Book Review
The Party (Release Date: November 2017)
In this stunning and provocative domestic drama about a sweet sixteen birthday party that goes horribly awry, a wealthy family in San Francisco finds their picture-perfect life unraveling, their darkest secrets revealed, and their friends turned to enemies.
One invitation. A lifetime of regrets.
Sweet sixteen. It’s an exciting coming of age, a milestone, and a rite of passage. Jeff and Kim Sanders plan on throwing a party for their daughter, Hannah—a sweet girl with good grades and nice friends. Rather than an extravagant, indulgent affair, they invite four girls over for pizza, cake, movies, and a sleepover. What could possibly go wrong?
But things do go wrong, horrifically so. After a tragic accident occurs, Jeff and Kim’s flawless life in a wealthy San Francisco suburb suddenly begins to come apart. In the ugly aftermath, friends become enemies, dark secrets are revealed in the Sanders’ marriage, and the truth about their perfect daughter, Hannah, is exposed.
Harkening to Herman Koch’s The Dinner, Christos Tsiolkas’s The Slap, and Liane Moriarty’s Big Little Lies, The Party takes us behind the façade of the picture-perfect family, exposing the lies, betrayals, and moral lapses that neighbors don’t see—and the secrets that children and parents keep from themselves and each other.
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My Thoughts…
Don’t you hate when books are compared to others as part of their marketing strategy? Especially when it is so off the mark! This book was dubbed “For fans of Big Little Lies”, and it couldn’t be further from the truth.
I was expecting a truly suspenseful mystery, and what I got was a story about an unfortunate tragedy with very little mystery surrounding it. The “incident” happens right at the start, and from there you can pretty much guess the rest of it.
I didn’t dislike this book which is why I gave it 3 stars, but for the most part it was very disappointing. Maybe it’s just me, but if you have a look at the reviews, you will see that many readers felt the same way.
Overall, The Party just didn’t do it for me.
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