Reviews with content warning for Suicidal thoughts - Supper Club

Varias cosas sobre este libro:
1) sí, me ha gustado, es una lectura que me ha absorbido, pero eso no significa que sea un libro que me parezca buena o que recomendaría.
2) un libro no es feminista solo porque aparezcan mujeres haciendo cosas que normalmente no hacen las mujeres en los libros, en este caso, comer, drogarse y dañar la propiedad ajena. Mucho menos es feminista con las relaciones disfuncionales de las integrantes del club.
3) mención aparte merece la relación tóxica de Roberta con Stevie y con cualquier persona que la rodee, en realidad.
4) lo del club es secundario, no acaba de explicarse, de entenderse, de tener un cometido.
5) este libro va en realidad de Roberta, que tiene trauma pro el abandono de su padre y no sabe relacionarse con la gente, no sabe entablar relaciones ni expresar sus sentimientos, así que hace lo que mucha gente, acallar sus sentimientos con comida y desarrollar un tca. Se arrastra por relaciones con chicos que ni le gustan y ni la tratan bien, todo por castigarse por el sentido de culpabilidad que siente con su padre. Sigue obsesionada con su aspecto ficio y su quilos de más mientras sigue dándose atracones, eso es un TCA. Cambia de personalidad para encajar con quien sea, una amiga, una compañera de trabajo o un novio. Y en ningún momento recibe la atención psicológica que merece.
6) Stevie es despreciable, pero aún así la autora es incapaz de contar por qué todo el mundo la desprecia y por qué Roberta y ella se hacen amigas, la sensación es que nadie más las aguanta. Se enfadan sin razón, sin hablar y lo arreglan todos por qué si.

Content Warnings

angewilliamson's review against another edition

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slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

0.25

This books sucks. It sucks so bad that I hope no one ever attempts to read it. If you want to hate someone, Roberta is the perfect character because she has very little redeeming qualities, so little that I can’t even think of something nice to say about her right now. This book has random inserts of sexual thoughts that DO NOT fit in with the previous thought accompanying it. Seriously, Lara Williams must have thought of every negative stereotype that effects women and decided to reinforce them rather than diminish them. These women have so much potential to be utilized in this story and they just aren’t. It makes you wonder what their point even is, which probably just boils down to them being “diversity” points.

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keepreadingbooks's review

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challenging dark emotional hopeful tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

The endorsements on the cover of Supper Club call it joyful, celebratory and funny (besides dark, carnal, feral and indulgent), and I have to say that, to me, that felt slightly misleading. I’ll give it celebratory, but I rarely found it joyful or funny. The main character, Roberta, and her friend Stevie create the Supper Club – a food club for women to eat with abandon and indulge themselves, to take up the space that is denied them in society, both metaphorically and physically. And you would think, “how great that they do this!”, except it never really feels like Roberta actually does celebrate herself or allow herself to take up that space she’s trying to occupy. Her motivation to start the Supper Club stems from a traumatic assault during her university years, and as such, her inability to become the woman she wishes to become is unequivocally linked to her unwillingness to deal with that trauma. She still keeps second-guessing, overthinking, pleasing (particularly men) in every aspect of her life, and it’s often painful to witness. When development finally happens and actual joy finds its way through the cracks, the book is practically over.

Not that any of this made it a bad book, it just made it a different book; a book that I shifted between relating very much to and being rather frustrated by. Sometimes Lara Williams hit the nail right on the head, describing something that I had never thought to describe, and I immediately thought “that’s it! That’s what I feel/experience too!” Other times, I had trouble understanding the character’s choices and motivations. Generally, though, it was a well-written, impactful book that somehow read quickly even when nothing much happened. It might not be joyful or funny, but it’s undeniably a feminist book, a book to make you mad, and to make you want to take up space too.

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exlibrisvita's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

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laurren's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

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freyanjani's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

This book was… surprising. First of all, I read a lot of reviews about how this book was disappointing and didn’t live up to its main theme and title, but I’d like to differ. I think this book was everything it’s supposed to be, it was reflective and (way too) relatable and it’s a coming of age—both for early twenties and late twenties because the main character time hops a lot to her univerity times and present.

The book is wrapped as this female Fight Club-esque story, about women who made a Supper Club to eat (a lot) and take space. I do agree how the title misled what this book was about because the Supper Club itself only took up like probably 30% of the plot, and the rest focused on Roberta and the back and forth storytelling of her University times and current problems. But I didn’t mind it, to be honest. I think both aspects were perfectly balamced, but I do wish the Supper Club was more incorporated to Roberta’s plot.

My only strong feeling about this book is that it’s too relatable. Everything that Roberta narrates are so eerily… me. At times I keep thinking I hated the way she feels about certain things and I’m like “Wait, is it because I also think that way??”. Roberta’s so self-depricating and sad, and most of all she rarely believes in herself. Some parts of her thoughts are so embarrassing and negative and I keep realizing I’m only apalled because I am exactly the same. If this book makes you question Roberta’s personality and morals I think it might have hit you too close to home, at least it did with me.

Sometimes it’s also romanticizing a lot of harmful things, almost indulgent, like the part about self harm. But then again I think it does Roberta’s narrative some justice, after all the book Is from her pov. I do think if one was suicidal/actively SH, this would’ve been triggering.

There was a part where there’s a trans character as well but the author went back to using their old pronouns just to give this dramatic transformational effect that I thought wasn’t necessary but I digress because I don’t have a place to say whether that’s ethical or not as I am a cis woman.

All in all, it was satisfying but there are too much ehhhh moments that didn’t make it spectacularly good. It’s a solid read and I think it gives a unique perspective on late adulthood coming of age, people in their 20s deserves more of these stories. If you liked Normal People, My Year of Rest and Relaxations, or any other book with a passive—almost unlikeable—female narrator and main character that’s deeply sad and more than a little fucked up; this is for you.

Content Warnings

nzmerchant's review against another edition

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challenging reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Content Warnings

purplewaterbottle's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book was life changing. The writing, the story, the characters: they were so engaging I couldn't put it down, I always craved more. It made me feel a thousand different emotions at once.
The characters were not likable, but I don't think they were meant to be. There is a difference between characters who are supposed to be liked and characters who aren't, and the ones we have here are definitely in the second category. They aren't perfect - the exact opposite, actually - but I still like them, because they have DEPTH, which is exactly what I look for in a character.
This book made me breath and choke at the same time and I loved every second of it. You feel free and anchored to it but you can't decide which you prefer - if you have a preference at all. The recipes were (ironically) the cherry on top.

The only problem I encountered was, maybe, all the names. I remembered some of them but others were just too easily forgotten.

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