Member Reviews
The most memorable thing about reading this book was how deliciously uncomfortable (borderline claustrophobic) the reading experience was for me. I was immersed into a world/reality where I felt like a looming cloud of misfortune was above me the whole time, my chest heavy and a very eerie feeling of impending doom carried me throughout.
Overall, the storyline didn't deliver the shock that I thought it was building up towards but that'a not to say I didn't enjoy the story. I found all the characters slightly to intensely unlikable but in my view that's refreshing, so I didn't mind. I understand that the MFC found herself in a situation where her self esteem was slowly but steadily crushed into smithereens and I can 100% relate to it as anyone who has been in a relationship with someone as introvert and problematic as Caden, will know that all attempts to bridge that gap in communication can break even the most confident person if you find yourself hopelessly in love. The presence/absence of the ex girlfriend is given very well and you can see how easy it could be, given the right circumstances to find yourself in a place of obsessing over 'ghosts' of the past. I found it overall thought provoking and I think it would make a great book club choice.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my review copy, all opinions are my own.
This was a strange book, at first I didn’t enjoy it, but kept reading and it does get better. There is a lot of trigger issues in this story and that did turn me off a little. The ending was intense and exciting though. I didn’t see that ending.
Anna is smart and studying at Cambridge, she meets Caden and they end up living together. Anna is a strange character, she’s insecure, worried, angry, sad and deceitful. She’s an interesting person. Caden is also a very strong character with issues.
I want to give it 3.5 stars as still on the fence with this one.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for a copy.
this book was really interesting - not a genre I usually read and not one I think id aim for again.
the characters were really intriguing, it was fascinating to see them react to the scenarios amd twists within the plot, but I couldn't personally relate to the main character which made me less invested in the outcome.
a good concept but just not one I meshed well with which is a shame because I was looking forward to reading this!
thank you to Netgalley for the e-arc :)
Oh this was an absolute stone-cold banger.
Anna is a PhD student in Cambridge when she meets Caden, a physiotherapist, who captivates her right before the Covid lockdown.
But caden’s ex feel ever-present, almost a ghost in their relationship, and Anna becomes obsessed with understanding who she is and what happened.
I loved the realness of the characters, I loved the twistiness of the plot. I also really appreciate that Anna’s work with rodents is preceded with a line about skipping ahead if you’re squeamish (I am and I did!).
I loved this one. Great fun!
The narrative rambles pointlessly and it's hard to understand what this book is aiming at. That fab cover drew me but nothing about the writing or the story comes together.
An oddly engaging book; full of unlikeable, unknowable characters doing odd things, but, the author's writing was so good that I wanted to carry on reading and find out what happened to them. There were also enough plot twists to wrongfoot my expectations of where the story would end up.
Thank you to netgalley and Random House for an advance copy of this book
"Plaything" is told entirely from the viewpoint of Anna - the story starts with her going to Cambridge University to begin her PHD. She is clearly very intelligent but has various neuroses about that intelligence and her appearance. When she falls for the gorgeous Caden, she becomes obsessed with him but their relationship only damages her further with tragic consequences.
I am struggling to work out my opinion on this book. It covers some interesting topics like obsession, abuse (mostly verbal), self-esteem, mental health, the ethics of scientific research and many more. But I can't really say that I enjoyed it. I don't think it's because of the nature of some of the themes. I even think it's been quite well written and I could identify with some aspects of Anna's thoughts and experiences. But I just couldn't identify with some of her behaviours (it might have helped to have the perspectives of other characters) and I found it hard to suspend disbelief enough to believe the ending. But I applaud the author for tackling some of the difficult topics in an accessible way.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book.
Plaything did something to me that I rarely experience when reading. It gave me two, proper, mouth open gasps. For that alone, it should be applauded. I also enjoyed the writing in general, the descriptions of Cambridge, and its pace. I also felt it was a thoughtful portrayal of relationships in your early twenties. So realistic that some of the male characters' behaviour made me feel quite sick. The reason I've scored it so low is that, whilst I enjoyed the jolt and shock of the main twist, it seemed to come from nowhere and was pretty unbelievable. It's a shame because I did find myself racing through it.
With thanks to Transworld and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
My thanks go to NetGalley and Random House for a review copy of this book in exchange for my honest feedback.
Plaything is built as a novel of fixation. A story that finds it’s main character gradually falling into a spiral of paranoia and obsession, while we watch on in horror and inevitable expectancy.
Meet Anna, a young professional studying a PhD at Cambridge, where she meets Caden. Caden has a history that we only know so much about. He keeps things from us. This wouldn’t be an issue for us the reader, if he didn’t also keep these things from Anna. Caden’s secrecy comes across in completely natural and sadly all too common ways. Anna can’t quite handle that. She can’t settle. She’ll have to do something about it. It’s important that she gets to the bottom of Caden’s past. Or is it?
Spiralling is a hard element of a story to write. Ut can very easily feel melodramatic, annoying for the reader. It can also be sped along to hastily, leading to a climax timed without precision and deft. I feel that the sprialling side to Anna that’s shown in this book is really what holds it together. She begins relatively normal. She has some tendencies to overthink and make certain situations worse than they should be. She can land her foot in it if she pushes things just a little too far. This is the relatable side to the main character. We have all experienced situations where our brains run ahead of our rational selves and we find ourselves in a situation that feels deeply worse than it was before. Bea Setton manages to avoid the quick rush to push our lead character down, instead taking her time to show the very normal side of Anna before progressing with the melting of her psyche.
I feel that for large parts of the book, specifically the sections in the middle, Setton skirts around the main timeline of the story, with no real direction or purpose. It comes across as though the author is almost waiting for the last path towards the final act to be introduced. The gaps between the story beats are too spread apart to keep the narrative running smoothly, and I found myself being distracted by other things while it trundled along at it’s monotone pace. Things pick up in the final act, but there’s not too much pay off to make up for the circling back and forth that the reader has succumbed to for the last couple of hours.
Like with many books written today, this feels like a glimmer of an idea that is stretched for no reason other than to fill a word count quota. Make this more compact and it would land a hell of a lot harder for the reader.
While the ending doesn’t make up for the meandering, I will say it does leave a jolt of reaction that felt refreshing in a month of mundanity for my reading. It’s a quick couple of lines that truly shake your core after such a long period of coming to know the characters. For that, all the praise to Bea Setton.
A book that meanders too often to be considered worthwhile in putting time aside to read. It will get lost in the crowd of books similar to it in premise, due to a lack of difference, a shyness towards risk, and characters that talk through the same couple of topics and the same issues because the author doesn’t know when and where to land a beat.
Anna moves to Cambridge to complete her PhD. Just before the pandemic she meets Caden.
The story feels quite claustrophobic with them stuck together. Anna is at a bit of a loose end and starts to obsess over Caden's ex girlfriend.
I wasn't sure quite what to make of the character of Anna. I didn't sympathise with her exactly but I could see how she got to where she did.
Dark, weird, and completely unhinged - this is a book for the 'no plot just vibes' lovers. I enjoyed the book mostly, it deals with some really important issues and it drew me in quite early into reading. However, it didn't really hold my attention as I got closer to the end, there's lots of twists and turns that, for me, didn't really feel like they made much sense to the story and I couldn't actually figure out what the point of the book was. That being said, I know so many people will absolutely adore this book, it just wasn't my overall favourite thing that I've read, but I also didn't hate it.
'Plaything' is the perfect example of how to use a title. It could refer to so many things and people within the book and yet it's so simple.
At its heart, this is a story about obsession. On the face of it, it's about Anna's obsessive love for Caden. However, Caden is still obsessed with ex-girlfriend and Anna is also obsessive about her work.
Throughout the narrative, Anna makes bad decisions about who to trust. Her friend is a thief, her colleague betrays her over and over again and yet she still confides in them. It is easy to see how someone lacking in self-worth might fall into this trap, but Anna has every reason to be confident - she knows she is clever - however it is her physical appearance which worries her and the comparisons she makes between herself and Caden's ex are at the root of her problems. I think this says as much about the society we live in as it does about Anna herself. Equally, at work, her supervisor dismisses her concerns and she is the one who is expected to help both her male peers and her female colleague. It is dressed up as both being her issues - she needs to accept she is expected to work hard; she is better than her peers so is asked to do more - but ultimately, it could be argued that both have more to do with her gender and the expectations made of her as a result, than anything else.
Ultimately, as things unravel, I found it quite hard to feel any sympathy for her at all. I was never quite sure what the truth was and her unreliability meant I was consistently questioning her version of events. This was borne out as the story progressed and led to the incredibly unsettling ending. This was not a book that was a comfortable read, but it was intriguing and compelling and it was like watching a car crash unfold. The end result was never in doubt, but it made for an interesting tale in the unfolding of it.
’going through a person's devices is probably the closest you'll ever come to being inside their mind.’
setton’s sophomore novel follows anna, the top student in her phd cohort at cambridge, as she unravels and descends into mental turmoil after falling for caden.
when covid hits england and the students’ living situations are thrown into disarray, anna moves in with caden, and the two fall into a cosy lockdown routine. despite the couple’s physical proximity, caden’s ever-present ex-girlfriend and elusive nature strikes jealousy and concern in anna, which drives a wedge between their emotional bond.
both caden and his ex are threateningly beautiful - worlds out of anna’s league. almost mindlessly, she becomes consumed by an insecurity-fuelled obsession with the two, a fixation that gradually eclipses her academic pursuits and friendships before spiralling into something much darker.
i really enjoyed indulging in anna’s little world for a few days, albeit pretty much hell on earth! 🤪 i initially dnf’d this as i found it tricky to get into, but when i picked it up again a month or so later, i was completely absorbed until the end.
setton’s exploration of the intricacies of human connection and the fragility of self were vivid and honest, and although she is determined it’s ‘not a covid book’, she beautifully captured the claustrophobia, apprehension and general weirdness of lockdown. the plot progression and characters were reminiscent of those in o’donoghue’s ‘the rachel incident’, and like o’donoghue, setton has proven her mastery at writing a woman on the edge.
thank you so much for the arc!
A young woman pursuing her PhD at Cambridge. A young woman, who like many is struggling with academic pressure, home-life disputes, new and immature friendships and a love interest who does not appear to be as interested in her as she is in him.
The story was interesting, at times tense, well-written and thought-provoking.
This is a novel about toxic relationships, obsession and self-destruction. The protagonist is fairly unlikeable from the start, but in a way that I still found enjoyable to read. I really liked the pacing of the book, rather than being very quick with major plot points it slowly built up the relationships and the steps towards the inevitable end, and that isn't always easy to do. The little ways in which insecurity can spiral over time, how small reasonable-seeming curiosities can build on each other into obsession, felt very real.
Plaything follows Anna as she begins her PhD in Cambridge and meets a beautiful but reserved man, Caden. This isn’t a “but then, X happens” type of novel. The story unravels as it goes along, with some knots harder and stronger than others.
As someone who grew up in Cambridge, I appreciated the authenticity and think the attention to detail on location made a huge difference to the text. However, it’s definitely Cambridge through a Cambridge uni student’s eyes, which is likely a lot more romanticised.
I found this book quietly thrilling; the entire story felt uneasy and strange in such a subtle way. I loved that it wasn’t packed with shocks and twists but just slowly wound the reader until you realised you’re facing the other direction.
I genuinely FLEW through this! It was easy to read, even with some uncomfortable content, and I found myself looking down and seeing I was over halfway through without realising.
One thing I wasn’t keen on was the narrator breaking the fourth wall, e.g. “you can skip this next part” or “don’t worry, this isn’t a covid novel”. Maybe it’s just me, but it didn’t seem to fit with the style and took me away from the writing a little.
Overall an excellent novel, and I’ll definitely be lining up Bea Setton’s other work, Berlin, for a read soon.
Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for a digital arc in exchange for review.
Coming off a run of reading bang-average books, Plaything really hit that much harder.
From the outset, we know this is a book about obsession. At first I thought it would be Anna's obsession with Caden, then I thought it could be her obsession with Caden's ex, then I wondered if it was actually Caden's obsession with his ex and, by the end, I realised none of the above had to be mutually exclusive.
Filled with morally grey characters, some insidious manipulations and unspeakable plot points (laundry scene, I'm looking at you) this is a story that truly envelops you.
It's difficult to unpack what I felt while reading Plaything - mostly curiousity, definitely frustration and no small helping of 'oh my god no' - so it's difficult to tell someone that they'll enjoy reading it. But if you've ever known anyone who was in an unhealthy relationship, read this and understand what it's like from the inside.
Tread carefully, Plaything could be your new obsession.
I really enjoyed this book - the full circle-ness was quite satisfying and was a nice domino effect from the opening scene of the book with the car crash, right to the end.
It was interesting to incorporate the backdrop of lockdown into this story of obsession, because during that time I guess every emotion and feeling was already so amplified, and the intensity of the two characters living together immediately feeds into the obsession.
Don't get me wrong, both characters are honestly as bad as each other - he is shut down, manipulative and uncommunicative, but she is obsessive, overbearing, has a superiority complex and has a lot of grey morals - including participating in image based sexual abuse.
I enjoyed the claustrophobia the author was able to bring to the writing, and the rising mania around the obsession between the two, the ex girlfriend and external perspectives. A really interesting read and the Rooney girlies will love this one.
I loved Bea Sutton’s novel, Berlin, and was very excited for the next - Sutton did not disappoint. I raced through this over two days and will definitely be repurchasing and rereading on publication day!
4.5
“Plaything” explores themes of obsession, image and self-worth. The cover captured my eye, but when I started reading, I realised I was getting so much more than I expected! I appreciate the atmosphere that B.Setton created in this book – it’s a bit unsettling, full of honesty, I was compelled and couldn’t put the book down!
Anna is smart, she’s successful in her field, she comes from a dysfunctional family. Anna meets a guy whom she thinks is out of her league. He’s so beautiful, it’s disturbing, she’s not a beaty, though she always found that it’s not that important. Anna starts to forget her value and strengths, becomes intimidated as Caden plays with her mind emphasising every little aspect she lacks. It was so interesting to see Anna’s character develop, to understand her better because of her background, to see how her unnatural fixation and obsession changes her behaviour and character, self evaluation. I was engrossed in the story – the red flags, unhealthy relationship forming between Anna and Caden – it was a page turner!
I won’t tell anything more about characters and plot as I feel it’s best to go in with as little knowledge as possible for a better reading experience. However, I would state that in order to fully appreciate the novel, it’s best to keep the non-judgemental pov about character traits or their behaviour. If you’re like me and like to get inside a fictional character’s head for the duration of a book and read about different experiences - you will be thrilled while reading this book. Also, it will work well for the fans of dark academia. At the beginning of the book, B.Setton states that it is neither campus university story nor a Covid story, but these two factors play a major role in setting. Times of Covid give a aspect of separation, social distancing and the university setting is done perfectly. The main features of dark academia plays nicely too: obsession, fixation, unhealthy relationship dynamic, isolation, misfit in a new social group, guilt, shame, not seeing oneself clearly, possible murder.
The plot progress was so satisfying, this book has the perfect balance of character and plot. I was invested in the story from the very beginning. The plot twists at the end were delicious, and one of them I didn’t guess (it’s a rare experience).
All in all, I had a great time reading the book, I was engrossed in the story, I appreciated the portraits of the characters, the way the relationship dynamics unfolded and influenced the characters.
I received ARC in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to Random House UK, Transworld Publishers, NetGalley.