A review by alexandrahorner
Supper Club, by Lara Williams

2.0

I feel like ironically this book resembled a form of perishable food - interesting and delicious at the beginning but quickly turning sour and pungent towards the end. I enjoyed parts of the first half of this novel however I felt that it rapidly descended into descriptions of cliched relationship tropes with no new insight. I liked the conceptual nature of the “Supper Club”, the party themes and the lavish description of over-indulgence. Initially, there were a few interesting points about womanhood and taking up space, and the relationship between selfhood and beauty. However, these concepts remain stagnant with little development. The long paragraphs (sometimes several pages) of recipe/instruction/food preparation technique were clumsily interwoven with the plot often only with the final sentence of the paragraph. It felt clunky and often broke up the rhythm of the novel. This book felt like a case of interesting concept but poor execution - where clearly the author had an idea the novel was formed around, but the supplementary 'filler' plot of romance was dreary and uninspired. I’m disappointed because I truly did want to love this, and for a while thought I would, however couldn’t help but cringe at the cliche-riddled last few pages.