Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

Supper Club by Lara Williams

22 reviews

sakisreads's review against another edition

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

4.0

This kept coming up as a recommendation for me, so I tried it. I’m glad I did, although I will say I found it very triggering and definitely thought about not finishing it at times 😳 (Content warnings to explain why will be below.)

An ode to human, messy friendships and relationships, Laura Williams doesn’t shy away from the horrible person that Stevie can be and from Roberta’s hurt that comes out through her actions. 
Supper Club sounds kind of fun though 😂 I’d be down to try it 👀

I THOROUGHLY loved Roberta’s reunion with Arnold, where she TALKS OVER HIM and says ‘I’m not interested in talking about that’ whenever he brings up some shitty spiel. THE CONFIDENCE 🔥


4 out of 5 stars for me, thank you ✨

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knikchevich's review

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challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad 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

3.5


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sineadw9's review

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adventurous emotional reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

Read it quickly and enjoyed most of it, feeling feels throughout. The themes felt very spelled-out , too much so in some parts. Author loves the word “languish”. It sort of felt like a better version of Conversations With Friends.

I struggled with the character’s relationship with her body—the descriptions of weight gain/fatness felt incomplete, like the author herself had never been larger than a size 8 and still has a lot of internalized fat phobia (I have no idea, fwiw). Her obsession with thinness made me tired.

The thread around female friendships, the push-and-pull of romantic vs platonic(ish) love, and the character seeking out moments of catharsis were what kept me engaged and invested. Worth a read, but didn’t quite meet my expectations.

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ladynavalon's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

3.5

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.

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angewilliamson's review

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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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bxcvi's review against another edition

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dark emotional
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.0


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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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rivalmancy's review against another edition

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2.0

should've dnf'd

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savvylit's review

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dark emotional reflective sad medium-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

3.5

Supper Club is a reflective and often very sad slice-of-life novel. University student Roberta is desperately lonely and preyed upon by men. Late twenties Roberta is doing a bit better but she still carries the insecurities that have haunted her since school.

Supper Club as a whole shines the brightest through its primary concept: the club itself. The sections where new members are introduced were some of the most interesting and empathetic portions of the whole book. And the club meetings themselves were quite entertaining! As many women know, there is still an abundance of gender norms that can be difficult to escape. Imagining the women of this novel doing so and being gluttonous & unrestrained was delightful.

Eventually, however, the titular Supper Club fades into the background when Roberta enters into a serious monogamous relationship. At this point, I lost interest a bit. I understand the inclusion of this relationship as an obstacle to Roberta's friendship with Stevie. However, that didn't make it any less frustrating to read. Too much time was wasted describing the (frankly lackluster) relationship. Not to mention that diverting from the emphasis on sisterhood and radical norm-busting was a mistake, in my opinion. Eventually, the ending redeemed this choice... but not really.

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nzmerchant's review

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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


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