129 reviews for:

Playdate

Alex Dahl

3.69 AVERAGE

black_matilda's profile picture

black_matilda's review

3.0
emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I think I would have liked this more had I read it, the fmc narration style was hard to adapt to,  overly dramatic and breathy. I enjoyed the multiple narratives and the perspective of the missing child was a nice addition. 
adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

victoria_as_aq's review

3.5
dark emotional sad tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
dark mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated
dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated
dark mysterious 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: Yes
mysterious 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

I read this book because I saw it was being turned into a tv show and I wanted to know the story. It was a pretty interesting story and it had me wanting to know what was happening. However I didn’t really love how it was written, it just didn’t sit right for some reason. Maybe it was that it was set in Norway and cultural just was different what I am used to or if the writing was a bit off but yeah I found it a little hard to get into. 

Also there were so many different story lines and I found my self skipping forward to continue with the story line I found most interesting and then going back to the others. Defs not how the authors intended me to read it but oh well. 

I feel like I wanted more in the end, it felt a bit unresolved.
It would have been good to see the ramifications of Elisa finally telling the truth and also I wanted Jacqueline to get caught and have some kind of punishment for what she did.


Overall I think I potentially wouldn’t have finished this book if I hadn’t had the motivation from the show coming out. 
emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
dark emotional mysterious tense fast-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: Complicated
tense

2,5 for this, rounded up to a three as I realize my opinion is way more negative than "every one else's".

First off - the good: the plot and story it self. It's solid, it's believable and very well put together. So, with this I should have liked it, but I didn't, which brings me to the less good:

* The writing style - so so so soooo many adjectives and unnecessary descriptions of random things (I don't know how many times I read about "the milky white sky"). For me this took away from the story, and took away from feeling the " flow"..
* Despite all these descriptions, there's a whole lot of telling and very little showing 
* The characters felt like piece being moved around; doing actions and delivering lines, but without actually being people.I couldn't sense any personality (perhaps with the exception of Selma) or individuality.
* And speaking of Selma, I couldn't stand her character. She felt like one huge stereotype of an outsider. The whole psychic aspect also felt misplaced as it didn't lead anywhere or contribute anything to the story
* This last one is just a personal preference: I usually enjoy different POVs and narrators, but it felt so weird when only two characters were written in first person and the rest in third person 

All in all this was way too long and in spite of an excellent plot, there were so many other things that weren't to my liking that in the end the plot couldn't save it