Authored by Raphael Montes; Published August 2026; Horror
⭐️⭐️ / 🏖️
The Secret Dinner was just a little too hard for me to swallow–pun intended. I’m sure it’s intended to push the boundaries, but I simply didn’t find it enjoyable.
In The Secret Dinner, Dante and his three friends move from their countryside town in Brazil to Rio de Janeiro for college with hopes of success in the big city. But after just a few years, they end up weeks away from eviction from their apartment, until Dante’s chef roommate Hugo comes up with an idea: host a series of private dinners at their apartment for extra cash. Dante considers it an excellent idea–until Piglet, another member of the gang, advertises that their dinner will serve human flesh, and many, many people sign up. All of a sudden Dante is swept up into a business venture that is morally gray at best and downright murderous at worst.
I’m a little disturbed by the recent trend of cannibalism appearing in my novels. This one is just too gory for me, despite the fact that I consider myself relatively inured to gore by a healthy diet of TV procedurals. The thing is, this novel goes into detail when it comes to the butchering process of turning a human into steaks to be marinated and grilled, and that… is a step too far for me. Undoubtedly, the character actually doing the butchering, Cora, is among the strangest and creepiest characters in the novel, and perhaps any novel I’ve ever read. A prostitute bent on becoming a famous poet with a background in butchery who seems to lack any sort of moral compass when it comes to murder. I can’t say I’ve ever read a character like her.
None of the characters are likable, but what do I expect, when they all agree to serve dinner guests human flesh? For all that Dante tries to excuse and explain himself from the very first page of the novel, I don’t understand his motives. He repeatedly emphasizes that he simply cannot ask his mother for money, constantly alluding to the cost of owing her, how she will dangle it over his head and use it to manipulate him, but never goes into detail about why he is so sure of it. If Dante prefers literally enabling cannibalism to borrowing money from his mom, I want to know why. It infuriated me the entire novel, and, unfortunately, he is arguably the easiest to like among his friends.
You may love The Secret Dinner if you’re into cannibalism as a topic. Otherwise, I’d avoid this one.
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