Synopsis:
The internationally acclaimed #1 bestselling thriller The Secret Dinner, now in English
Four childhood friends, eager for a taste of city life, swap rural Brazil for an apartment in Copacabana, Rio. But they can have no idea of the fate that awaits them there…
Dante, Leitão (aka Piglet), Miguel and Hugo are your average students trying to make ends meet with part-time jobs, excited about the bright future at their fingertips. So when their rent skyrockets, they struggle to keep their new life and big dreams afloat. They need to make money however they can. In order to keep their apartment, the friends adopt an unorthodox plan, and are soon sucked into a dark world of secret dinner parties catering to the twisted fantasies of Rio’s elite.
But what starts as a joke quickly spirals out of their control. As the four friends fall deeper into this dark new world and earn more money, the stakes get higher and the consequences deadlier, revealing the twisted depths that lurk within each of them, and threatening not only their friendship, but their lives.
My Edition:
Net Galley ARC
My Thoughts:
The Secret Dinner is kind of the ultimate example of a joke going too far and getting wildly out of hand, and I loved every moment of it.
In essence, four friends (one of whom is a very talented young chef) move to Rio together and skyrocketing rent forces them to begin making some questionable choices. What initially seems like a good idea – hosting private dinners for the ultra-wealthy – becomes something very different when Piglet, the friend in charge of setting the whole thing up online, decides to insert a little joke into the post. His little joke has some significant consequences. Which, on the one hand, does mean they can charge a whole lot more for these little dinners. But on the other hand means that they are going to have to do some progressively more questionable things in order to facilitate their customers.
The Secret Dinner plays out like a sort of madcap avalanche. It isn’t funny at all, but it also is. Because circumstances spiral out of control incredibly quickly, and the whole situation is both horrific and completely absurd.
I think the thing I like most though is the way The Secret Dinner explores whether or not it is possible to ethically consume meat of any kind. It poses cannibalism as not being ethically very different than consuming any other kind of flesh, which I think is a very honest, and very uncommon take on meat eating. I can only speak about the US here, but I personally think it is disturbing how insulated we are from the disgusting reality of factory farming and how meat actually comes to be on our tables.
“There’s death behind every meal. People prefer to shut their eyes to it, but it’s there.”
Based on the absurdity of some of the reviews I have seen of The Secret Dinner, I am going to pause here to remind you that THIS. BOOK. IS. ABOUT. CANNIBALISM. It’s people eating other people. People have to die in order for that to happen. And they have to be butchered. And then they still have to be eaten. If you do not want to read about any of that happening, DO NOT READ THIS BOOK. Don’t read a book that openly claims to be about cannibalism and then be mad that it was about cannibalism. Come on, people. Sorry. I was skimming through some of the reviews on https://thestorygraph.com/ the other day, and some of them were suuuuper silly. A solid handful of low ratings due to the “graphic nature” of the subject or story. Some people’s kids are truly wild.
But back to the story. I loved watching the friendship of the four young men unravel. The quickness with which it becomes everyone for themselves was borderline shocking. They turned on each other with a quickness. But, at least they were still willing to work together to get their respective bags. Until they weren’t. The Secret Dinner is seriously going to make you feel like you’re rubbernecking at a derailed train. The relationship between these guys gets soooo messy.
Rating:
The Secret Dinner is fun, gross, and distressingly funny. You’ll find yourself laughing at things you definitely shouldn’t be laughing at. But again, don’t read it if you don’t want to read about cannibalism. And definitely do read it if you want to do some deep thinking about ethical meat consumption. Because you almost certainly will find yourself ruminating on that.
The Secret Dinner
By: Ralph Montes
Translated by: Zoë Alexandra Perry
Celadon Books
ISBN: 9781250442413
Published: August 18, 2026
Hardcover, E-book, Audio
352 Pages
