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_maria_'s review against another edition
challenging
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexism, Rape, Sexual violence, and Misogyny
Moderate: Drug abuse and Infidelity
pagesintranslation's review against another edition
challenging
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug use, Misogyny, and Rape
dclazygirl's review against another edition
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Sexual harassment, Rape, and Sexual assault
marycollins's review against another edition
challenging
dark
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape
Moderate: Misogyny
lindsaylhunter's review
challenging
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Never has a book made me say "get his ass" with such frequency.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape and Misogyny
Minor: Drug use
wordsofclover's review against another edition
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
When Hannah meets up with an old colleague Mel, she learns that their former boss, Head Chef Daniel Costello, has been accused of sexual assault and set to stand trial. The news makes Hannah think about the summer she worked in Daniel's restaurant T, and the hectic work/life/play balance they all managed to walk - plus the tense yet seemingly innocent relationship she formed with Daniel until everything came crashing down.
This book is told through three separate POV's - Hannah's POV is mostly reflecting on the past, on her experiences working in T and her relationships with the other front of house staff as well as those in the kitchen (or on 'the line'). We see Hannah as a 21-year-old learning what it's like to work in a fast paced world and play even harder in Celtic Tiger Ireland with shots after work and the occasional line in the bathroom. I think the tense atmosphere of a professional kitchen and the God-like status a Head Chef commands is described really well in this book. The waitresses aren't always treated the best by customers but tend to earn more because of tips, and we also see how they are often belittled, mocked and handled roughly by male staff but they put up with because they think they have to. There is a lot of misogyny in this book - both blatant and discreet - and I thought Hannah's recollections of a time in T were a really good way of describing the atmosphere as a whole, and also act as a direct contrast to what we're learning from Daniel as well.
"Being a chef is a vocation, not a job."
Daniel's POV for me was one of the most interesting and skilled in the book. Many times reading a book in which we are hearing about SA, it tends to be black and white - the rapist is ugly, rude, mean - you're almost not surprised when he commits an act so ugly but Daniel often appears the opposite. He is a man who worked his way up from nothing, a family man with a lovely wife and two happy kids, he's handsome and successful and as he asks his wife "Do I seem, have I ever seemed, like a man who needs to force a woman to have sex with me?" Of course he has a temper but all chefs do, it's part of working in the industry but as we learn from Daniel, he mentored, he educated, he tried to help the men and women who came through under his charge. I thought the way Sarah Gilmartin created this man on the verge of losing everything really well - he is not remorseful because he has (in his mind) done nothing wrong. He is angry but more than that he is scared not only of losing his livelihood but of losing his family. This man, accused of being a rapist and a harasser, becomes an object of pity in the reader's eyes and I for a while did wonder at the truth behind the claim especially when we learn who the claimant is - and that's another great discussion brought into the book by the author, what makes a perfect victim and how in society's eyes a victim should look and act.
"I am not unused to being looked at, I am unused to being looked at in this way. The difference, I feel now (...) is the difference between winning and losing, life and death."
Julia's POV acts as a bridge between Hannah and Daniel - she has her foot on both sides. We see her angry and embarrassed by Daniel's actions but she wants them not to be true for herself and her family but also she remembers the girls who came through T, and particularly the ones who abruptly left, and she wonders. She also thinks back to her own history with Daniel, and the times she's heard him talk about women in specific ways. Julie is easy to like, she can't be this hero who at once stands against her husband and never believes him because in reality, she loves him, they have built a life together, have children together and she doesn't want to lose that. But at the same time in her heart, she doubts his innocence. I felt for Julie a lot who is the person who no matter what loses everything in a way.
A marriage wears a woman's fingers harder than it does a man's."
This book was really well written and easy to fly through as well, and I loved the tense kitchen/restaurant atmosphere combined with the tension of a court case as well. The narrative around a 'perfect victim' isn't something new but I still enjoyed Sarah Gilmartin's take on it and I loved all the narratives that made up this story and captured it so well.
This book is told through three separate POV's - Hannah's POV is mostly reflecting on the past, on her experiences working in T and her relationships with the other front of house staff as well as those in the kitchen (or on 'the line'). We see Hannah as a 21-year-old learning what it's like to work in a fast paced world and play even harder in Celtic Tiger Ireland with shots after work and the occasional line in the bathroom. I think the tense atmosphere of a professional kitchen and the God-like status a Head Chef commands is described really well in this book. The waitresses aren't always treated the best by customers but tend to earn more because of tips, and we also see how they are often belittled, mocked and handled roughly by male staff but they put up with because they think they have to. There is a lot of misogyny in this book - both blatant and discreet - and I thought Hannah's recollections of a time in T were a really good way of describing the atmosphere as a whole, and also act as a direct contrast to what we're learning from Daniel as well.
"Being a chef is a vocation, not a job."
Daniel's POV for me was one of the most interesting and skilled in the book. Many times reading a book in which we are hearing about SA, it tends to be black and white - the rapist is ugly, rude, mean - you're almost not surprised when he commits an act so ugly but Daniel often appears the opposite. He is a man who worked his way up from nothing, a family man with a lovely wife and two happy kids, he's handsome and successful and as he asks his wife "Do I seem, have I ever seemed, like a man who needs to force a woman to have sex with me?" Of course he has a temper but all chefs do, it's part of working in the industry but as we learn from Daniel, he mentored, he educated, he tried to help the men and women who came through under his charge. I thought the way Sarah Gilmartin created this man on the verge of losing everything really well - he is not remorseful because he has (in his mind) done nothing wrong. He is angry but more than that he is scared not only of losing his livelihood but of losing his family. This man, accused of being a rapist and a harasser, becomes an object of pity in the reader's eyes and I for a while did wonder at the truth behind the claim especially when we learn who the claimant is - and that's another great discussion brought into the book by the author, what makes a perfect victim and how in society's eyes a victim should look and act.
"I am not unused to being looked at, I am unused to being looked at in this way. The difference, I feel now (...) is the difference between winning and losing, life and death."
Julia's POV acts as a bridge between Hannah and Daniel - she has her foot on both sides. We see her angry and embarrassed by Daniel's actions but she wants them not to be true for herself and her family but also she remembers the girls who came through T, and particularly the ones who abruptly left, and she wonders. She also thinks back to her own history with Daniel, and the times she's heard him talk about women in specific ways. Julie is easy to like, she can't be this hero who at once stands against her husband and never believes him because in reality, she loves him, they have built a life together, have children together and she doesn't want to lose that. But at the same time in her heart, she doubts his innocence. I felt for Julie a lot who is the person who no matter what loses everything in a way.
A marriage wears a woman's fingers harder than it does a man's."
This book was really well written and easy to fly through as well, and I loved the tense kitchen/restaurant atmosphere combined with the tension of a court case as well. The narrative around a 'perfect victim' isn't something new but I still enjoyed Sarah Gilmartin's take on it and I loved all the narratives that made up this story and captured it so well.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault
Moderate: Sexual harassment and Misogyny
Minor: Alcohol and Drug use
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