Playmates

by Eva Hanagan

A shocking secret…

Biddy and her older sister Lucy had always been close. In fact, Biddy’s older sister Lucy had taken full responsibility for her ever since they were children, and things are no different now that they’re adults. But when Lucy dies of pneumonia, Biddy finds herself alone for the first time in her life.

Revelling in her newfound freedom, she finds it hard to let anyone else impede on it. She decides to keep Lucy’s death secret, telling herself it’s just for a short while… but when the days turn into weeks, she starts to feel the strain. With a blossoming friendship with a local boy, Ginger Mudd, firmly underway, he provides a welcome relief from the pressure of her dark secret. But he’d never forgive her if he knew the truth… Will Biddy be able to cover up her sister’s death permanently, or will the shocking truth finally be revealed?

Playmates is a haunting tale of deception and secrets set against the cosy backdrop of a rural town.

160 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 6, 2020

Reviews

[Mandy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a slight book but nonetheless a very enjoyable one. It’s the story of two elderly spinster sisters, Lucy and Biddy, who have always lived together with Lucy looking after Biddy. But now Lucy is dangerously ill and Biddy has to care for Lucy, something that may prove too much for her to cope with. There’s an expertly handled slow reveal within the story which has the reader constantly questioning his or her assumptions and I found this aspect of the novel very clever indeed. Although it’s a quiet book there are underlying tensions all the way through that build and build and keep the reader invested. A dark and dry humour pervades the narrative and although I’d never previously heard the phrase “watercolour gothic” it describes this book perfectly. Not quite a Jane Austen, to whom Hanagan has sometimes been compared, but an intelligent and witty writer who deserves a wide readership. This book would be a good place to start.

[Asiya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bravo! Bravo to whoever is responsible fo the marketing of Playmates. Wonderful, let me tell you, how book description doesn't match the actual story. No, that would be wrong to say. The book description, in fact, describes you the entire plot but in a more mysterious and thrilling way. Playmates is anything BUT mysterious and thrilling. Rather entertaining, I'd say. With nothing more than tea and walnut cake.

Playmates is marketed as "a delicious piece of watercolor Gothic." That is exactly what it is. Imagine an old-style evening by the fireplace in a rural village of England that involves an excessive amount of tea, biscuits and words "lovely" and "dear". Add some tragic news about poor Miss Gobledorn (whoever that might be) falling sick and contemplating about how it's absolutely necessary to send her that chicken broth next day while silently wishing that old thing would die as soon as possible because her sun shields are blocking the afternoon light when you go out for a walk. That's it. You got the essence of Playmates here.

I don't believe I can say the novel was delightful. However, it was most certainly lovely. Important to remember that it was originally published in 1978, so the style does correspond. This is not a fast-paced thriller about a grand secret of Biddy's. Instead, Playmates is an unhurried dark comedy with breaks for tea and walnut cake, of course. God forbids someone gets overwhelmed.

Moreover, I do believe Playmates is a dark comedy. It was amusing at the very least. The jokes are very in between the lines, masterfully thrown at the reader at the most unexpected times. I wouldn't expect anything different in the story about Biddy as she is a very comical character. However, when taking a step back from Biddy's little world, anyone can see that whatever is happening is quite horrid, really. The worst part is that Biddy turns everything into a game and that threw me off, I didn't even notice the wrongness of what was happening to her. And there is plenty. If you happened to know about something like this in real life, you would probably close your eyes and pray to God for the better.

Overall, Playmates was an entertaining and light read. I am very used to reading action-packed, secret-spilling, nosebleed-emotional popular fiction. This novel was nothing like that. It was very nice to step back, take a break from contemporary and dive into a bit of literary fiction. Nonetheless, I would definitely recommend reading Playmates sometime during the holidays or anytime calm and peaceful because this is definitely a leisurely read. Reading it during the hot season of exams or deadlines is just like reading Fitzgerald on a subway. In other words, absolute crime!

[miss.mesmerized mesmerized · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lucy and Biddy, two elderly sisters who once came from Germany to Scotland and have since spent their lives together. Lucy has always cared for the younger one, but now she is suffering from pneumonia and feels that the end is near. In her last hours, she tries to prepare Biddy for the time after she‘s deceased, but Biddy does not really seem to understand. When it finally happens, she tries to ignore the situation at first. She keeps her secret well, even manages to take care of all the financial aspects of her life. But she increasingly feels lonely, especially since she cannot confide in anybody. When young Ginger Mudd knocks on her door one day, a strange friendship develops. However, this friendship will sooner or later endanger her secret…

Eva Hanagan, who only started writing late in her life and died already in 2009, sends us to a remote place where people can lead a reclusive life. There are only few characters in her novel, apart from the sisters, we repeatedly meet a neighbour who is inquiring about Lucy’s well-being, fishy Mrs Trout, young Mudd and at the end of the novel, briefly his father and mother. The plot is centred around Biddy, of whom I first thought she was a young girl, a bit naïve and ignorant of the world. Only when she started narrating her past did I realise that she must be rather an elderly lady with some limited intellect. Yet, this does not hinder her from being loveable and charming in her special way. It was quite funny to read how her pragmatic cleverness helps her top keep Lucy’s death secret. On the other hand, the scenes in which she longs for human contact are rather sad.

The most interesting aspect however what the friendship between Biddy and Mudd. Albeit the age difference do they well get along and quickly grow fond of each other. Their dance around Biddy’s secret and their mutual feeling that this friendship is precious, too precious to endanger it by any inconsiderate, spontaneous action, was for me the most noteworthy while reading. All in all, the novel moves at a slower pace which fits well to the setting and its characters. And it is particularly the subtle play on words – such as the neighbour’s name – that make this novel remarkable.

[John Gilbert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Strange, but interesting read about two sisters spending their entire lives together. One has taken care of the younger until sickness changes their roles. Lovely intrusion of a young male neighbour who befriends the remaining sister in some lovely times.

[Jessica Rambo · Rating 2 out of 5]

I got this book for free from the publisher in exchange for a review from Netgalley, who absolutely DID NOT advertise this book correctly. Though the story was about a woman who has the mind of a child named Biddy who buries her dead sister and carries on life, it is VERY rarely brought up and is more about her relationship with a child named Ginger. This book is absolutely not a thriller at all, as it's just about a day in the life of a woman who happened to have a secret about her dead sister and her friend named Ginger, who has a pretty bad home life. Although I found the main two characters to be at least somewhat likable, NO ONE ELSE appears to be, which along with the ending, makes this book a bit of a pain to read about. While I would find Biddy to be insufferable in the real world, I don't know, I guess I found some sort of charm to her (given she wasn't raping or murdering like in many of the true crime/ thriller books I read, I guess my standards are fairly low), but the problem was definitely on ginger's side of the story. His mother is an absolute one dimensional character whose only purpose appeared to be to make her husband's life harder (seriously, about half of his plot is being pushed around by her to the point that I was wondering what the point to her even was), and just generally be a bitch to everyone she meets. Ginger's dad is a pushover, Maureen, Ginger's sister has NO purpose in the book other than to be an unneeded foil to ginger, and Les, Maureen's boyfriend just robs Biddy in a plot that is only mentioned for about a chapter before it's dropped completely, rendering him just as pointless as the rest of the characters. I usually don't complain about side characters, but these were so one dimensional it only seemed to me that they were remnants of an abandoned arc that never came to fruition. Likewise, the storytelling was fairly fascinating when it wasn't held down by the side characters playing their roles for three pages before getting on to something else and never mentioning that role again, but it still seemed to be disjointed, which could just be me not reading too much of watercolor gothic and liking a more linear plot in general (hey, Netgalley said it was a thriller and I got sucked in, it happens). It seemed to jump from one plot to the next without anything really happening overall. Any one of the stories could be told in any order, or dropped and the story of Biddy and Ginger would have no effect. Hell, I didn't even know Lucy was disfigured until about halfway in because the plot suddenly called for it! Finally, the ending was a complete and total mess. (SPOILERS) the house burns down and Mrs. Trout (the one side character I could tolerate) looks into Ginger's eyes and sees he's past the point of being a child. This would be a great ending if there was ever any logical reason for it to have happened. I believe what the author was going for was to show Biddy really couldn't handle being on her own, but what it appeared to be was more of an "author wrote her way into a corner and needs to end the thing, so screw it, FIRE!" ending. There was literally NO reason for it to happen, and it just came so out of nowhere it just seemed sloppy. Also, why would Ginger need to look like he was an adult when there was no reason for it to be brought up? There was no foreshadowing to the conclusion, and the conclusion didn't need to be made in the first place. Just because you CAN write a profound sounding ending, doesn't make it profound, it just looked lazy. Overall, I liked the parts of Biddy and Ginger being together, but the book was too weighed down with useless side characters, plots that just pop up for no reason and go away, and an ending that was just plain unnecessary.