
The Playground
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Elizabeth Knowelden
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By:
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Jane Shemilt
Big Little Lies meets Lord of the Flies in this electrifyingly twisty follow-up to Jane Shemilt’s breakout debut The Daughter.
Over the course of a long, hot summer in London, the lives of three very different married couples collide when their children join the same tutoring circle, resulting in illicit relationships, shocking violence, and unimaginable fallout. There’s Eve, a bougie earth mother with a well-stocked trust fund; she has three little ones, a blue-collar husband, and is obsessed with her Instagrammable recipes and lifestyle. And Melissa, a successful interior designer whose casually cruel banker husband is careful not to leave visible bruises; she curates her perfectly thin body so closely she misses everything their teenage daughter is hiding. Then there’s Grace, a young Zimbabwean immigrant, who lives in high-rise housing project with her two children and their English father Martin, an award-winning but chronically broke novelist; she does far more for her family than she should have to.
As the weeks go by, the couples become very close; there are barbecues, garden parties, a holiday at a country villa in Greece. Resentments flare. An affair begins. Unnoticed, the children run wild. The couples are busily watching each other, so distracted and self-absorbed that they forget to watch their children. No one sees the five children at their secret games or realize how much their family dynamics are changing until tragedy strikes.
The story twists and then twists again while the three families desperately search for answers. It’s only as they begin to unravel the truth of what happened over the summer that they realize evil has crept quietly into their world.
But has this knowledge come too late?
©2019 Jane Shemilt (P)2019 HarperCollins PublishersListeners also enjoyed...




















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Instead, it comes off as disjointed, confusing, hard to follow.
There are so many primary characters and then all of the children and keeping up with the narrative that follows each family and their unique dynamics as well as the overall picture of what’s happening.
There were some great moments, and I’m a huge fan of Jane Shemilt but this was not fluid, it had this stop/start feeling throughout.
I found it very difficult to follow.
The narration is a whole other issue.
The strange, breathy, voice and the lack of clear annunciation with each word made this mildly frustrating book, extremely frustrating in the end.
I’m glad I got through it but I don’t think I could listen to this one a second time.
Anytime there are such sensitive topics in a tale I believe there should be a great sense of responsibility to approach these topics with dignity, sensitivity, and respect.
This was the case with another of her books (The Vacation House) where very difficult and uncomfortable topics are addressed but it’s done so beautifully.
I didn’t feel that same level of sensitivity here.
Could’ve been fantastic, lands on mediocre.
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Meh
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Caution if you don’t like children dying
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Excellent!
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The Ending Leaves You feeling Incomplete
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Great Until the End
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remarkable
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terrific!
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But the characters are well developed and interesting. Good story.
Great
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I can’t completely understand the reader
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