Reviews with content warning for Murder - The Dinner

A very messed up premise, the main character is infuriating like seriously get a grip dude <he defends his kid after they murder a homeless woman> so fucked up.

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chlorai's review against another edition

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dark mysterious fast-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

1.5

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laurenleigh's review against another edition

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challenging dark 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

4.0

This novel takes place over the course of a dinner between two brothers and their wives. The structure was quite interesting, and I thought Koch did a great job of putting us in the mindset of our narrator, one of the brothers. As the night progresses and as items or actions trigger the narrator’s memory, we get insights into the past and the events leading up to this dinner. As the story unfolds, the plot was almost like a thriller, even though the current action happening is just a dinner out. It was well executed, and Koch is a great writer. But I really dislike almost all of these characters. I was constantly shocked by their selfishness and lack of morals. I think it would probably make a good book club pick though, with lots of opportunities for questioning what you’d do in these situations.

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pamietnikzczytelni's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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m0read's review against another edition

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3.5

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brookey8888's review

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mysterious 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

2.0

I was just bored and I didn’t like any of the characters,which is fine, but there weren’t even unlikable in a good way. Like the plot wasn’t interesting to me. You know what happens like early on in the book so then it’s just nothing after. Also it started like going into the past and a certain character and I just didn’t care about that.

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clemrain's review against another edition

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dark tense slow-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

4.5

Where do you begin with The Dinner? I suppose it would be with the dinner.

This book takes course through one dinner. An important dinner and discussion between difficult characters that are strong in their beliefs and will act on them. That is a threat.

The narrator, Paul, is astonishingly written. A wild ride of inner dialogues and anecdotes that are placed in just the right places. Koch uses great pacing and placements of Paul’s recounts. Paul is of the best unreliable narrator’s I’ve read.

The Dinner is such a real depiction of racism, prejudice and privilege. That doesn’t catch on until it does and then it just settles. I can’t explain it. Koch does such a good job. You really get put into the disillusionment of these people. It’s astonishing. These are some well written and realistic characters though majority of them, I really don't like.

I wish I could read this book in its original language. I wonder how much it would’ve differed. The pacing the wording. Either way, I do think this translation is effective.

The ending

is five stars to me. Of course it ended like that. There is no consequence for people like Paul. It was realistic. Though I wonder a lot what “disease” Paul left unmentioned. I wonder our conclusions as readers are meant to be us facing our own prejudice.

This book is frustrating and for most of it I was just trying to understand what the point was. But there is a point and I wonder if it’ll ever be understood by the people this book is about.

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hannakutlu's review

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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