The Playground, Jane Shemilt
The Playground, Jane Shemilt
4 Rating(s)
List: $26.99 | Sale: $18.89
Club: $13.49

The Playground
A Novel

Author: Jane Shemilt

Narrator: Elizabeth Knowelden

Unabridged: 9 hr 40 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: HarperAudio

Published: 12/30/2019


Synopsis

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?

About Jane Shemilt

While working full time as a physician, Jane Shemilt received an M.A. in creative writing. She was shortlisted for the Janklow and Nesbit award and the Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize for The Daughter, her first novel. She and her husband, a professor of neurosurgery, have five children and live in Bristol, England.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Meredith (Trying to catch up!) on March 27, 2020

2.5 stars The Playground is part drama, part mystery, and part psychological thriller about 3 couples so caught up in the drama of their relationships that they become blind to the extremely dangerous games their children are playing. When a tragedy occurs, their lives implode. Melissa and Paul, Eve......more

Goodreads review by Berit☀️✨ on December 23, 2019

What a wild ride, this is a playground you want to avoid taking your children to! You know how you feel when you get off one of those playground merry go rounds? A little shook, a little queasy, a little unstable, A little flustered, that’s how I felt after reading this book. Three couples Meat and......more

Goodreads review by Mackenzie - PhDiva Books on January 07, 2020

Oh what a tangled web of secrets are woven among three couples brought together by their kids, but held together by their actions… Until something shocking occurs… This is quite a book! A character-driven novel of suspense that will suck you right in! I loved the title for this book, The Playground,......more

Goodreads review by Chandra on December 14, 2019

AH-HA-HA-HA - I KNEW IT!!! **points finger and then shakes fist** What an interesting web you weave, Shemilt! The synopsis definitely says best when it comes to Big Little Lies feels because those are definitely all there! These parents are the worst. I mean, they don't mean to be but they're so busy......more

Goodreads review by Cortney - on July 12, 2020

3.5 stars rounded up I really enjoy Jane Shemilt's writing... The Playground was a good story, but not really the suspense I was expecting. I'm not sure if the twist was supposed to be a twist, but I knew how it was going to end from the start. Still really enjoyed it! Looking forward to reading what......more