I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Title: We Play Ourselves
Author: Jen Silverman
Release Date: 2.9.21
Publisher: Random House
Goodreads Summary:
After a humiliating scandal, a young writer flees to the West Coast to start over, where she is drawn into the morally-ambiguous orbit of a charismatic filmmaker and the teenage girls who are her next subjects.
Not too long ago, Cass was a promising young playwright in New York, hailed as "a fierce new voice" and "queer, feminist, and ready to spill the tea." But at the height of all this attention, Cass finds herself at the center of a searing public shaming, and flees to Los Angeles to escape -- and reinvent herself. There she meets her next-door neighbor Caroline, a magnetic filmmaker on the rise, as well as the pack of teenage girls who hang around her house. They are the subjects of Caroline's next semi-documentary movie, which follows the girls' violent fight club, a real-life feminist re-purposing of the classic.
As Cass is drawn into the film's orbit, she is awed by Caroline's ambition and confidence. But over time, she becomes increasingly troubled by how deeply Caroline is manipulating the teens in the name of art. When a girl goes missing, Cass must reckon with her own ambitions and ask herself: in the pursuit of fame, how do you know when you've gone too far?
Not too long ago, Cass was a promising young playwright in New York, hailed as "a fierce new voice" and "queer, feminist, and ready to spill the tea." But at the height of all this attention, Cass finds herself at the center of a searing public shaming, and flees to Los Angeles to escape -- and reinvent herself. There she meets her next-door neighbor Caroline, a magnetic filmmaker on the rise, as well as the pack of teenage girls who hang around her house. They are the subjects of Caroline's next semi-documentary movie, which follows the girls' violent fight club, a real-life feminist re-purposing of the classic.
As Cass is drawn into the film's orbit, she is awed by Caroline's ambition and confidence. But over time, she becomes increasingly troubled by how deeply Caroline is manipulating the teens in the name of art. When a girl goes missing, Cass must reckon with her own ambitions and ask herself: in the pursuit of fame, how do you know when you've gone too far?
My Review:
I was initially drawn to this novel due to the description of the protagonist Cass as a queer, feminist playwright and was intrigued by the idea of a feminist twist on Fight Club. I was really excited to read this but it took me a while to get into it and I couldn't figure out if it was me (I've really been struggling with reading for the last few months) or the storyline. As I got deeper into the story I realized it is because this novel is full of character studies that are so well written that I was empathizing with each character and their relation to each other in a way that was making me read more slowly (much more slowly.) I was so impressed with how Silverman was able to build these character arcs and intersperse the creative concepts and processes of theatre and documentary film-making. There is so much more to this book (sexuality, identity, scandal, the marketability of #MeToo) but I loved this for Cass' coming of age story. I definitely recommend this but I believe readers will love it more if they are interested in theatre/film production, the creative process, and/or a queer woman's rollercoaster ride of fame, infamy, and personal recreation.
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