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A review by ashmagoffin
The Players by Deborah Pike
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
This is a book that I wanted to adore but it missed the mark. The Players follows a group of amateur actors performing The Marriage of Figaro and the passage their lives take in the aftermath of the show. It follows them setting out to achieve their dreams or what they think they are.
This book is my type on paper 100%. I love books that surround theatres, actors and the overall chaos that is trying to put together a show. There were a core cast of characters that we had POV chapters from, not the entirety of The Players but a significant chunk. There were also some others thrown in who were side characters on the periphery. This added nothing to the overall story, particularly one character who served as a villain to the overall plot. Charlie's chapters should have been emitted, his actions or motivations were not justified by his internal monologue, and it would have been more believable without him. Ana's POV did not serve a purpose either, it moved too quickly, she was introduced, was a minor plot point, exited the scene. The pace in which the events of her life happened were extremely difficult to orientate the timeline. By hearing the internal narration of all these characters who were only included to serve (at times) minor plot points, it muddied the waters. I felt like this book lost track of the story it was aiming to be tell which (I think??) was the coming of age of The Players.
This book was trying to do a lot of things, too many things. Due to this there were too many loose ends, too many unfinished arcs which overall left it with a lack of substance. There was an attempt to tie everything together with a through line but it felt like the majority of the book was blind to what it was trying to achieve.
This book was trying to do a lot of things, too many things. Due to this there were too many loose ends, too many unfinished arcs which overall left it with a lack of substance. There was an attempt to tie everything together with a through line but it felt like the majority of the book was blind to what it was trying to achieve.