Book Review — Girl Dinner by Olivie Blake

Genre: Fiction, Satire, Dark Academia
Published by: Macmillan Audio
Publish date: 10/21/25
Number of pages: 368 pages
Author’s website: https://www.olivieblake.com/
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Every member of The House, the most exclusive sorority on campus, and all its alumni, are beautiful, high-achieving, and universally respected.

After a freshman year she would rather forget, sophomore Nina Kaur knows being one of the chosen few accepted into The House is the first step in her path to the brightest possible future. Once she’s taken into their fold, the House will surely ease her fears of failure and protect her from those who see a young woman on her own as easy prey.

Meanwhile, adjunct professor Dr. Sloane Hartley is struggling to return to work after accepting a demotion to support her partner’s new position at the cutthroat University. After 18 months at home with her newborn daughter, Sloane’s clothes don’t fit right, her girl-dad husband isn’t as present as he thinks he is, and even the few hours a day she’s apart from her child fill her psyche with paralyzing ennui. When invited to be The House’s academic liaison, Sloane enviously drinks in the way the alumnae seem to have it all, achieving a level of collective perfection that Sloane so desperately craves.

As Nina and Sloane each get drawn deeper into the arcane rituals of the sisterhood, they learn that living well comes with bloody costs. And when they are finally invited to the table, they will have to decide just how much they can stomach in the name of solidarity and power.

Rating: 4/5

𝙂𝙤𝙤𝙙 𝙜𝙞𝙧𝙡𝙨 𝙙𝙚𝙨𝙚𝙧𝙫𝙚 𝙖 𝙩𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙩.

A satire about feminine craving, featuring a cannibal sorority.

A funny and slightly campy look at sisterhood, motherhood, societal pressures on women to “have it all”. At points, this book felt too philosophical for me, especially the sweeping inner thoughts of Sloane that lost me. But some of her thoughts were so spiraling and had me going “honestly same”. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this read. I, personally, would have loved if this were darker and had more details on the catabolism, but alas, this isn’t really a horror read.

Also, I listened to the audiobook and loved that there were two different narrators for the two

Read this if you:
▪️Are fascinated by the emergence of trad wife content on social media
▪️Love dark academia stories with secret societies
▪️Use “sisterhood” as your “cry for help” code word (iykyk The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives)

Have you read this book? What are your thoughts? I’d love to know!