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3.95 AVERAGE
3.95 AVERAGE
Psychological Manipulation at its Finest!
JP Delaney has expertly crafted a nightmarish domestic situation in his latest tense and twisty dramatic thriller. What if when your child was two years old you discovered he had been switched at birth? And, as if that wasn't bad enough, what if the seemingly nice, charming, easygoing birth parents (who have been raising your biological child) soon become pushy, overbearing, weird, and inappropriate.
It all begins for Peter Riley and Madelyn Wilson when a stranger, Miles Lambert, knocks on their door with the earth-shattering news, But relief sets in when they realise the Lambert's feel the same way they do – they both love the son's they've raised and have no intention of switching them back – are content for both families to get to know each other and be involved in each other's lives. But how involved is too involved?
The sneaky ways the Lambert's tried to undermine Pete and Maddie's parenting style and subtly make them out to be unfit parents definitely increased the suspense and made for nail-biting reading. A campaign of hate designed to break them down and turn the couple against one another. Pete and Maddie were fairly naïve and easily influenced and exploited but it made sense given that Miles and Lucy had had time to adjust and plan while Pete and Maddie that been thrown for a loop with no time to grasp or process the desperate, emotional and potentially dangerous circumstances they found themselves in.
Playing Nice reminded me a lot of Mark Edwards, both in style and content, except instead of Neighbours from Hell or In-Laws who won't leave, Miles and Lucy had the ultimate hold over Pete and Maddie – access to their biological son, David, as well as the underlying threat that they could file for custody of Theo, so they were unwittingly connected to these strangers, and couldn't have walked away if they tried. POV's alternated between Pete and Maddie, with snippets from Case No. 12675/PU78B65 via official documentation, emails, texts, and forum posts, where the often contradictory accounts added an extra layer of suspicion and foreboding.
JP Delaney impressed me so much with Playing Nice, and I for one would be thrilled to bits if he wrote more in this vein in the future and steered clear of artificial intelligence and science fiction. Mark your calendars for early August because this is my top read by him so far.
I'd like to thank Netgalley, Quercus Books, and JP Delaney for the e-ARC.
Publication Date: 6th August, 2020.
JP Delaney has expertly crafted a nightmarish domestic situation in his latest tense and twisty dramatic thriller. What if when your child was two years old you discovered he had been switched at birth? And, as if that wasn't bad enough, what if the seemingly nice, charming, easygoing birth parents (who have been raising your biological child) soon become pushy, overbearing, weird, and inappropriate.
It all begins for Peter Riley and Madelyn Wilson when a stranger, Miles Lambert, knocks on their door with the earth-shattering news, But relief sets in when they realise the Lambert's feel the same way they do – they both love the son's they've raised and have no intention of switching them back – are content for both families to get to know each other and be involved in each other's lives. But how involved is too involved?
The sneaky ways the Lambert's tried to undermine Pete and Maddie's parenting style and subtly make them out to be unfit parents definitely increased the suspense and made for nail-biting reading. A campaign of hate designed to break them down and turn the couple against one another. Pete and Maddie were fairly naïve and easily influenced and exploited but it made sense given that Miles and Lucy had had time to adjust and plan while Pete and Maddie that been thrown for a loop with no time to grasp or process the desperate, emotional and potentially dangerous circumstances they found themselves in.
Playing Nice reminded me a lot of Mark Edwards, both in style and content, except instead of Neighbours from Hell or In-Laws who won't leave, Miles and Lucy had the ultimate hold over Pete and Maddie – access to their biological son, David, as well as the underlying threat that they could file for custody of Theo, so they were unwittingly connected to these strangers, and couldn't have walked away if they tried. POV's alternated between Pete and Maddie, with snippets from Case No. 12675/PU78B65 via official documentation, emails, texts, and forum posts, where the often contradictory accounts added an extra layer of suspicion and foreboding.
JP Delaney impressed me so much with Playing Nice, and I for one would be thrilled to bits if he wrote more in this vein in the future and steered clear of artificial intelligence and science fiction. Mark your calendars for early August because this is my top read by him so far.
I'd like to thank Netgalley, Quercus Books, and JP Delaney for the e-ARC.
Publication Date: 6th August, 2020.
Sept 2020. 7/10. Messed up but interesting book. You kind of know how it will end but then there is a bit of a surprise.
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
challenging
dark
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Violence, Medical content, Medical trauma
Moderate: Ableism, Mental illness
Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Chronic illness, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Car accident, Murder, Alcohol
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
3.5 stars
If you want to feel visceral frustration and anger towards almost every single secondary character's actions then this is the book for you. Very early on in the story Pete and Maddie find out that their son Theo was switched at birth (it's in the blurb) and then spend the rest of the time handling that situation. Which goes terribly wrong like 99.9% of the time with almost everyone set against them. After a while you just kept wondering what else could possibly go wrong, and then yet another thing would happen. It definitely set an anxious/ominous tone, but at the same time it got to be a little overboard towards the end.
However, where things really went wrong for me was how the 'real son' of Pete and Maddie was handled in the book. He is almost completely ignored in the story, and I just felt that was really unrealistic. If I just found out I had a biological child out there somewhere and that the child I thought was mine wasn't actually mine, I would be EQUALLY distraught about both children. Because both children would feel like mine. I would want to know everything about my 'real' child. Instead we just get a book completely focused on Theo.
And then there is the ending, which felt very drawn out and even more unrealistic in how it was solved and resolved.
I still spent most of the book on the edge of my seat wondering what was going to happen next, so I rounded it up to 4 stars despite my reservations regarding the plot.
If you want to feel visceral frustration and anger towards almost every single secondary character's actions then this is the book for you. Very early on in the story Pete and Maddie find out that their son Theo was switched at birth (it's in the blurb) and then spend the rest of the time handling that situation. Which goes terribly wrong like 99.9% of the time with almost everyone set against them. After a while you just kept wondering what else could possibly go wrong, and then yet another thing would happen. It definitely set an anxious/ominous tone, but at the same time it got to be a little overboard towards the end.
However, where things really went wrong for me was how the 'real son' of Pete and Maddie was handled in the book. He is almost completely ignored in the story, and I just felt that was really unrealistic. If I just found out I had a biological child out there somewhere and that the child I thought was mine wasn't actually mine, I would be EQUALLY distraught about both children. Because both children would feel like mine. I would want to know everything about my 'real' child. Instead we just get a book completely focused on Theo.
And then there is the ending, which felt very drawn out and even more unrealistic in how it was solved and resolved.
Spoiler
I thought it would end at the court case, and then something else happens and the cops were never called which is like step 1 for all white people in upsetting situations, the cause of the switch made absolutely no sense, and then there's a way too neat resolution to the whole thing.I still spent most of the book on the edge of my seat wondering what was going to happen next, so I rounded it up to 4 stars despite my reservations regarding the plot.