I got tired of waiting for a hold of this at the library so I bought a copy. It’s very very pink. I am tempted to leave it in someone’s free library. Girl Dinner‘s main conceit is on the cover with the fork and the drops of blood. Every member of The House, the most exclusive sorority that is never named on the University campus that is never named eats people. The story alternates between the point of view of Nina Kaur a sophmore pledging the sorority and Dr. Sloane Hartley, an adjunct professor teaching sociology and teaching again after 18 months with her baby daughter. She ends up being the sosority’s faculty advisor. There’s also an important character in Country Wife, a sorority alumni and trad wife vlogger.
None of the women are really described all that well because that doesn’t really matter. The catagory this book falls in has been up for debate. I saw it under an ad for Tor Books, so I would have thought speculative fiction or fantasy horror. It’s definitely a satire. Horrifying things happen, but mostly off the page.
I sat with this one for a while and I decided I really liked it. You definitely have to believe there is a girl boss version of white feminism that is performative bullshit. It also HAS to end when it does or it doesn’t work. Nina is attracted to women and seems fine with that, but her partner of choice in the book seems like she might just be bored. There’s some swearing and some sex. Is it a deep rumination on motherhood and whether or not women can truly have it all like some reviewers have tried to make it out to be? No. But I liked it anyway. Maybe I was in the mood for something savage.
