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Book Review of The Playground: A Novel

The Playground: A Novel
berd avatar reviewed on + 214 more book reviews


The premise of this book was very intriguing to me. However, the delivery of the plot was a huge let down for me. First of all, there are so many characters that trying to keep them straight pulled me away from the story line. I found myself skimming over details that didn't seem super important, but then I would realize that I was a bit lost with what was actually happening since I had skimmed over part of the story. There are two characters mentioned a few times throughout the book, and in the end, these characters are mentioned once again but I never did figure out who they were. If they were supposed to be important, I must have missed the entire point because it felt like maybe the author had a reason for them being there but then she forgot to actually prove that point.

It was fairly obvious to me early on who was guilty, so I wasn't majorly surprised at the end, but it somewhat felt a bit unbelievable that these parents were so oblivious to what their children were doing that such tragic incidents occurred. I will give it 2.5 stars for the fact that I at least wanted to see how it played out in the end, but I feel like it was mostly a waste of my time.