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A review by becca_thegrimreader
Dinner Party: A Tragedy by Sarah Gilmartin
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
2.25
This book revolves around the Gleeson family told from different points of time from the 1990s all the way through to the present day. Kate, our narrator, hosts a dinner party on Halloween 2018 to mark the anniversary of her twin sister’s passing. At the end of the night, tensions have flared and we see that not all is right with our characters.
Gilmartin examines an Irish family dealing with the traumas they have gone through. The matriarch of the Gleeson family, Bernadette, is difficult and demanding. We watch as the rest of the family must bend to her will and appease her differing moods. Her ambitious aims for her children jar with what they really want, and through the course of the book, we see how this impacts them negatively. On the whole, I found Bernadette to be the most memorable character, in comparison, the rest of the family were lackluster at times and forgettable.
Grief comes to the forefront in this novel. Kate’s father dies in a car accident, and within a few years, Kate’s twin sister Elaine dies in an accident. The family dynamic crumbles with their mother becoming a shadow of her former self. Kate’s grief is something that weighs on her heavily. She is haunted by the memories of her sister who she views as the better twin and even comments that she should have been the one to die. She begins to self-destruct and suffers from an eating disorder. The writing during these parts is incredibly raw and moving.
What lets this book down is the pacing, it is painfully slow. There are many interesting parts in the book, but they are very spaced out. I found some sections hard to get through and fought the urge to give up many times.
Gilmartin examines an Irish family dealing with the traumas they have gone through. The matriarch of the Gleeson family, Bernadette, is difficult and demanding. We watch as the rest of the family must bend to her will and appease her differing moods. Her ambitious aims for her children jar with what they really want, and through the course of the book, we see how this impacts them negatively. On the whole, I found Bernadette to be the most memorable character, in comparison, the rest of the family were lackluster at times and forgettable.
Grief comes to the forefront in this novel. Kate’s father dies in a car accident, and within a few years, Kate’s twin sister Elaine dies in an accident. The family dynamic crumbles with their mother becoming a shadow of her former self. Kate’s grief is something that weighs on her heavily. She is haunted by the memories of her sister who she views as the better twin and even comments that she should have been the one to die. She begins to self-destruct and suffers from an eating disorder. The writing during these parts is incredibly raw and moving.
What lets this book down is the pacing, it is painfully slow. There are many interesting parts in the book, but they are very spaced out. I found some sections hard to get through and fought the urge to give up many times.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Eating disorder
Moderate: Toxic relationship