The Secret Dinner: A Novel by Raphael Montes
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
**4.5-stars**
When I picked up The Secret Dinner, I’ll be honest, I expected a typical dinner party Thriller, but Raphael Montes definitely had something different in mind.
I went on a journey with these characters and could not put this down once I started it. This is Hostel II meets Tender is the Flesh, dishing up plenty of food for thought.
This story was originally published in 2016, but has just recently been translated to English. It follows four friends living together in Rio, who find themselves in dire straights and in desperate need of money.
Through a series of interesting interactions, they develop an unorthodox plan to get the funds they need, but it’s not exactly above-board. They decide to host secret dinner parties, a recent trend among the elite, and it sucks them into dark places they never expected to find themselves in.
What starts as a bit of a half-joke, ‘get rich quick scheme’, quickly spirals out of control. Our main narrator is Dante, and he relays to us just how wildly-unruly their lives become because of these parties.
They started on a slippery slope as is, and are now steamrolling downhill with haste. I couldn’t believe the lengths they were going to, and it certainly pushed their friendships past the limit.
When I got to the concluding bits, I was shook. I loved how far Montes took this. I get this might not be for everyone, but as a Horror Reader, it’s definitely to my tastes.
I would compare the dark and gritty nature of this story to something like The Devil Takes You Home by Gabino Iglesias, or Coffin Moon by Keith Rosson.
The characters here, as in both of the stories mentioned above, are so well-developed. Their desperate circumstances were understandable, but man, the lengths they went to in order to get out of them…yikes.
The Epilogue had my jaw on the floor. I actually read it twice, because it was that good. I couldn’t believe it. I never saw what was revealed coming. Well done, Montes. Well done.
I would recommend the audiobook as well if you’re going to pick this one up. I thought the narration by Andre Bellido and André Santana felt so authentic and true to the story. It felt like I was listening to a friend telling me a story of something wild that had happened to them.
And when I say wild, I mean, WILDDDD!
Thank you so much to the publisher, Macmillan Audio and Celadon Books, for providing me with copies to read and review. This was such a surprising treat.
I’m so happy to have read it!
