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A review by watermelleon
Playdate by Alex Dahl
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Pleasantly surprised by this one!
This was a book club suggestion - someone discovered that my work is being used as a filming location for a police station (exciting!). It has only just been commissioned, but quite excited to be ahead of the curve and looking forward to watching the adaptation to see how it stands up!
In not knowing much about the book beforehand, my internal biases were at play with this one. a child abduction story written by a man was not filling me with great confidence in capturing a mother's emotions accurately, and I was expecting at best a cheap american holiday thriller. Within the first few pages I dive into the deep nordic setting (written by a woman!) and knew I had missed a trick. That showed me!
Note I wanted to raise: It is easy to wonder how this kidnapping could even happen - to a non-scandinavian reader it feels so negligent! I would advise all readers to consider the culture context of this book first before pulling judgement - Dahl wrote a fascinating article about the "surprising scandinvian approaches to child-rearing" here: https://www.frostmagazine.com/2020/10/the-surprising-scandinavian-approaches-to-child-rearing-by-alex-dahl/
Things I loved about this book:
This was a book club suggestion - someone discovered that my work is being used as a filming location for a police station (exciting!). It has only just been commissioned, but quite excited to be ahead of the curve and looking forward to watching the adaptation to see how it stands up!
In not knowing much about the book beforehand, my internal biases were at play with this one. a child abduction story written by a man was not filling me with great confidence in capturing a mother's emotions accurately, and I was expecting at best a cheap american holiday thriller. Within the first few pages I dive into the deep nordic setting (written by a woman!) and knew I had missed a trick. That showed me!
Note I wanted to raise: It is easy to wonder how this kidnapping could even happen - to a non-scandinavian reader it feels so negligent! I would advise all readers to consider the culture context of this book first before pulling judgement - Dahl wrote a fascinating article about the "surprising scandinvian approaches to child-rearing" here: https://www.frostmagazine.com/2020/10/the-surprising-scandinavian-approaches-to-child-rearing-by-alex-dahl/
Things I loved about this book:
- Mental Health representation: there is some Excellent coverage of mental health within this book, one specific character is established almost immediately to have ADHD, and is possibly the most prominent and accurate account of a character with this that I have read so far. It was nice to resonate with her excessive hyperfocus and burnout, decision paralysis, dealing with rejection sensitivity, and unquavering sense of justice. Other characters present (unlabelled) OCD/Anxiety which also came across to me as a good understanding of these conditions.
- The Book Structure: This book jumps between a number of narratives to view the incident through different perspectives, which keeps the story incredibly addictive and exciting! This pieces together in a satisfying way.
- Character Psychology : I was so pleased to see the women in this book all incredibly unique, with their own very human flaws and sympathy. No woman was fully demonised, and the characters all had a thoughtful psychology that left you disagreeing with them often, but understanding their rationalle behind what could appear to be a bad decision.
- The Location and Setting : Dahl's wanderlust was very apparent to me, her loving and detailed descriptions of the various locations she knew well were very obvious and well researched.
Things I am hesitant about:
- Lucia's POV - Although Lucia's POV chapters were much needed and an interesting perspective, I felt they didn't really read like how a child would write the chapters? It felt very much like someone obsessed with her was writing about it, which led me to the wildest theory of all -
that perhaps Selma in her obsession in the case was writing the whole story how she felt it had happened. . - Selma - As much as I loved Selma's character and ADHD representation, there were a lot of fears with where her character was going.
Ultimately this was okay in the end, but there are so many books ending with the disabled character being in the wrong and this was constantly a worry when reading this, as possibly her characters obsession was pushed slightly too far? - Pacing - for the most part, the book was very difficult to put down. but I did feel a dip around 3/4's through where it felt like some of the story could have been shortened slightly. however after this the pace immediately raced forward again and I was reading for hours!
Did I guess the mystery correctly? I guessed everything that was revealed- but there were some wacky theories that were completely wrong! In the end everything ties together in a wonderful way.
Spoiler question about this:
Questions for Reading Club:
- What could have been the best case scenario for Lucia?
- How would this storyline change if based in another country?
- What does "playdate" suggest about the effectiveness of crime and punishment institutions? What does it suggest about criminals and those who are involved in crime?
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Trafficking, Grief, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, Suicide attempt, and Death of parent
Minor: Alcoholism, Bullying, Cancer, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Infertility, Terminal illness, Abortion, Pregnancy, and Alcohol
Minor items listed are only briefly mentioned without detail, have little reference to the overall plot. Moderates are mentioned slightly more but not in depth.
The areas most of concern would be:
trafficking of a child along borders,
references to organised crime, harmful organised religion (details of group and situation) estrangement from family who are emotionally abusive and jehovas witnesses, ,
mental health and hospitalisation due to grief loss of child and husband in a car crash ,
emotional impact of death of family members Young daughter, husband, father (in less detail)
(details of death)
1 car crash
2 car crash
3 cancer
Fire includes adults, children, and animals, detail: at the end of the book, a man dies in a house fire with graphic detail. A child nearly dies but is saved and has minor injuries. Animals in a barn also are injured but survive
The book is in multiple perspectives including the mother, missing child, and kidnapper.
Does the girl survive at the end? yes, although she has likely emotional trauma.
Is there any sexual content or sexual abuse regarding children? no, there is none within this book.
Other trigger areas not listed in the list: social media/stalking, indirect animal endangerment (without death or injury), mind control (?) kidnapper forces child to believe she is her child and has a different identity