Review: "Service" by Sarah Gilmartin

Service by Sarah Gilmartin
Published June 2024 via Pushkin Press
★★★★

Ireland, then and now: Then, Hannah is a waitress at an upscale restaurant in Dublin, Daniel its celebrated chef, and Julie his supportive wife. Now, Hannah has distanced herself and her memories as much as she can from her time at the restaurant, Daniel is on trial, and Julie is struggling to figure out what she believes happened—or didn't happen—and how much she can give up, can block out, in order to stand by her man.

I read this on the strength of the publisher, GR friends' reviews, and, if I'm honest, the cover. The book cycles through the three perspectives—Hannah's, Daniel's, and Julie's—and though the book gets off to a relatively slow start, it's smartly written. Gilmartin is careful in her layering of Daniel's character in particular: it's not a matter of a 'there's no black and white', exactly (what happens is not in shades of grey), but he's never allowed to become one-dimensional. I did not enjoy either Daniel or the sections in his POV, but they were invaluable in keeping the story a complex read.

It is worth reading both the author's note at the end and the discussion questions; the latter have a few too many yes-or-no questions for my liking, but they frame some things differently than I would have gone for, which is always useful. I'll keep my review short—there are things I'd love to discuss with people who have read it but don't want to put in a review for fear of spoilers!—but the book has made to want to hunt up Gilmartin's first novel and keep an eye out for future works.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.