It’s not often I give books below a two star rating but The Party by Robyn Harding was, to put it simply, bad. It reads as though somebody fleshed out a short story that had been written for a high school assignment into a 300 page novel. I found myself skim reading most parts after the first 100 pages because it was all pretty irrelevant.
The Party is a supposed domestic thriller about Hannah’s sweet sixteenth birthday party that goes wrong when one of her friends, Ronni, loses her eye in an accident. Ronni’s mother wants to sue Hannah’s family for negligence and the two families enrol in a bitter feud throughout the book.
I haven’t read a domestic thriller in a while but this one really missed the mark – I’m not sure if it could even be classed as a thriller as there is nothing particularly thrilling about it. The pacing is completely off. I imagined this to be a mystery that unfolded right until the very end about what really happened that fateful night, but you find out the truth within the first third of the book, the rest is just the (boring) aftermath. I even thought it might turn into a courtroom drama, which could have been good, as there was so many mentions of “taking this to court” that I was sorely disappointed when that never actually happened.
The characters were all horrifically annoying and I wasn’t really sure who I was meant to be rooting for. They were shallow, boring people who I didn’t care for. Harding didn’t bother to include any sort of character development – I thought Hannah might at least learn not to strive for popularity, but no, she still is desperate to fit in with whoever is deemed ‘most popular’ at her school by the end of the book.
This could have been so much better. I think the premise for a good story is there, but it needed to be written as a mystery that is solved throughout the book rather than a boring family drama. I needed a twist or an element of surprise.
If you were thinking of picking this up, don’t bother.
1.5/5 stars
THE BOOKS ON MY SHELVES 