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Supper Club

Lara Williams (Goodreads Author)

3.55 · Rating details · 4,133 ratings · 514 reviews

A sharply intelligent and intimate debut novel about a secret society of hungry young women who meet after dark and feast to reclaim their appetites--and their physical spaces--that posits the question: if you feed a starving woman, what will she grow into?

Roberta spends her life trying not to take up space. At almost thirty, she is adrift and alienated from life. Stuc ...more

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Paperback, 304 pages

Published July 9th 2019 by Hamish Hamilton (first published July 4th 2019)

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· 4,133 ratings · 514 reviews

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Jun 15, 2019 Blair rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-on-kindle, first-novels, 2019-release, recent-favourites, contemporary, edelweiss

(4.5) There's something in the water in 2019. It's been a bumper year for books by and about young women, books that talk about contemporary life in smart, fresh, subversive ways while remaining relatable. These books embrace feminism without taking the tedious dystopia route. They explore 'coming of age' without telling the types of stories that have been written a million times. They're all very different, but I feel inclined to group them together: Bunny, The New Me, Everything You Ever Wante ...more

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Sep 02, 2019 Kitty rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: finished-against-better-judgment

'He's got a real problem with Supper Club. Like, he said we think we're doing something really profound, but actually, we're doing something which is at best basic, and at worst, just really fucking bourgeoise and gross.'

Page 98 of the UK paperback edition gives it all away.

I really wanted to like this book based on the premise, but sadly the actual Supper Clubs take up only 15% of the whole narrative. The (in theory) brilliant idea of a secret society that embraces female hedonism is cast asi 'He's got a real problem with Supper Club. Like, he said we think we're doing something really profound, but actually, we're doing something which is at best basic, and at worst, just really fucking bourgeoise and gross.'

Page 98 of the UK paperback edition gives it all away.

I really wanted to like this book based on the premise, but sadly the actual Supper Clubs take up only 15% of the whole narrative. The (in theory) brilliant idea of a secret society that embraces female hedonism is cast aside in favour of a more conventional narrative about a woman grappling with the aftermath of rape and the overall shitty-ness of cis-men. It would have been so much more interesting to focus on the individual women and their personal development inside this group of other women, instead, the main character (Roberta) links up with a baffling amount of side-characters that are usually just there to deliver one thought or idea and then just fuck off again. There is an attempt at making the main character multi-dimensional, but it falls short, basically oscillating between 'I'm baby' and 'Eating a lot has made me strong’.

This story is a marketing department's wet dream: Wanting to be both part Conversations with Friends and part My Year of Rest and Relaxation. It is neither. The book might have benefitted from being published as a novella, with large chunks of the college-experience and cooking tips/explanations-insertions cut.

Another issue is queer representation in this book: There is a large number of women that date women in the book (great, lovely, wonderful) but (to me, a queer person) it always feels tokenising. The issue of misgendering the only trans character (via pronouns in her introduction that are then *gasp* changed to reveal her trans-ness) is just lazy and unimaginative, if not damaging.

Speaking of unimaginative: this is one of those books where you can watch the author bumble through the text, having been briefly enamoured with a specific word that they totally have to use at least twice over the next 5 pages. ('Gung-ho', 'parochial', etc).

I seldom force myself to finish a book, but I did with Supper Club, hoping that maybe the end would offer an interesting or somehow sparkling conclusion. Alas, what I got was exactly in line with my reading experience: a forced food fight.

Also, literally no character in this book is able to hold, pour or carry a wine glass without spilling some of it. Maybe they should opt for Sippy Cups next time. ...more

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Sep 06, 2019 Gumble's Yard rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2019-ntb, 2019

Winner of the 2019 Guardian Not The Booker prize.

I had previously read the author’s short story collection “Treats” due to its shortlisting for the inaugural
Republic of Consciousness prize. That book began (appropriately) with the excellent “It begins” – which over 5 pages effortlessly sketched out a few years of the post graduate life of a young girl (moving back home, unable to get a paid job in arts and settling on an office job, falling in love, breakdown of marriage, post-divorce dating). ...more

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Jun 26, 2019 Sarah rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, netgalley

When describing what Supper Club is about - women seeking to have a positive relationship with food and their bodies, female friendships, women who want to take up space and reclaim their bodies, bodies which men have often taken advantage of - it sounds right up my street. I've seen comparisons made to Fleabag: The Original Play, My Year of Rest and Relaxation, Animals and The New Me, other recent novels with (the very of the moment) "unlikeable female protagonist(s)". Of these I'd say Supper C ...more

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Jan 24, 2019 Tory rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2019, arcs

This book is structured around the premise that bucking beauty standards by pigging out and getting fat is revolutionary and a feminist protest -- except EVERYONE is overweight now. According to the WHO, in 2014 (five years ago at this point), 62% of adults in the UK (where this book is set) were overweight or obese. That statistic has only gone up. It's like getting a tattoo to be rebellious, except everyone is tattooed now. NOT getting a tattoo would be the act of rebellion at this point. Bein ...more

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Jun 27, 2019 Rebecca rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: foodie-lit, reviewed-for-blog, read-via-edelweiss, offered-by-publisher-author, 2019-second-half, feminist

“What could violate social convention more than women coming together to indulge their hunger and take up space?” Roberta and Stevie become instant besties when Stevie is hired as an intern at the fashion website where Roberta has been a writer for four years. Stevie is a would-be artist and Roberta loves to cook; they decide to combine their talents and host Supper Clubs that allow emotionally damaged women to indulge their appetites. The pop-ups take place at down-at-heel or not-strictly-legal “What could violate social convention more than women coming together to indulge their hunger and take up space?” Roberta and Stevie become instant besties when Stevie is hired as an intern at the fashion website where Roberta has been a writer for four years. Stevie is a would-be artist and Roberta loves to cook; they decide to combine their talents and host Supper Clubs that allow emotionally damaged women to indulge their appetites. The pop-ups take place at down-at-heel or not-strictly-legal locations, the food is foraged from dumpsters, and there are sometimes elaborate themes and costumes. These bacchanalian events tend to devolve into drunkenness, drug-taking, partial nudity and food fights.

The central two-thirds of the book alternates chapters between the present day, when Roberta is 28–30, and her uni days. I don’t think it can be coincidental that Roberta and Stevie are both feminized male names; rather, we are meant to ask to what extent all the characters have defined themselves in terms of the men in their lives. For Roberta, this includes the father who left when she was seven and now thinks he can send her chatty e-mails whenever he wants; the fellow student who raped her at uni; and the philosophy professor she dated for ages even though he treated her like an inconvenient child. Supper Club is performance art, but it’s also about creating personal meaning when family and romance have failed you.

I was slightly disappointed that Supper Club itself becomes less important as time goes on, and that we never get closure about Roberta’s father. I also found it difficult to keep the secondary characters’ backstories straight. But overall this is a great debut novel with strong themes of female friendship and food. Roberta opens most chapters with cooking lore and tips, and there are some terrific scenes set in cafés. I suspect this will mean a lot to a lot of young women. Particularly if you’ve liked Sweetbitter and Friendship, give it a taste.

Some favorite lines:

“What I needed was sustenance. Fortification. The act of cooking imposed a kind of dignity on hunger, which had become terrifying.”

“After talking about things we were watching on Netflix, Dadaism and what you can do with softened tomatoes, we decided it would be a good idea to dance.”

“My whole life was the push/pull of appetite: wanting to consume, but also to be consumed.”

“‘I find cooking sort of a radical act,’ I said. He continued staring at the road. ‘Oh yeah?’ he replied, just mildly amused. ‘Oh yes. It’s the transience. All that time for a fleeting pleasure. Nothing else is like that.”

“I got out my phone again and watched it with a feeling of wildness and urgency: this stupid metallic slab that I poured so much of myself into.” ...more

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Nov 12, 2019 Trudie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: other-awards

* 3.5 *

Supper Club , as nearly every review will tell you sits nicely in amongst other stories of "Millennial malaise". It is lighter than My Year of Rest and Relaxation , not a pseudo dystopia like Severance and from what I can tell not as funny as Fleabag. What did tickle my fancy was all the raucous Bacchanalian feasting. We learn handy pointers for caramelising onions, making your first (and probably only) sourdough starter, spaghetti puttanesca ( or sluts spaghetti, yell at Nigella for tha ...more

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Jul 21, 2019 Jessica Sullivan rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: literary-fiction, 5-stars, 2019-read

This evocative novel is built around such a fierce and exciting premise: a group of women hungry for something more in their lives form a secret society called the Supper Club, where they get together every few weeks and feast on decadent foods all night long until they’re sick. They take drugs. They dance. They trash their surroundings. They put on weight. They reclaim their appetites in every sense: indulging their hungers both literally and figuratively; taking up space in a world where women This evocative novel is built around such a fierce and exciting premise: a group of women hungry for something more in their lives form a secret society called the Supper Club, where they get together every few weeks and feast on decadent foods all night long until they’re sick. They take drugs. They dance. They trash their surroundings. They put on weight. They reclaim their appetites in every sense: indulging their hungers both literally and figuratively; taking up space in a world where women are expected to do the opposite.

Roberta is the protagonist of the novel and she has spent much of her life trying not to take up space. Apologizing for everything. Compartmentalizing herself to fit in with the people around her, but never feeling like she’s enough. Enduring a series of men ranging from disappointing to downright abusive. She’s pushing 30 when she meets the confident and free-spirited Stevie and they come up with the idea for the club—based in part on Roberta’s love of cooking that she cultivated over the years to give herself a sense of purpose.

Finally, Roberta is coming out of her shell and indulging herself like never before—but then an old crush comes back into her life. Unlike the other men from her past, he’s a good person who treats her well. But her budding relationship with him threatens the progress she has made and forces her to question what she really desires most—and what will make her feel truly fulfilled.

Timely and perceptive, this unique coming-of-age story is full of keen observations about modern life, lush descriptions of food and repressed female rage. I found myself wishing that it had gone in a darker direction to do justice to the carnal, decadent premise, and I was less interested in the relationship sub-plot than the supper club, but by the end it’s clear that this is above all else a Bildungsroman story, and it was a pleasure to indulge in it. (Extra points to the author for an absolutely perfect final few paragraphs.) ...more

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Jun 04, 2019 trisha rated it did not like it · review of another edition

I really didn't enjoy this book. I understood some of the points she was trying to make e.g. appreciating our bodies whatever the size. I thought the gorging and vomiting was disturbing and really unpleasant to read about. I feel she's missed the point she's seemingly trying to make. and I found it uncomfortably lacking in the feminism for which she's reaching.. ...more

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Nov 30, 2019 Esil rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Urgh!

There’s something seriously wrong with my reading habits. I got an advance copy of Such a Fun Age. I started reading a book that my Kindle said was Such a Fun Age. About 10% of the way in, I thought the story has nothing to do with the description, and I went back to the title page, only to discover I was reading a completely different book — The Supper Club. By that point, I really wasn’t enjoying it much. Most human beings in this situation would stop reading and find the book they meant Urgh!

There’s something seriously wrong with my reading habits. I got an advance copy of Such a Fun Age. I started reading a book that my Kindle said was Such a Fun Age. About 10% of the way in, I thought the story has nothing to do with the description, and I went back to the title page, only to discover I was reading a completely different book — The Supper Club. By that point, I really wasn’t enjoying it much. Most human beings in this situation would stop reading and find the book they meant to read. But not me. Once I’ve started reading a book, even if I don’t much like it, I have trouble putting on the brakes...

And I wish my accidental reading of The Supper Club had led me to discover a book I loved. But, alas, no such luck. The Supper Club is primarily about Roberta, a young woman living in contemporary England. The story focuses on two alternating times in her life — when she was a young university student and a few years later when she is in her late 20s. Roberta is deeply lonely and socially awkward. Her relationships with men and friends are fractious and difficult. But she and her friend Stevie land on a liberating idea — a small club of young women who have supper together every now and then where they break through many conventional norms — food comes from dumpsters, they drink a lot and take drugs, they vomit, they wear weird costumes, and they dance late into the night. I get it the concept. I also recognize that Roberta’s troubles are borne out of legitimate trauma. And some of the writing was top notch. But I just couldn’t get into Roberta’s sad anxious headspace. It was all a bit too claustrophobic for me. This is probably better suited to a younger audience. There was some great information about food and cooking, but otherwise this was not for me.

The good news is that I finished The Supper Club quickly because it’s quite short, and then moved on to Such a Fun Age, which I really liked...

Thanks to the publisher for the inadvertent advance copy. I also happened to have advertent — not a word, I know — copies from Netgalley and Edelweiss that I had not yet got around to reading... ...more

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Jun 07, 2019 Coreena McBurnie rated it it was ok · review of another edition

I loved the premise of this book -- about women taking up space, finding out what they really want, not changing themselves for someone else, growing into who they want to be.

And there is this in Supper Club. Still, the execution did not work for me. I did not like this book much. The characters mostly annoyed me. I found the female friendships OK. The eating, drinking, doing drugs, etc to excess was difficult to read, but maybe that was the point. The men tended to be terrible, but maybe that ...more

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Jul 14, 2019 Lotte rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2019-release, ge-adult-contemporary, 2019-read, a-fiction, reviewed, t-fuck-yeah-feminism, t-women-misbehaving, t-university

When I first heard about this book, I instantly fell in love with its premise (and its stunning cover). It sounds so interesting – and it is!
In the eponymous supper club, women meet to devour lavish meals together, to unapologetically feast and overindulge on food. By literally and figuratively taking up more space, they try to reclaim power over their own bodies and redefine their (physical) place in society. This is what the supper club (founded by the novel's protagonist Roberta and her best When I first heard about this book, I instantly fell in love with its premise (and its stunning cover). It sounds so interesting – and it is!
In the eponymous supper club, women meet to devour lavish meals together, to unapologetically feast and overindulge on food. By literally and figuratively taking up more space, they try to reclaim power over their own bodies and redefine their (physical) place in society. This is what the supper club (founded by the novel's protagonist Roberta and her best friend Stevie) is all about. The novel Supper Club as a whole, however, is about a lot more than that.
At the heart of it, this story is about Roberta, her past and her coming-of-age. It is still very much an exploration of women's relationships to their bodies and to food, but these themes are mainly mediated through Roberta, her experience with loneliness and isolation at university, but also her romantic relationships and friendships. The complicated bond between her and Stevie was very well fleshed out, but reminded me almost a little too much of the relationship between Frances and Bobbi in Sally Rooney's Conversations with Friends, which I read a couple of months ago. Roberta's and Stevie's co-dependence was still interesting to read about, but because of the similarities I couldn't stop comparing these two books with each other while I was reading this one.
Overall, I really liked Lara Williams' writing style and enjoyed the process of reading this (I finished it within two days after buying it). However, at times I wish she had gone a little more into depth with what she was trying to convey, as some characters didn't feel like characters and more like ideas she was exploring. All in all, this was a great debut novel that could've been amazing if it had just a little more substance (pun intended?) to it.

Since this is a fairly new release, I'll also mention some content warnings, but will mark them as a spoiler:
(view spoiler) ...more

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Jun 15, 2019 Marco rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: overlooked-books, 2019-what-to-look-for, literature

Look, I've read the reviews so far - you either love it or you didn't. It's either 1/2 stars or 4/5. But I can tell you, you've never read a book like this before. And if you've ever had questions about where you fit in and how, you'll identify. This is not a "feel good" book, that's not what you're getting here, or even a introspective story - this is more real than those fake books.

Do you ever think sometimes the life you're living - you're living it as an imposter? And this is an actual thing ...more

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Aug 04, 2019 Makenzie rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2019-favourites

A less nihilistic, but more relatable (and therefore more upsetting) version of Ottessa Moshfegh's My Year of Rest and Relaxation. It's the sort of book I wish had existed when I was 15, although I probably would've been horrified by it. Normally I'm more resigned about the degree to which women's bodies are policed, but this book actually made me furious about it, particularly for my younger self. Lara Williams really just gets it. Subversive and humorous, I won't forget it soon. ...more

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Dec 09, 2019 Kyra Leseberg (Roots & Reads) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Roberta has spent her entire life trying to be enough but not too much. She finds power in being thin but has a passion for food and longs for friends though she spends most of her time in her room.

Nearing thirty, Roberta's life is shaken up by Stevie, a free-spirited artist she meets at work. Together the women give in to their hunger and create Supper Club. Dumpster diving for food and buying booze, a group of women break into private buildings to feast on their finds, dress elaborately for ...more

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May 13, 2019 Tess rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

A beautiful, thrilling piece of fiction from an amazing author. SUPPER CLUB was not easy to get through, but it was worth the journey. I would call it a complicated piece of feminist literature, and would be very interested to see what other, smarter people think of it in that regard.

The idea of a feminist bacchanal is perhaps not the most original idea, but I truly appreciate the author’s attempt at making it current, wild, and urgent. Your heart will break for Roberta, but you’ll root for her ...more

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May 26, 2020 Niki rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: hard-pass, contemporary

What a bitter disappointment this was. It promises a lot but delivers so, so little.

You may think that since this book is titled "Supper Club" it'd be all about said Supper Club, the women in it, how it was formed, seeing the meetings, all that, right? WRONG. Granted, you do see all that, but it's such a small part of the book and is, ultimately, given so little room to breathe, that it may as well be a footnote.

The book's non-linear timeline does it no favours. Instead of having an a-ha! moment What a bitter disappointment this was. It promises a lot but delivers so, so little.

You may think that since this book is titled "Supper Club" it'd be all about said Supper Club, the women in it, how it was formed, seeing the meetings, all that, right? WRONG. Granted, you do see all that, but it's such a small part of the book and is, ultimately, given so little room to breathe, that it may as well be a footnote.

The book's non-linear timeline does it no favours. Instead of having an a-ha! moment when we see Roberta's past, "Oh, so THAT'S why she was so into creating Supper Club, that's why she, in particular, needs that sisterhood", there is SO MUCH time dedicated to her several relationships and internalized misogyny that the entire message of the Supper Club rings hollow. Seeing as, again, it's the book's title, you'd think that the entire "women claiming their right to take space in the world" message would be the focus, but instead it's Roberta talking about comparing herself to other, thinner women and slyly talking shit about them in the narration, and having terrible relationships with terrible men, probably in an attempt to show that the patriarchy is toxic or something. Roberta spends 50% of the book kind of dipping her toes in humblebragging about being fuckable but also whining that she's actually not happy in those relationships, but still stays because it's better than being a spinster (???? maybe? That's not explicitly said in the book but it's the only explanation I can gather, she doesn't want to be alone)

I get that those parts were probably meant as society's expectations of Roberta, that she kept trying to fulfill but was ultimately unhappy, and why she decided to launch Supper Club. The problem is, her relationship with the Supper Club girls are just as unhappy and toxic. Stevie forces her to do stuff she doesn't want, like breaking into places, and the other girls just don't exist at all, they're LESS than cardboard cutouts. There's no sisterhood to speak of. The actual Supper Club scenes, few as they may be, are fun, but I felt absolutely no feminist camaraderie between the girls, it's just some drunken partying. There's nothing profound about it.

Even the "appreciating your body no matter what its size is" message was completely hollow. When Roberta is describing a past relationship (with her professor, no less!) she makes sure to highlight how fuckable she was because she was skinny and young, not in a critical way, but rather a lot like bragging. Even later, when she gains weight, she's super self-conscious about it and is always thinking about hiding her belly with her coat while she's sitting somewhere, and stuff like that.

I just don't understand what the point was. Supper Club (as in the actual club, not the book in general) was supposed to be a way for the women to grow and embrace themselves, yet Roberta is still in an unhappy relationship by the end (it's implied that they may break up because of the last SC, but we're never shown that), Stevie is still a Manic Pixie Dream Girl that brings Roberta down for not having ambition yet doesn't have any herself, and the other women aren't even there. By the end, the reader knows a lot more about Roberta's asshole boyfriends or her terrible dad than about any of the Supper Club women.

So, what did I like about the book? I liked the potential and I liked any and all descriptions that were about food, the author made everything sound delicious. Oh, and that one scene when Roberta meets that professor boyfriend I mentioned years later, and she dismisses him like the asshole he was, even though the narration was almost setting up a "rekindling of the old spark" scenario. That's about it. ...more

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Jan 27, 2020 Vanessa rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I loved Lara Williams's short story collection Treats when I read it a few years ago, so I was excited to check out her debut novel. I ended up really enjoying Supper Club, despite not really knowing what kind of book I was getting myself into.

I tend to shy away from books that contain depictions of people overeating (especially to the point of being sick), having been slightly traumatised by the Bruce Bogtrotter scene in Matilda as a child, but I was surprised to find that this element of Supp I loved Lara Williams's short story collection Treats when I read it a few years ago, so I was excited to check out her debut novel. I ended up really enjoying Supper Club, despite not really knowing what kind of book I was getting myself into.

I tend to shy away from books that contain depictions of people overeating (especially to the point of being sick), having been slightly traumatised by the Bruce Bogtrotter scene in Matilda as a child, but I was surprised to find that this element of Supper Club actually didn't really bother me. In fact, I revelled in the many frequent descriptions of the dishes that Roberta cooks throughout the novel, both the more standard recipe book style instructions and the throwaway mentions of her culinary attempts. Williams really has a knack for writing descriptions that have a buoyant realism for the reader, and I felt like my mouth was watering continuously.

I've seen people criticise the fact that this book isn't just about the concept of the Supper Club, but also that it delves into Roberta's past life at university, and it seems many don't like the switching back and forth in time. I found it worked for me because I was always interested in Roberta as a person, in all stages of life. She isn't the most likeable character at times, and often I found myself getting really frustrated for her, but I also was the one standing in her corner tirelessly rooting for her at points. I liked the switch between past and present because it highlighted the struggles she was facing as a late twenty-something so much more. There was only one instance where the time switching bothered me, and that was towards the end of the novel because I didn't realise it had happened and it left me a little marooned. But other than that, I was all for it.

At times I felt Williams hadn't quite got a grasp on what her distinct style was - especially in the opening of the book. I feel like I'm watching a writer evolve though on the page, and there is something really satisfying in that. So where some sections felt somewhat overwritten, that soon disappeared and I really felt tugged along by the flow of her writing.

The only thing I didn't really love about this book in hindsight though were some of the characters. Roberta herself is a complex character, and I've already mentioned that I didn't always like her, so I don't need characters to be 100% likeable in this book. But there were certain characters that felt just ridiculously toxic, and their actions felt incredibly childish and selfish to me in a way that was incredibly off-putting. In fact, sometimes I felt like in particular situations I was leaning more towards the person that I wasn't meant to be siding with, so that was a bit of an issue for me. I guess it's good to have complicated feelings over characters though, it definitely gives you more food for thought (pun surprisingly unintended).

Overall this was a really solid debut novel though, with some delicious descriptions and a genuinely satisfying ending. I can't wait to see what Lara Williams comes out with next. ...more

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Nov 05, 2018 Virginia rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Wow. Just Wow. I really don’t know what I expected out of the book, but I’m really happy with what I came out with. This story was incredible. A true testament to the changing female identity from when you’re young and awkward to when you finally think you have your life figured out. All in the span of 10-ish years.

This is a book I wish I read when I just graduated from college. I found a lot of myself in Roberta, the protagonist, and my heart broke with her that the world didn’t treat her righ ...more

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May 14, 2019 Sian rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

It's rare I give a book 5 stars nowadays but this book truly spoke to me. It felt like Fleabag but written about me, everything from the intense knowledge about food to the loneliness of feeling like you don't belong. I found so much of myself in Roberta that there were many moments of her pain that I cried through and I felt so incredibly understood. A wonderfully written book about a girl who just wants to be told what to do, only to realise that life doesn't work that way. ...more

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Aug 26, 2019 Jaclyn Crupi rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I’m really enjoying the female rage imbuing so much contemporary fiction. Here, Williams howls loudly about a woman’s place, what we hunger for and the space/s we occupy. I enjoyed every delicious morsel. The premise is two friends start a secret club where members gorge on food, drugs and dancing. The food writing is spectacular. This book will not be for everyone but I feel completely sated.

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Jan 31, 2020 Elizabeth rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: misc, 2000-now

Book 2 of 2020 - Supper Club

To eat is to fuck. - Claude Lévi-Strauss (or, more or less what he said).

My colleague, looking at the cover in the staff kitchen, through a mouthful of crisps: “Is it like Fight Club.”
Me: “Yes, yes it is.”

I didn’t really know how else to articulate this book, so I just let everyone who asked me about it project their first-glance opinions.

“Supper Club is a secret society for hungry women. Women who are sick of bad men and bad sex, of hinted expectations to talk les

...more

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Jul 02, 2020 Callum McLaughlin rated it liked it · review of another edition

It’s proving tricky to reconcile my feelings for this book, which I found simultaneously incisive and frustrating. We follow Roberta, a woman in her late 20s who sets up a supper club where she and fellow women can intentionally live to excess. It starts as a means of indulging their love of food without the scrutiny of men or the pressure to appear dainty and refined, but the gatherings become increasingly hedonistic and dangerous.

I love what the supper club itself represents: women’s desire to It’s proving tricky to reconcile my feelings for this book, which I found simultaneously incisive and frustrating. We follow Roberta, a woman in her late 20s who sets up a supper club where she and fellow women can intentionally live to excess. It starts as a means of indulging their love of food without the scrutiny of men or the pressure to appear dainty and refined, but the gatherings become increasingly hedonistic and dangerous.

I love what the supper club itself represents: women’s desire to break free of the male gaze and societal expectations; to live freely and to unapologetically take up space in ways and places they would normally be excluded from. It’s no coincidence that many of the women attending the gatherings have had their bodies violated or policed in some way by men, be they rape survivors, domestic abuse victims, or otherwise. As such, it’s clear there’s more going on beneath the surface for many of these women – Roberta included – as they use the supper club as a means to take back autonomy of their bodies and to collectively excise their buried trauma. Flashbacks to Roberta’s time at university a decade prior build on this theme, showing how the seeds of early trauma and social conditioning can continue to influence your wellbeing, behaviour and outlook years down the line. Across both timelines, Williams also does a good job of showing how both overt and micro-aggressions can quash female resolve and cause women to internalise misogyny of their own.

My trouble is how ironically self-indulgent the book is. Clunky dialogue full of exposition regularly spells out the novel’s every thematic intention with little room for debate. When a book is otherwise tackling interesting topics well, this heavy-handedness feels particularly awkward. Whilst it’s great to read a novel with lots of casual LGBT+ representation, the handling of queerness also felt a little clumsy and tokenistic at times. The introduction of a trans woman is particularly uncouth. She is deliberately misgendered, repeatedly referred to using male pronouns, allowing for her trans identity to be revealed like a plot twist before the switch is made to her correct pronouns. Well-meaning representation, perhaps, but certainly not without its flaws.

The book occasionally homes in on the importance and complexity of sisterhood, and I think this is where its real strength lies. But while the female supporting characters all remain flat archetypes who float in and out of the narrative purely to further Roberta’s story, a lot of time is spent on the various awful men in her life. This feels like an odd choice considering the book’s supposed focus on women removing themselves from male influence. Given the novel’s fixation with transformation, I also think the ending was underwhelming somehow; important in its own way, but not as bold or subversive as the novel seemed to be striving for.

This is one of those novels that had so many good ingredients (pardon the pun) that I kept feeling like I should be enjoying it more than I was. Perhaps that means there is also an element of right-book-wrong-time at play. Whatever the case, I can understand why this one has been so polarizing, but there was certainly enough of merit that I’d be willing to check out what Williams does next. ...more

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Aug 12, 2019 Lulufrances rated it it was ok · review of another edition

I'm so sad I didn't bond with this book.
It shouldn't have come as a surprise, seeing as Lara Williams' short story collection also wasn't entirely up my alley, just the individual sentences were rather lovely and well written, which made me want to try out a novel of hers and see if that form works better - alas, same case here.
She knows how to write, but she doesn't tell a story I like to read.
It didn't seem cohesive or strong, nothing was truly shocking, all the modernity of the themes got on ...more

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Jul 28, 2019 Georgia rated it really liked it · review of another edition

First of all, this cover – just look at it! The turquoise, the smushed blackberries – why is it so visually appealing to me?!

As you might guess, this is a book about food but it’s not one of those cutesy café stories (not that there’s anything wrong with those!), think more Bacchanalian feasting, recreational drug use, and breaking and entering. This story digs deep into the female experience, and into the notion that women spend their lives trying to take up less space. Trying to be thin, daint ...more

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Aug 02, 2019 idiomatic rated it it was ok · review of another edition

The sentences are occasionally "good" in an MFA sort of way but it is now my life's mission to find whoever decided to market as a bacchanal what is basically a pat and unchallenging fable about The Importance Of Female Friendships, pick them up by the hair, swing them around like the Trunchbull, and pelt them through the nearest window. ...more

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Oct 01, 2019 CynthiaA rated it did not like it

Shelves: abandoned

I don't DNF very often, but this book lost me at the puking dinner party with cocaine. I'm old and old fashioned. It started out ok, but I am clearly not the demographic this author is trying to reach. The women seemed excessively self-indulgent. I get their point, but I disagreed with their actions. I'm not saying its a bad book. I'm saying its not a book for me. ...more

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Jan 18, 2021 Aoife rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: library, adult, book-club-books, food, food-glorious-food

2.5 stars

CW: Rape, binge eating, self harm, drug use.

Roberta is someone who has always struggled to find her place in everything - her life, so far, has been one of solitude and looking on as others live their life. When Roberta meets Stevie, a wonderful friendship is born and soon Roberta's love of food and cooking transforms into the Supper Club - a night of eating and feasting that brings women together in wildness and debauchery. A chance for them to metaphorically and physically take up spa ...more

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Apr 11, 2020 Laura rated it liked it · review of another edition

Book reviews on www.snazzybooks.com

Supper Club is an enjoyable read, featuring some unlikable characters and a slightly strange storyline (though very hard hitting in some places) which means I found myself unsure of what I really thought of it, once I’d got to the end!

We know that Roberta is a flawed main character – I certainly found it hard to warm to her at various points because of her and Stevie’s actions what they do feels childish and just plain self-indulgent. They’re relatively privel Book reviews on www.snazzybooks.com

Supper Club is an enjoyable read, featuring some unlikable characters and a slightly strange storyline (though very hard hitting in some places) which means I found myself unsure of what I really thought of it, once I’d got to the end!

We know that Roberta is a flawed main character – I certainly found it hard to warm to her at various points because of her and Stevie’s actions what they do feels childish and just plain self-indulgent. They’re relatively priveleged women who are behaving in a very selfish way, putting other people’s livelihoods at risk for what? Some of the actions they take are unexcusable and seem to completely against the normal actions of anyone their age – but this is also one of the reasons why they, as the ‘Supper Club’, are doing it.

Roberta herself doesn’t seem to have much of a backbone at times, and can be quite hypocritical – one example is when she discusses with horror her manager’s fishing habit and how it cruel it is for the fish, but then on the next page is speaking about the meat she enjoys for dinner and likes to cook with. There are lots of other examples peppered throughout, and Stevie also manages to take a strong stance on many subjects whilst simultaneously caving spectcularly on other issues you’d think she’d care about.

But despite all this I did like Roberta – she felt like a real character: someone not perfect, with her own flaws and who makes mistakes, and although this did annoy me at times, at least she seemed real.

There are various deep issues explored in this novel – I don’t want to give too much away but between main character Roberta and her friends and relationships, the book explores sexual assault, female friendships, insecurity, privelege, body image issues and much more. There is a part where Roberta says how, when she had gained weight, visits to the doctors would always result in them blaming whatever ailment she had on the fact she was overweight, instead of seeing the real reason. I’ve heard a lot of people I know say the same – which is awful. She has been through some other really horrible experiences, and I felt that these parts were dealt with very well by the author.

The book jumps backwards and forwards in time a lot, which at times got a bit confusing – I wasn’t always sure which timeframe we were in, especially when some characters from the past started to come into the present day. There are also some parts which felt a little long – namely some of the paragraphs on cooking. For example, the section about caramelising onions went on far too long and for me didn’t add anything to the story.

Despite finding a lot of the characters’ actions silly and irritating, I still enjoyed Supper Club and would recommend it. The book questions how important the role of friends and particularly of men in modern women’s lives are – and how important should they be? What makes us satisfied with the lives we have, and what makes us want to break out of routine and responsibility? Roberta and her friends offer an interesting examiniation of this. ...more

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Jan 26, 2020 Holly rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2020-reads, audio

This was pretty good - sort of Conversations with Friends, sort of Kitchens of the Great Midwest. It feels a little repetitive, same drumbeat ... because it's cyclical and non-linear. And for all its putative emphasis on female friendship and women's reclamation of their appetites, there is almost too much focus on the protagonist's boyfriends (and not enough of Stevie). Also, so much vomiting! Audio narration was quite fine. ...more

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“The line between pleasure and revulsion can seem so very thin, if it even exists at all.” — 6 likes

“Delia Smith calls it ‘tart’s pasta’. Italian American restaurants call it ‘whore’s pasta’. But Nigella Lawson calls it ‘slut’s spaghetti’, and that’s the one I prefer. Because there’s nothing more terrifying than a woman who eats and fucks with abandon.” — 4 likes

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