Reviews - Play It as It Lays

5.12k reviews for:

Play It as It Lays

Joan Didion

3.9 AVERAGE

lilermey's review against another edition

4.0

women suffering

elladavis's review against another edition

3.25

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

el_bert0's review against another edition

4.0

dark emotional sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

theswordandthesea's review against another edition

5.0

“I feel beaucoup fantastic.”

Saw a couple people describe this as a nihilistic summer read and that’s incredibly spot on.

Didion fits so much into her economical, lovely prose. I’d written down three quotes within my first ten minutes of reading.

“Each believed the other a murderer of time.”

Living in LA, there are so many elements of this that had “the more things change the more they stay the same” rattling in the back of my brain. It’s the first time I’ve experienced the LA freeways here as a character, but it makes so much sense.

“I have trouble with ‘as it was.’”

This isn’t for the faint of heart. Definitely check trigger warnings because there are a ton at play. But I’m glad this was my first Didion. I’ll be both reading more and revisiting this.

Content Warnings