a young and emotionally lost Dutch woman, now living in London and engaged to a charming British tech entrepreneur, Andrew. Having made a small fortune by selling his first startup, Andrew is about to launch a spaceship that will carry samples of the (supposed) best of human creativity to whatever intelligent life may be in the universe--an admitted "update" of the Golden Record carried by the Voyager spacecraft in 1977.
Franca has been desperately alone since her father died when she was 12. Her mother ignored her; she withdrew from her friends; she has never held a job; she even abandoned her university studies in Utrecht because Andrew appeared and swept her off her feet in her senior year. Her only friend, during her first two years at college, was Harry. But when Harry wanted to move their deep friendship into a love affair, Franca panicked, and Harry left.
The narrative is beautifully written and so vividly honest that I wanted to jump in and fix the chicken that Franca is totally messing up for the eponymous dinner party. Franca is, indeed, frank, unsparing, and shocking.
Except for the tricks.
And as they became more and more apparent, they drove my rating further and further down.
First: I was annoyed with the phony framework of Franca telling her story to her therapist. It's too convenient to have a wise therapist ask just the right questions. (Someday, I'd like to read a novel with an incompetent therapist.)
Second: It's a bit too cute to start with lots of hints about something that happened with a knife at the aforementioned dinner party. Sure, the hints had me turning the pages. But again, it's a phony setup in some ways.
Third: Another all-too-convenient cliche is that Franca just can't remember what she did with that knife.
Fourth: You could say that the ending is wham! Or you could say it's a trick. Take your pick.
Still, this is a vividly original novel that probes deep into a character, and well worth reading.
December 21, 2025
Not what I expected. Disturbing. Due to its literary nature, it’s also hard to glean the purpose, other than perhaps a cathartic journey for the character.
Full RTC
Full RTC
November 12, 2025
Thank you Netgalley and Hachette Audio/ Little, Brown & Company for an ALC of this book
Honestly in my completely useless opinion the narrator really didn't fit this book, which unfortunately contributed to the book falling flat. The narrator's voice is beautiful & unique. With that being said I feel like this narrator would be PERFECT for any type of romance or fantasy. However I will say the book itself was intriguing enough for me to seek out a hardcopy and try that route. Overall I would say definitely check this out! But in actually tangible book(or ebook) form.
Until next time,
Hades
🩵
Honestly in my completely useless opinion the narrator really didn't fit this book, which unfortunately contributed to the book falling flat. The narrator's voice is beautiful & unique. With that being said I feel like this narrator would be PERFECT for any type of romance or fantasy. However I will say the book itself was intriguing enough for me to seek out a hardcopy and try that route. Overall I would say definitely check this out! But in actually tangible book(or ebook) form.
Until next time,
Hades
🩵
November 29, 2025
I won this book in a goodreads drawing.
This book came with a little book club kit, and a novelty bookmark. Gotta say, that put in the mood to like the book. For whatever reason, a certain class of people has a real hangup about dinner parties.
This book came with a little book club kit, and a novelty bookmark. Gotta say, that put in the mood to like the book. For whatever reason, a certain class of people has a real hangup about dinner parties.
Read
December 14, 2025DNF.
A psychological thriller, with a young woman in therapy to recover memories of a fateful dinner party several months earlier. As she recounts the events of that night, it’s clear that she was seriously unravelling—and then I hit page 58. She did something so deeply unpleasant to a pet that I immediately packed it in.
A psychological thriller, with a young woman in therapy to recover memories of a fateful dinner party several months earlier. As she recounts the events of that night, it’s clear that she was seriously unravelling—and then I hit page 58. She did something so deeply unpleasant to a pet that I immediately packed it in.
August 23, 2025
I received a free copy. Could be some mild spoilers below so be aware before reading 🤷♀️
Firstly I hope when it is released there's a trigger warning on it. I was surprised when I got to some pretty graphic scenes. I thought it was more about most women's problem of bearing the mental load in a home and for events but instead this is about a woman who has been and is being abused and some pretty dark places her mind is going. So be warned. If I knew this before I would have skipped it.
Secondly, I'm not a huge fan of the unreliable narrator. I have read a few and do enjoy it if it's done well. I get that it's her processing her trauma and learning to trust her therapist. But as I said, I have read others I enjoyed way more. Sometimes it felt like the author was trying too hard to mimic the tone and style of those other books I have read that came out in the last 1-3 years.
If more depressing, dark topics and unreliable narrators is your genre of choice then maybe this is for you. If it's something you're not as into and you only plan to read one or two of this genre I would say go with something else.
Firstly I hope when it is released there's a trigger warning on it. I was surprised when I got to some pretty graphic scenes. I thought it was more about most women's problem of bearing the mental load in a home and for events but instead this is about a woman who has been and is being abused and some pretty dark places her mind is going. So be warned. If I knew this before I would have skipped it.
Secondly, I'm not a huge fan of the unreliable narrator. I have read a few and do enjoy it if it's done well. I get that it's her processing her trauma and learning to trust her therapist. But as I said, I have read others I enjoyed way more. Sometimes it felt like the author was trying too hard to mimic the tone and style of those other books I have read that came out in the last 1-3 years.
If more depressing, dark topics and unreliable narrators is your genre of choice then maybe this is for you. If it's something you're not as into and you only plan to read one or two of this genre I would say go with something else.
November 9, 2025
not at all what i was expecting. i have very mixed opinions and i will have to sit with this one for a while before i can even start to give a proper review.
December 22, 2025
The main gripe about this novel seems to come from those that expected a thriller finding it too slow, and those that didn't like the characters. If fast pace and new friends are what you are looking for, step away from the book.
This is a psychological drama whose pace and narrative arc perfectly mirror the result of harm upon the person. It is visceral and it is a painful read. It goes in and out of focus and flashes between times of causes and consequences. It is a study in "triggering" and interjects monotony with moments of explosive reaction in the form of violent and profane interior dialogue and imagined behaviour, but spoiler alert: the cat is fine.
If you have ever experienced feminist rage, it's possible you will get along with this story.
Let the author take her time to apply the structure which, in my opinion, works very well. And remember what they say about Hurt People.
This is a psychological drama whose pace and narrative arc perfectly mirror the result of harm upon the person. It is visceral and it is a painful read. It goes in and out of focus and flashes between times of causes and consequences. It is a study in "triggering" and interjects monotony with moments of explosive reaction in the form of violent and profane interior dialogue and imagined behaviour, but spoiler alert: the cat is fine.
If you have ever experienced feminist rage, it's possible you will get along with this story.
Let the author take her time to apply the structure which, in my opinion, works very well. And remember what they say about Hurt People.
September 30, 2025
Thanks to NetGalley and Tinder Press for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.
I'd had a spell of disappointing reads before this and so I was desperate to find something I could get my teeth into, and this was fantastic. I read the first quarter in about an hour, it just sped by. It's one of those books that I wanted to dive into and read in one go, but I also wanted to take my time with it because it was so good.
Thrillers probably make up at least 75% of my reading, and whilst I love them, they can get a bit samey. So it was great to read one that was a bit different.
It isn't your straightforward thriller. Yes there are obvious traditional thriller elements but it's a quiet thriller. There's suggestions hints, secrets, claustrophobia; there's this heaviness about it, this fear, sitting on the edge of your seat, waiting for the jumpscare.
It's mostly written in the form of a long letter that Franca writes to a character who I won't spoil. It's an interesting format to use, and it risked being a bit clunky and one-dimensional, but it is so seamless and adds more of a personal touch to the story.
What I find impressive is that, whilst there are flashbacks and whatnot, it is mostly set across one evening, and Viola has managed to keep it exiting, interesting, addictive, fun - you never want to switch off or turn away, and it never feels static or stale.
The characters are not particularly likeable characters, for a variety of reasons. They are all well written and she's given us a broad spectrum of characters but I didn't like any of them. That's not a negative point as such , for me she's written them very well, they're just unlikeable characters.
Franca is a very unreliable narrator. I know there is this trope of the unreliable narrator, but I don't think I've ever read a book with it, so I didn't have any opinion on it, but it worked here. It means, as the reader, you're never resigned or too comfortable, and that made it more interesting.
There are some difficult topics (I won''t go into them for fear of spoilers), and overall it isn't an overly happy book. It is quite dark, but I think it balances well.
I've seen some other reviews that are giving it 1 or 2 stars, and I know we all like different things and I will never judge someone for their reading tastes at all, but I enjoyed this so much that is really surprised me to see such negative thoughts. But I think it has the potential to be divisive, and it'll either be a 1 star or 5 star read.
I kept waiting for the THING to happen. You know, all books, especially thrillers, have a THING. And I was trying to work out what it was. And when I read it, it did surprise me. But then I thought, in hindsight, it's quite obvious but very cleverly hidden. I wonder if I read it again, would I read it differently?
It is chaotic, messy, frenzied, frantic - in all the good ways.
I'd had a spell of disappointing reads before this and so I was desperate to find something I could get my teeth into, and this was fantastic. I read the first quarter in about an hour, it just sped by. It's one of those books that I wanted to dive into and read in one go, but I also wanted to take my time with it because it was so good.
Thrillers probably make up at least 75% of my reading, and whilst I love them, they can get a bit samey. So it was great to read one that was a bit different.
It isn't your straightforward thriller. Yes there are obvious traditional thriller elements but it's a quiet thriller. There's suggestions hints, secrets, claustrophobia; there's this heaviness about it, this fear, sitting on the edge of your seat, waiting for the jumpscare.
It's mostly written in the form of a long letter that Franca writes to a character who I won't spoil. It's an interesting format to use, and it risked being a bit clunky and one-dimensional, but it is so seamless and adds more of a personal touch to the story.
What I find impressive is that, whilst there are flashbacks and whatnot, it is mostly set across one evening, and Viola has managed to keep it exiting, interesting, addictive, fun - you never want to switch off or turn away, and it never feels static or stale.
The characters are not particularly likeable characters, for a variety of reasons. They are all well written and she's given us a broad spectrum of characters but I didn't like any of them. That's not a negative point as such , for me she's written them very well, they're just unlikeable characters.
Franca is a very unreliable narrator. I know there is this trope of the unreliable narrator, but I don't think I've ever read a book with it, so I didn't have any opinion on it, but it worked here. It means, as the reader, you're never resigned or too comfortable, and that made it more interesting.
There are some difficult topics (I won''t go into them for fear of spoilers), and overall it isn't an overly happy book. It is quite dark, but I think it balances well.
I've seen some other reviews that are giving it 1 or 2 stars, and I know we all like different things and I will never judge someone for their reading tastes at all, but I enjoyed this so much that is really surprised me to see such negative thoughts. But I think it has the potential to be divisive, and it'll either be a 1 star or 5 star read.
I kept waiting for the THING to happen. You know, all books, especially thrillers, have a THING. And I was trying to work out what it was. And when I read it, it did surprise me. But then I thought, in hindsight, it's quite obvious but very cleverly hidden. I wonder if I read it again, would I read it differently?
It is chaotic, messy, frenzied, frantic - in all the good ways.
November 22, 2025
2.5, rounded up.
If you want to read a book where you dislike every single character, this is the book for you. I want to say I see what the author was trying to portray, it just didn’t sit well with me personally. You follow the main FC through present & past of an exceptionally annoying dinner party with extremely repetitive conversations with the most annoying people. I think I kept reading hoping for the drop, but that never came. The ending helped me round up.
PS, LEAVE THE FREAKIN CAT ALONE
Thank you NetGalley, publishers & author for this read in exchange of my honest review. 🖤
If you want to read a book where you dislike every single character, this is the book for you. I want to say I see what the author was trying to portray, it just didn’t sit well with me personally. You follow the main FC through present & past of an exceptionally annoying dinner party with extremely repetitive conversations with the most annoying people. I think I kept reading hoping for the drop, but that never came. The ending helped me round up.
PS, LEAVE THE FREAKIN CAT ALONE
Thank you NetGalley, publishers & author for this read in exchange of my honest review. 🖤
December 16, 2025
This book is literary fiction, not a psychological thriller. It teases the reader as if it were a psychological thriller, then turns that expectation on its head. All your assumptions are wrong.
This is a novel about what it’s like to be a woman financially dependent on a man who is not a monster, but who has done something very wrong. Should she leave or stay? Was it really bad enough to upend her life over? Is Franka actually happy in this relationship at all? If she has nothing outside of it, what is the cost of leaving?
I also really loved the discussion of literature and the literary canon.
This is a novel about what it’s like to be a woman financially dependent on a man who is not a monster, but who has done something very wrong. Should she leave or stay? Was it really bad enough to upend her life over? Is Franka actually happy in this relationship at all? If she has nothing outside of it, what is the cost of leaving?
I also really loved the discussion of literature and the literary canon.
October 30, 2025
Many thanks to Hachette audio and NetGalley for an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
In The Dinner Party, we follow Franca, a young Dutch woman at a bit of "loose ends" who is currently living with her upper class fiance in England. She is preparing for a dinner party for his business colleagues. and as her preparations unfold, many things go wrong, an unexpected guest appears, and an overwhelming tension builds throughout the night.
This book was nothing like I expected. I would suggest going into this mostly blind, but I do think it's important to know that it is VERY slow-burn, and also told not only in multiple timelines, but also there are moments when it is unknown whether you are getting reality, fantasy, or delusion. It does require both conversation and patience. If you are expecting a thriller, that is not what this is.
van de Sandt does an amazing job building an uncomfortable and overwhelming sense of dread as the day progresses, while also giving us a full picture into Franca's past, her hurts and trauma, her sense of loneliness, and lingering grief. She does a deft job of discussing issues of violence against women, and how so often we rate harmful and hurtful behaviors as "not that bad" and even as experiences to be expected. As someone in the mental health field, I also great appreciated her depiction of therapy and therapists.
The audio was well done, but this is one I would recommend may be best on the page, simply because of the timelines. It's hard to say I "enjoyed" this, but it was extremely well done, and I don't hesitate to recommend it.
In The Dinner Party, we follow Franca, a young Dutch woman at a bit of "loose ends" who is currently living with her upper class fiance in England. She is preparing for a dinner party for his business colleagues. and as her preparations unfold, many things go wrong, an unexpected guest appears, and an overwhelming tension builds throughout the night.
This book was nothing like I expected. I would suggest going into this mostly blind, but I do think it's important to know that it is VERY slow-burn, and also told not only in multiple timelines, but also there are moments when it is unknown whether you are getting reality, fantasy, or delusion. It does require both conversation and patience. If you are expecting a thriller, that is not what this is.
van de Sandt does an amazing job building an uncomfortable and overwhelming sense of dread as the day progresses, while also giving us a full picture into Franca's past, her hurts and trauma, her sense of loneliness, and lingering grief. She does a deft job of discussing issues of violence against women, and how so often we rate harmful and hurtful behaviors as "not that bad" and even as experiences to be expected. As someone in the mental health field, I also great appreciated her depiction of therapy and therapists.
The audio was well done, but this is one I would recommend may be best on the page, simply because of the timelines. It's hard to say I "enjoyed" this, but it was extremely well done, and I don't hesitate to recommend it.
October 17, 2025
I genuinely don’t know how to feel about this book, which is exactly what makes it so compelling. Told over the course of one long, fever dream of an evening and its aftermath in therapy sessions, the story follows Franca as her carefully managed life begins to crack open.
The real genius here is the use of the unreliable narrator (a personal fave of mine!). Franca is complex, troubled, and at times completely untethered from reality, and as a reader, you’re pulled right into that confusion. I found myself constantly questioning what was real, what was memory, what was denial. It’s claustrophobic, intense, and incredibly well done.
Please check trigger warnings for this book.
The real genius here is the use of the unreliable narrator (a personal fave of mine!). Franca is complex, troubled, and at times completely untethered from reality, and as a reader, you’re pulled right into that confusion. I found myself constantly questioning what was real, what was memory, what was denial. It’s claustrophobic, intense, and incredibly well done.
Please check trigger warnings for this book.
November 10, 2025
4.5 stars!
I recommend going into this book with as little knowledge as possible.
I'm always searching for the feeling I got when reading The Secret History, and reading The Dinner Party was the closest I've come. The book starts out with the knowledge that the dinner party Franca is hosting is going to have a disastrous end, but slowly alternates between Franca's past and present. I found the descriptions of what it's like being in a male dominated world, and the resulting female rage really accurate and relatable. The ending made me feel a type of way I haven't felt about a book in a long time, and it's going to stick with me.
I recommend going into this book with as little knowledge as possible.
I'm always searching for the feeling I got when reading The Secret History, and reading The Dinner Party was the closest I've come. The book starts out with the knowledge that the dinner party Franca is hosting is going to have a disastrous end, but slowly alternates between Franca's past and present. I found the descriptions of what it's like being in a male dominated world, and the resulting female rage really accurate and relatable. The ending made me feel a type of way I haven't felt about a book in a long time, and it's going to stick with me.
December 22, 2025
Okay, this was an interesting one. It has a distinctly Dutch flavour to it: there's a similarity in prose, tone, and characterization to Herman Kock's The Dinner (as well as sharing most of a title). It's a great balance of humanity and hedonism with a clinical detachment of language. The structural conceit of the novel is well suited to this blend, as the story is effectively told in a series of flashbacks by our protagonist to her therapist in the present day.
It is always a challenge when a story starts with the knowledge that "something" happened, and we are working our way to the big reveal. The author can't be too vague or delicate with suggesting there is a "something" for fear the reader will lose interest. But it is also far too easy to overcorrect and slip into bathos, which I think is one of the few shortcomings of the writing here. Far too many allusions to "what happened with the knife" and "I thought of the knife, dripping with blood" etc etc. The confidence to underplay such an eventuality is the mark of great fiction, and would have made this an even better book.
It is always a challenge when a story starts with the knowledge that "something" happened, and we are working our way to the big reveal. The author can't be too vague or delicate with suggesting there is a "something" for fear the reader will lose interest. But it is also far too easy to overcorrect and slip into bathos, which I think is one of the few shortcomings of the writing here. Far too many allusions to "what happened with the knife" and "I thought of the knife, dripping with blood" etc etc. The confidence to underplay such an eventuality is the mark of great fiction, and would have made this an even better book.
December 22, 2025
This book isn’t for everyone but it was definitely for me. RTC
Read
November 17, 2025DNF--not sure if that's just because I didn't enjoy the audio version but just wasn't enjoyable.
October 27, 2025
A complicated and believable heroine. An interesting structure and premise. A surprising twist. This novel made me question what an appropriate response to violence could look like. I never watched The Crown series, and now I'm feeling like that may be a good thing. 😂
September 9, 2025
RTC. Yet another Netgalley read that was right up my alley.
Read
November 11, 2025DNF
I didn’t have the patience to find out which genre this book finally fell into. I just wanted a good ol death at a dinner party with some gossipy suburb drama to fuel the petty pleasure sense side of me. Too much to ask?
I didn’t have the patience to find out which genre this book finally fell into. I just wanted a good ol death at a dinner party with some gossipy suburb drama to fuel the petty pleasure sense side of me. Too much to ask?
November 17, 2025
This book ... wow. It encapsulates so well what it's like to experience trauma as a woman when you're expected to just move along and be ok. It was blunt about the subject matter without being overly dramatic or shying away from the more brutal parts of the experience. The writing was so delicate and well crafted. I'm not even usually a fan of second person POV, but it works so well with this narrative.
Thanks to the author, Hachette Audio, and NetGalley for the gifted audiobook. All opinions expressed are mine alone.
Thanks to the author, Hachette Audio, and NetGalley for the gifted audiobook. All opinions expressed are mine alone.
December 5, 2025
[3 stars]
There was a dinner party that her fiance sprung onto her at the last minute. There was a kitten that he got her as a surprise a few weeks ago that she never asked for. There was a broken fridge and spoiled meat. There was way too much drinking and “bad sex”. There was an old friend who ghosted her, appearing by chance as a plus-one. And, there was a knife. The Dinner Party is the recounting of Franca back to the dinner party where everything went wrong. We intersperse the retelling of events (stylized as a letter to Harry - her old friend who, by chance, showed up at the party) with flashbacks to her life in the years before the party and the present conversations she has with her therapist (about a year later) about recollecting what happened and where her life is now.
I think that the best part of the novel is its overall tone and tension that the author sets. We are often struck with rapid-fire events or conversations one after another or all at the same time and we feel Franca’s overstimulation and confusion. It’s late and the chicken isn’t even in the oven yet, the chorizo filling is burning, her fiancé is calling her back to the garden for another drink, the kitten is scratching at her legs, and she’s been drunk for half the day already. You really feel her struggles and frustration in the moment and want to reach for a beer yourself. It is such a skillful execution of this narration style and gets across Franca’s emotions in the moment so well. These scenes usually culminate in either Henry coming in and at least somewhat soothing things and slowing them down, or a bit of violence to snap things back into reality.
Building off of that, I feel like the letter and therapy appointments formatting of the book works against it the vast majority of the time. The author wants to write out these detailed scenes of too many things happening or full multi-person conversations, but those just make the letter feel fake. Until a little before the end, the entire book (including her therapists appointments) are written in the present (a while after the dinner party) as an exercise directed by her therapist to help her piece things together. The thing is, this very detailed style of writing either makes me forget that it's a letter format entirely for paragraphs at a time or it makes me want to comment on how unrealistic it is for her to remember these moments in so much detail. Suspension of disbelief, yes of course, but there’s even a moment where her therapist comments that she remembers her conversations with the guests in surprising detail! It just feels more like a problem that actively works against the narrative than an interesting feature.
That was probably the most heavy-handed conclusions to a book I have read in so long. Deep-cut maybe, but remember that old-ish tweet criticizing that Rick and Morty special (?) for having the therapist character come out and just explain all of Rick's problems directly to him and his family in lieu of actually attempting to write? Yeah. On one hand, I think that the actual conclusion to everything in the book is good. I caught on extremely early to the subversion () which isn’t inherently a bad thing (I’d much rather a reveal to be too obvious than to be completely undetectable) but I felt like it was executed poorly here. The conclusionary conversation with her therapist was honestly painful to get through. There is no need to have her explicitly say out loud the main idea of the book.
With that, though, I loved the main theme of the book and how it worked with the subversion.
There’s also this growing discussion in the background of the book about white/Eurocentricism in literature and how those books get recognized over those from other cultures/origins. I’m very mixed on this aspect. On one hand, I appreciate there being a growing background ordeal that we come back to now and then. I think it was a very smart choice of a thing to bring some conflict between the guests in their increasing debate. On the other hand, the actual choice of discussion is weird to me. The New York Times review of this book describes it as “trite” and I have to agree. I mean, this is a group of decently rich white Europeans (all British other than Franca, who is Dutch) debating whether or not more non-western literature should have been selected for a project they worked on (that they're celebrating with the dinner party). I think partially that’s the point and the triteness is intentional. Like, the selection is done and they are already celebrating, so debating these things might only pat themselves on the back. Looking at it another way, it might be the author kinda amalgamating (white) women’s way of being overlooked with the way that non-western writing was overlooked by the project. I personally don’t really like that reading of it, but I may just be reading into it differently than the author intended. I think that having both Franca and Henry involve themselves in this conversation while neither having finished their English degrees also slots into this idea that it's all just a bit banal coming from them. It was just an interesting choice of topic by the author for this. There’s a general theme of literature and what books are throughout the book which I really enjoyed, but this one aspect I couldn’t put my hand on. It all kinda canceled out to being completely neutral to me, but I wanted to include my notes on this part.
Still, I think that van de Sandt is a very skilled writer and handled the somewhat complex narration style and tension of this book well. Though I didn’t love this one I will definitely keep an eye out for anything she puts out next. This is definitely going to be a hit or miss for most readers, but those who love it will really love it. Also, the stay at home girlfriend/fiancé complex needs to end oh my God get out of there.
There was a dinner party that her fiance sprung onto her at the last minute. There was a kitten that he got her as a surprise a few weeks ago that she never asked for. There was a broken fridge and spoiled meat. There was way too much drinking and “bad sex”. There was an old friend who ghosted her, appearing by chance as a plus-one. And, there was a knife. The Dinner Party is the recounting of Franca back to the dinner party where everything went wrong. We intersperse the retelling of events (stylized as a letter to Harry - her old friend who, by chance, showed up at the party) with flashbacks to her life in the years before the party and the present conversations she has with her therapist (about a year later) about recollecting what happened and where her life is now.
I think that the best part of the novel is its overall tone and tension that the author sets. We are often struck with rapid-fire events or conversations one after another or all at the same time and we feel Franca’s overstimulation and confusion. It’s late and the chicken isn’t even in the oven yet, the chorizo filling is burning, her fiancé is calling her back to the garden for another drink, the kitten is scratching at her legs, and she’s been drunk for half the day already. You really feel her struggles and frustration in the moment and want to reach for a beer yourself. It is such a skillful execution of this narration style and gets across Franca’s emotions in the moment so well. These scenes usually culminate in either Henry coming in and at least somewhat soothing things and slowing them down, or a bit of violence to snap things back into reality.
Building off of that, I feel like the letter and therapy appointments formatting of the book works against it the vast majority of the time. The author wants to write out these detailed scenes of too many things happening or full multi-person conversations, but those just make the letter feel fake. Until a little before the end, the entire book (including her therapists appointments) are written in the present (a while after the dinner party) as an exercise directed by her therapist to help her piece things together. The thing is, this very detailed style of writing either makes me forget that it's a letter format entirely for paragraphs at a time or it makes me want to comment on how unrealistic it is for her to remember these moments in so much detail. Suspension of disbelief, yes of course, but there’s even a moment where her therapist comments that she remembers her conversations with the guests in surprising detail! It just feels more like a problem that actively works against the narrative than an interesting feature.
That was probably the most heavy-handed conclusions to a book I have read in so long. Deep-cut maybe, but remember that old-ish tweet criticizing that Rick and Morty special (?) for having the therapist character come out and just explain all of Rick's problems directly to him and his family in lieu of actually attempting to write? Yeah. On one hand, I think that the actual conclusion to everything in the book is good. I caught on extremely early to the subversion () which isn’t inherently a bad thing (I’d much rather a reveal to be too obvious than to be completely undetectable) but I felt like it was executed poorly here. The conclusionary conversation with her therapist was honestly painful to get through. There is no need to have her explicitly say out loud the main idea of the book.
With that, though, I loved the main theme of the book and how it worked with the subversion.
There’s also this growing discussion in the background of the book about white/Eurocentricism in literature and how those books get recognized over those from other cultures/origins. I’m very mixed on this aspect. On one hand, I appreciate there being a growing background ordeal that we come back to now and then. I think it was a very smart choice of a thing to bring some conflict between the guests in their increasing debate. On the other hand, the actual choice of discussion is weird to me. The New York Times review of this book describes it as “trite” and I have to agree. I mean, this is a group of decently rich white Europeans (all British other than Franca, who is Dutch) debating whether or not more non-western literature should have been selected for a project they worked on (that they're celebrating with the dinner party). I think partially that’s the point and the triteness is intentional. Like, the selection is done and they are already celebrating, so debating these things might only pat themselves on the back. Looking at it another way, it might be the author kinda amalgamating (white) women’s way of being overlooked with the way that non-western writing was overlooked by the project. I personally don’t really like that reading of it, but I may just be reading into it differently than the author intended. I think that having both Franca and Henry involve themselves in this conversation while neither having finished their English degrees also slots into this idea that it's all just a bit banal coming from them. It was just an interesting choice of topic by the author for this. There’s a general theme of literature and what books are throughout the book which I really enjoyed, but this one aspect I couldn’t put my hand on. It all kinda canceled out to being completely neutral to me, but I wanted to include my notes on this part.
Still, I think that van de Sandt is a very skilled writer and handled the somewhat complex narration style and tension of this book well. Though I didn’t love this one I will definitely keep an eye out for anything she puts out next. This is definitely going to be a hit or miss for most readers, but those who love it will really love it. Also, the stay at home girlfriend/fiancé complex needs to end oh my God get out of there.
November 8, 2025
4.5 stars - this is truly nothing like you've ever read. it's not a traditional thriller, but the prose is beautiful. i'm looking forward to reading more of viola's stories!
November 21, 2025
This is a difficult review to write, mainly because I'm not sure about how I feel about this book.
On the one hand I did kind of enjoy it but in the other hand I didn't.
What I did like about it was how I got into the story right away and I found the plot on the whole to be interesting.
I liked our FMC Franca as I found her to be an intriguing character and I was interested in her relationship with her fiancé Andrew. I would have liked more about their relationship as I felt this was the most interesting part of the book.
This is a very much a literary fiction character study, where nothing actually happens plot wise. So of course I was desperate for something to happen but it never did.
By the halfway point it was starting to feel a bit muddled, like the the story had wandered off and the whole thing felt like it lacked direction.
There were parts of the story I did like and I found the writing style engaging but there was just not enough happening in this for me.
Thanks to Headline for the ARC I received in exchange for an honest review
On the one hand I did kind of enjoy it but in the other hand I didn't.
What I did like about it was how I got into the story right away and I found the plot on the whole to be interesting.
I liked our FMC Franca as I found her to be an intriguing character and I was interested in her relationship with her fiancé Andrew. I would have liked more about their relationship as I felt this was the most interesting part of the book.
This is a very much a literary fiction character study, where nothing actually happens plot wise. So of course I was desperate for something to happen but it never did.
By the halfway point it was starting to feel a bit muddled, like the the story had wandered off and the whole thing felt like it lacked direction.
There were parts of the story I did like and I found the writing style engaging but there was just not enough happening in this for me.
Thanks to Headline for the ARC I received in exchange for an honest review
November 3, 2025
The Dinner Party by Viola van de Sandt ⭐️⭐️⭐️
When Franca’s fiancé, Andrew, suggests a dinner party she plans and cooks a meal. Nothing goes right with the dinner party, especially when an unexpected guest shows.
This one is very uniquely done, taking place in a singular evening. Not much happens until the end but the suspense builds and builds, especially as the narrator’s reliability begins to slip. The ending was surprising, but also not because it has been building for so long that I knew something serious was about to happen!
“You said once I could do whatever I wanted to. It felt like a plant with glossy leaves and unfolding flowers had started growing in my chest. But I’d let it wither, sometime during the past four years, not by making only miracles, but by doing nothing.”
The Dinner Party comes out 11/14.
When Franca’s fiancé, Andrew, suggests a dinner party she plans and cooks a meal. Nothing goes right with the dinner party, especially when an unexpected guest shows.
This one is very uniquely done, taking place in a singular evening. Not much happens until the end but the suspense builds and builds, especially as the narrator’s reliability begins to slip. The ending was surprising, but also not because it has been building for so long that I knew something serious was about to happen!
“You said once I could do whatever I wanted to. It felt like a plant with glossy leaves and unfolding flowers had started growing in my chest. But I’d let it wither, sometime during the past four years, not by making only miracles, but by doing nothing.”
The Dinner Party comes out 11/14.
November 17, 2025
Thank you to the author, narrator, publisher and Net Galley for providing the ALC.
To start, I wish there was a trigger warning of some type for this book. I would have skipped it - or just had more time to prepare - for the graphic scenes. I was expecting a book about the stresses a woman faces at home and events rather than a woman who was abused in the past, and was still being abused in the book.
This book takes place over the course of an evening, and then therapy sessions dealing with the evening. We have an unreliable narrator (not a fan), so I felt like I could never really trust what was right and correct. It left me confused to the point that I just didn't enjoy this book.
For the audiobook, while the narrator's voice was nice to listen to, I did not feel that they fit with the story.
2.0 stars. Just wasn't for me.
To start, I wish there was a trigger warning of some type for this book. I would have skipped it - or just had more time to prepare - for the graphic scenes. I was expecting a book about the stresses a woman faces at home and events rather than a woman who was abused in the past, and was still being abused in the book.
This book takes place over the course of an evening, and then therapy sessions dealing with the evening. We have an unreliable narrator (not a fan), so I felt like I could never really trust what was right and correct. It left me confused to the point that I just didn't enjoy this book.
For the audiobook, while the narrator's voice was nice to listen to, I did not feel that they fit with the story.
2.0 stars. Just wasn't for me.
December 31, 2025
I would say this book is not a thriller at all really, but rather, an EXTREMELY heavy handed social commentary. I'm not saying the characters are unbelievable, because they do reflect reality very aptly lol, but they read so profoundly as devices rather than characters coming to life. I COMPLETELY understand what this book was trying to do- - but my god was it so heavy handed and the absolute absolute basics of white feminism. this could be useful for someone who feels alone while struggling to reckon with the reality of rape culture and needs a firm voice to guide them through their process, but otherwise. as a reading experience itself, it just wasn't executed very strongly in my opinion.
Read
October 6, 2025If you go into this book expecting a typical gritty, revenge thriller, you may be disappointed. You probably could call this gritty, but it’s not a thriller.
Instead it’s a brutal walk through the narrators mind - switching between the present day and her past, recounting a specific dinner party - the culmination of which has led to her where she currently is.
I’m hoping upon release* there will be some trigger warnings added in as it’s pretty bleak in some parts, however it kept me reading and I did enjoy it, in a way.
*I read an ARC through NetGalley - thanks NetGalley!
Instead it’s a brutal walk through the narrators mind - switching between the present day and her past, recounting a specific dinner party - the culmination of which has led to her where she currently is.
I’m hoping upon release* there will be some trigger warnings added in as it’s pretty bleak in some parts, however it kept me reading and I did enjoy it, in a way.
*I read an ARC through NetGalley - thanks NetGalley!
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