I want that table, I'll say that right out of the gate.
You won't see the table on the cover, there is a gaming die and four cars even though only one of them ever drives to the place where all of the important events occur, but the table is the catalyst for the entire book by Sarah Marie Griffin, the crux of everything that happens while trotting out a variety of proxies. It's there for all the important events in the lives of the main characters, which span decades. If things go sideways for the table, so does their existence.
They know the table and the table knows them, it is a persistent character. In its case, and yours, it may be that the actual people aren't worthy of the table. And maybe the table revolts.
That doesn't actually happen, at least not overtly, the table remains just a table, but what does happen is the characters don't feel worthy, and that may be the case for many other people even if they don't have their own special communal table. 'You can't be redeemed if you aren't flawed' probably isn't just an Irish thing, but it sounds like it could be.
Unworthy or not, the characters certainly don't feel like heroes, but as heroes throughout history have learned, you don't get a manual for how to be a hero, you only get stuck with awful situations.
The table is where they play their game, a kind of fluidic role-playing adventure, and it's the perfect escape for the group who feel like misfits. Until they get stuck in an awful situation and have to figure out who among these least worthy will be heroic.
It is definitely a slow flash-to-bang, the first 150 pages you wonder what any of it has to do with the game, but this isn't a 'real world people get sucked into an RPG' fantasy, unless the Dungeon Master is Lovecraft. And the awful situation is actually not that bad compared to their actual lives but that's the power of Irish redemption; the Irish will criticize Ireland non-stop but you'd better not do it, and the lives of the characters may be completely unappealing but they will struggle to maintain them just the same.
It's not science-fiction, it's not an adventure, it is what it is, and if you like stories about flawed people trying to do better, it can be redeeming.
