beklovesbooks's review against another edition
3.75
Graphic: Mental illness, Physical abuse, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, War, Panic attacks/disorders, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Pregnancy, Violence, Alcohol, Medical content, Sexism, Sexual content, Blood, Death, Torture, and Cursing
clemrain's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
This book takes course through one dinner. An important dinner and discussion between difficult characters that are strong in their beliefs and will act on them. That is a threat.
The narrator, Paul, is astonishingly written. A wild ride of inner dialogues and anecdotes that are placed in just the right places. Koch uses great pacing and placements of Paul’s recounts. Paul is of the best unreliable narrator’s I’ve read.
The Dinner is such a real depiction of racism, prejudice and privilege. That doesn’t catch on until it does and then it just settles. I can’t explain it. Koch does such a good job. You really get put into the disillusionment of these people. It’s astonishing. These are some well written and realistic characters though majority of them, I really don't like.
I wish I could read this book in its original language. I wonder how much it would’ve differed. The pacing the wording. Either way, I do think this translation is effective.
The ending
Spoiler
is five stars to me. Of course it ended like that. There is no consequence for people like Paul. It was realistic. Though I wonder a lot what “disease” Paul left unmentioned. I wonder our conclusions as readers are meant to be us facing our own prejudice.This book is frustrating and for most of it I was just trying to understand what the point was. But there is a point and I wonder if it’ll ever be understood by the people this book is about.
Graphic: Hate crime, Medical content, Violence, and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Toxic relationship, Racism, Death, Blood, and Murder
Minor: Infidelity and Body horror
webb_beb's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Violence and Medical content
Moderate: Homophobia, Murder, and Racism
hollymich's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Graphic: Murder, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Racial slurs, and Hate crime
Moderate: Mental illness, Torture, Classism, Medical trauma, and Medical content
kashby's review against another edition
- Loveable characters? No
2.75
Minor: Alcohol, Death, Medical content, Murder, and Violence