I was very kindly given an e-ARC of this book via Netgalley and Random House UK.

With some writers, novellas are a godsend. An amuse bouche to see whether or not you'll enjoy a writer's style, storytelling ability, general vibes etc. 'The Party' was exactly that for me - a chance to see if I'd enjoy Tessa Hadley as an author. And I finished this with an amicable conclusion of 'yeah, this probably isn't for me'. Nothing on the author! But our personalities are not compatible. Like a savoury muffin, I'm glad I tried it, but I won't be returning.

I think my core issue with this novella is I kept waiting for something of significance to happen and then it just...didn't. There's a brief glimmer of hope, but it's literally in the last ten pages. 'The Party' feels like a bar of soap made from slivers of other soaps - lots of different ideas, cobbled together, never quite developed enough to create a cohesive story. Now, maybe I'm just not smart enough to read between the lines of the book. Maybe I'm missing something, I don't know. But it just felt like this concept needed more time to bake.

'The Party' is available now.