The Dicktionary Club by Sophie Gravia

This definitely is not the best read for me. Half way through what so far has been a predictable read with quite a lot of unnecessary swear words, in my opinion!    

I went into Dickionary expecting something sharp and funny about modern dating, but what I actually got was a book full of irritating characters and language that quickly wore me down. The premise — three women creating a site to catalogue terrible men — sounded promising enough, and I thought it might be a clever satire of dating culture. Instead, it felt messy and shallow, with very little payoff. 

The biggest problem for me was the characters. Ella dominates the story to the point where Katy and Zola barely feel like real people. They drift in and out of the narrative with half-finished storylines, and I never felt invested in any of them. Rather than being funny or relatable, they came across as self-absorbed and often unpleasant. I kept waiting for some real growth or insight, but the book just circles the same petty problems again and again.

I also really disliked the language. The humour relies heavily on crude jokes and exaggerated slang that felt forced rather than natural. Instead of being witty or observational, most of the dialogue sounded like people trying too hard to be edgy. After a while it became exhausting to read, and I found myself skimming entire sections because the tone grated on me.

What frustrated me most was how little actually happens. The idea of the Dickionary itself is introduced as the central hook, but it barely features for most of the book, which instead focuses on work drama and repetitive dating stories. By the time the concept finally comes into play, it feels rushed and pointless.

Overall, Dickionary had potential, but the weak characters and irritating language made it a chore to finish. I didn’t find it funny or insightful, and I wouldn’t recommend it unless you really enjoy this kind of brash, slang-heavy humour.

Rating: 3/10 sink

Im still trying to work out how this book made it to print! The  joke runs out very quickly, the humour is hit and miss and by the halfway point it feels like it’s desperately padding out pages with crude and unnecessary language!

t’s like a Temu 50 shades of grey!

Its raised a few laugh out loud moments here and there but nothing special. I really thought the initial idea was a good one but it went no where!

Would only recommend if you have time to waste

rating: 2/10

Finished the book whilst on holiday last week. Not sure what the  point of having zola and Katy as they just seemed to be additions that were thrown in every so often as ella and her job were the bulk of the story. 

I think 8f zola and Katy were removed it would be re branded as a mills and boon type story. 

Don't think I would recommend as a read.

Sorry

I wasn't sure if I fancied this book, but started it. I found it irritating, the language was just too much too often, and crude for the sake of it really. There were a few (only a few) parts that made me chuckle, but on the whole, it was quite predictable, and unnecessarily crude. Although I finished it (I very rarely DNF), I unfortunately would not recommend it to my friends. 

Writing a comment on behalf of a book club member as they have been locked out of their account and working tonight: 

"Didn't have a lot to say about this book, I just couldn't get into this book at all. I actually gave up after 30 pages. Its definitely a sink from me 

 from CO

Not a read I enjoyed so much, I felt it started well and had an interesting premise and, like some others, I was hoping it would be cleverer and sparkier than it was. Having had a good beginning it soon descended somewhat and it felt like Ella was given the majority of time / attention. The ending seemed a bit forced. I actually preferred ‘Phantasma’ and that is definitely a genre I wouldn’t choose!

I won’t be able to make it to Book Club this evening sadly as I won’t have time before an appointment. 

I don't think I'll be able to make book club tonight. The Dicktionary Club was a disappointment on all fronts. It was meant to be our choice from 'Erotica Genre' but it failed on that score. As mentioned in other comments, the language and characters were irritating and the story, such as it was, never really got going and was totally predictable. I don't feel the book had any redeeming features. I got to the end of it and honestly wondered how it ever made it into print. I'm so glad I get it on kindle - at least a tree wasn't wasted! Can we go lower than scoring 1 /10? A torpedo perhaps? Score 1 /10 and a definite sink from me. 

Ok I don't normally write my review on the RN Forum as I attend the online meeting but as I was putting up someone's review I thought I would share my thoughts. 

I am thinking I am the only person who actually enjoyed this month's book, and the crazy thing is I didn't want to read it at all !!! I have no idea whether it comes across better as an audible book that as an actual book to read but I felt the relationship between the three friends was warm and loving. I will agree in the beginning of the book it was quite heavy on the language used unfortunately the conversations they had between themselves I could see happening with some people today. I was laughing thought-out the book and whilst participating in my Lego builds over the weekend I did enjoy the book. I felt that had a reasonable story line and the gathering of data for the website made sense. I personally still feel it is not the best book in the world, its not the worse either. I cant judge it on its written ability as I listened too it but I will admit I did enjoy the book and potentially would listen to the sequel, which we all know is coming. 

I will still stand by the second book I gave members the option to read, this was a Waterstones recommendation to me and I read it and did include on the last month's book choices. Although this book was from the same genre, it was just better written, had a way better story. There was erotic scenes within the book but they were more enticing rather than crude and blunt. I will be intrigued my members thoughts on comparing the two books, for the 29 people who received both. 

I do feel that this genre of books is a little like marmite, I suppose we all like different genres and I am so glad that the RN Book club have experienced this genre and am looking forward to the full reviews later. 

Sarah

Hi, I won’t be able to join tonight, but just wanted to leave my review…of the 3rd of the book that I managed to persevere and read! Only very occasionally do I give up on a book, and if I do it’s normally down to bad grammar and lack of cohesion of the story line.  I just felt this book wasn’t really getting anywhere. Maybe if I’d finished it I would’ve been proved wrong! I had hopes that it would be amusing and perhaps a little ‘educational’ with regard the online dating world (I have no clue, being of the ‘meet someone down the pub’ generation!).  I do think the storyline had the potential to be amusing but sadly I felt the sweary language was just overused to the point it made me uncomfortable! So it’s a sink from me 2/10.