Marvel's Jessica Jones: Playing with Fire

Marvel's Serial Box Audiobooks #2

by Lauren Beukes, Vita Ayala, Sam Beckbessinger

The safe choice? Walk away. But when has Jessica Jones ever played it safe?

Jessica Jones has made an art of ignoring her particular brand of super-powered trauma. But these days, she’s giving the whole “self-care” thing a try. Seeing a therapist, finding healthier coping mechanisms (read: no business-hours drinking), working toward not wanting to punch things all the time. Maybe even taking the occasional case that won’t eat her alive. A simple missing persons case seems like just the ticket. But when a boy’s body turns up under an overpass in what looks like a cut-and-dried OD, Jessica can’t let it go and dives headlong into an obsessive search for answers.

Genres: Audiobook, Marvel, Crime, Superheroes, Mystery, Science Fiction, Thriller

Audiobook

First published May 28, 2020

About the author

Lauren Beukes is an award-winning, best-selling novelist who also writes screenplays, TV shows, comics and journalism. Her books have been translated into 26 languages and have been optioned for film and TV.

Her awards include the Arthur C Clarke Award, the prestigious University of Johannesburg prize, the August Derleth Prize, the Strand Critics Choice Award and the RT Thriller of the Year. She’s been honoured in South Africa’s parliament and most recently won the Mbokondo Award from the Department of Arts and Culture, celebrating women in the arts for her work in the Creative Writing field.

She is the author of Broken Monsters, about art, ambition, damaged people and not-quite-broken cities, The Shining Girls, about a time-travelling serial killer, the nature of violence, and how we are haunted by history, Zoo City, a phantasmagorical noir set in Johannesburg which won the Arthur C Clarke Award and Moxyland, a dystopian political thriller about a corporate apartheid state where people are controlled by their cell phones. Her first book was a feminist pop-history, Maverick: Extraordinary Women From South Africa’s Past, which has recently been reprinted.

Her comics work includes Survivors' Club, an original Vertigo comic with Dale Halvorsen and Ryan Kelly, the New York Times-bestselling graphic novel, Fairest: The Hidden Kingdom with Inaki Miranda, and a Wonder Woman one-shot for kids, “The Trouble With Cats” in Sensation Comics, set in Mozambique and Soweto and drawn by Mike Maihack.

Her film and TV work includes directing the documentary, Glitterboys & Ganglands, about Cape Town’s biggest female impersonation beauty pageant. The film won best LGBT film at the San Diego Black Film Festival.

She was the showrunner on South Africa’s first full length animated TV series, URBO: The Adventures of Pax Afrika which ran for 104 half hour episodes from 2006-2009 on SABC3. She’s also written for the Disney shows Mouk and Florrie’s Dragons and on the satirical political puppet show,ZANews and Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s South African Story.

Before that she was a freelance journalist for eight years, writing about electricity cable thieves, TB, circumcision, telemedicine, great white sharks, homeless sex workers, Botswana’s first female high court judge, and Barbie as a feminist icon for magazines ranging from The Sunday Times Lifestyle to Nature Medicine, Colors, The Big Issue and Marie Claire.

She lives in Cape Town, South Africa with her daughter.

www.laurenbeukes.com
Twitter.com/laurenbeukes Instagram.com/laurenbeukes Facebook.com/laurenbeukes

Awards & Achievements
2015 South Africa’s Mbokondo Award for Women In The Arts: Creative Writing
2014 August Derleth Award for The Shining Girls
2014 Strand Critics Choice Award for The Shining Girls
2014 NPR Best Books of the Year Broken Monsters
2014 LA Times Best Books of the Year Broken Monsters
2013 University of Johannesburg Literature Prize for The Shining Girls
2013 RT Thriller of the Year for The Shining Girls
2013 WHSmith Richard & Judy BookClub Choice
2013 Exclusive Books’ Bookseller’s Choice for The Shining Girls
2013 Amazon Best Mysteries and Thrillers for The Shining Girls
2011 Kitschies Red Tentacle for Zoo City
2010 Arthur C Clarke Award for Zoo City

Reviews

[Amy! · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent entry in Jessica's story. It exists in the same universe as the show, though they are separate entities. If you're jonesing (ah-ha!) for more Jessica Jones, this will definitely tide you over.

[Cmoore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Marvel and Serial Box teamed up together and presented us with Jessica Jones: Playing with Fire... and it's just freaking Awesome! I enjoy Marvel's Black Widow, but Jessica Jones has my heart! This fallible human with preternatural strength, and a penchant for backsliding into old vices is the woman for me! Smart, fallible, kickass! Plus, I love the cast of characters surrounding her. People she can actually trust, and I might add, call friends.
I've never heard Fryda Wolff's voice performance before, but her narration is perfect and carries off just the right amount of cynicism putting me right in Jessica Jones head!

[Steven Shinder · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some witty moments here and there.

[Justin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was really great! I wasn’t the biggest fan of Jessica Jones before - I always found her a little too self-defeating for my taste - but this book and Breaking the Dark by Lisa Jewel have really changed that perspective. Jessica is complicated, but she has a lot of heart. Her relationships with her friends and fellow Defenders, while messy, are very sweet. I really liked the cult vibes this book gave off, and the mutant (can I call them that?) young people were very interesting.

[Liz (Quirky Cat) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Marvel's Jessica Jones: Playing With Fire is the second Marvel series to hit Serial Box, and I'm gonna be honest with you here: I about lost my mind when I heard the news. This is exactly the sort of series I would have wanted to see adapted, and thus I couldn't be happier about the fact.

It all started out as an easy, open and close case. The sort of case that PI dream of, and one that would allow Jessica to make a go at this whole self-care thing that her therapist has been trying to push on her.

Naturally, it didn't stay that way. What was once a missing person case quickly turned into a darker investigation, one that Jessica simply couldn't walk away from. Too many people had already been hurt, and more people would be in the line of fire if she couldn't find a way to stop it. So much for a mental health day.

“It'll be a cinch, he said, it's an ice cream turf war, he said, and sure they're getting a little heavy, but nothing you can't handle.”

Marvel's Jessica Jones: Playing With Fire is absolutely my favorite series to come from Serial Box (so far). I know I'm probably a little bit biased when I say that, since Jessica Jones is one of my favorite heroes of all time, but still.

In many ways, this series was so perfectly suited to the format available on Serial Box. Her sass and wit carried over perfectly, as did the many characters that find their way into her world and series. It was one of the many charms that this series had going for it.

You can really feel the frustration that Jess is dealing with, basically on a daily basis. Likewise, the hurt that this case caused could not be avoided. The emotions in this entire adventure felt so raw and open, much like Alias.

The authors involved are another highlight, naturally. Lauren Beukes, Vita Ayala, Sam Beckbessinger, Zoe Quinn, and Elsa Sjunneson all were involved in the writing, with Fryda Wolff providing the narration. In short: it was freaking perfect.

Another highlight of this series is how much effort the creative team put into making the world sensitive to everyone. The ability to read or listen to the series is just a start. Even Jessica Jones, the stubborn and exasperating character made efforts to understand and connect with the characters around her.

While the series undoubtedly leaned towards the darker and grittier side of the Marvel universe (basically: Jessica Jones in a nutshell), it did have its humorous moments. They were bright spots in the series, reminding characters and readers alike of all the reasons why Jess keeps fighting so hard, despite all of the temptations towards giving up.

In short, I completely fell in love with Jessica Jones: Playing With Fire. I sincerely hope that there will be more seasons of this series, as my heart just couldn't take the thought of saying goodbye after such a captivating read/listen.

Check out more reviews over at Quirky Cat's Fat Stacks

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

An engaging story full of action. In this story Jessica is attempting to take better care of herself both physically and mentally but despite her efforts ends up involved in a case that tests both her physical and mental well-being. A good reminder of how the best laid plans can go awry.

[Darcey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wouldn’t call Jessica Jones an easy character to write. After all she’s been through, it’s fair to say she’s pretty complex, but getting inside her head with the Serial Box team for this jaunt was an utter pleasure start to finish.

From the beginning, it’s clear they understand her. It’s the little things mostly. Her hatred of purple for one, which was weaved in so subtly and organically I gasped at the genius of it (see: glitter). And it made perfect sense.
How she never really gets off work, and the way she analyses people, from her therapist to Sam, to Jamie and Diane (or should I say Selene?).
Her sarcasm was on point (“I got frisky with an alligator and forgot the safe word”), but so were her vulnerable moments (“if Jessica allowed herself to have a heart, it might be broken right about now” 😔).

Jessica’s relationships with the other characters made me go soft. When Diane told her no one noticed she was gone, and then she emerged to find hundreds of missed calls and messages? I almost teared up.
Particularly her friendship(?) with Luke. His bar is her ‘safe place’, and I am content. The responsibility she felt for Sam and the other flares was also sweet.

My only complaint would be that the villain was *ouch* predictable. Shaw was written well as a menacing force hovering over everything, but it was clear there were bigger fish to fry. That fish was obviously Diane, almost as soon as she walked on scene - at least for me. Her power-leach gift was a nice addition, though.

Also, props to the narrator. There was never any confusion as to who was speaking. Great delivery.
Respect to the composer of the musical theme, too (+audio production in general). I think she also did the one for Black Widow: Bad Blood, and really has a knack for completely encapsulating a character in such a short clip of music. *chef’s kiss*

All I can do is ask for more Marvel content to be given this treatment!

[Tanya · Rating 3 out of 5]

The only thing I'm better at than beating myself up is proving people wrong out of spite. [chapter 11]

Audiobook, well-narrated with excellent sound effects and a personable narrator. I enjoyed the TV series, and this has very much the same ambience: Jessica Jones is superpowered (though the book doesn't go into the details of how she acquired her powers) and suffering from CPTSD due to horrible things in her past (again, not explained here: Kilgrave is mentioned a couple of times in passing). She investigates crimes. Her therapist, Mel, suggests that she take on a straightforward case with low stakes, so Jessica begins to investigate a missing person -- Jamie Green, twenty years old, formerly estranged from his father due to his powers, but turned up missing when they were supposed to reunite. Needless to say, the case is not straightforward and the stakes are high. Jessica's usual approach of drinking whiskey and hitting things may not be enough.

I really liked this, though I do find audiobooks harder to keep in my mind than ebooks or physical books: something about not being able to page back and forward, or highlight key passages. Still, the story flowed well despite each chapter being written by different people: this is the Serial Box model and it worked very well here. I'm no more than vaguely aware of this corner of the Marvel universe, but that plus the contextual material in the novel was sufficient for me to make sense of character interactions. The story was packed with dark humour, gritty realism, alternative lifestyles and well-rounded characters. I liked it a lot, and will try more Serial Box audiobooks, especially if they're in the Audible Plus catalogue!

[Martha · Rating 5 out of 5]

The safe choice? Walk away. But when has Jessica Jones ever played it safe?

Jessica Jones has made an art of ignoring her particular brand of super-powered trauma. But these days, she’s giving the whole “self-care” thing a try. Seeing a therapist, finding healthier coping mechanisms (read: no business-hours drinking), working toward not wanting to punch things all the time. Maybe even taking the occasional case that won’t eat her alive. A simple missing persons case seems like just the ticket. But when a boy’s body turns up under an overpass in what looks like a cut-and-dried OD, Jessica can’t let it go and dives headlong into an obsessive search for answers.

Edge-of-your-seat mystery with a wild twist of villain. I had no idea until about 4/5 of the way in when we found out who and even then there were a couple more. Fryda Wolff narrates and does a great job with character voices. Hope there'll be more adventures for her since NetFlix cancelled the television series.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

(3.75 stars)

A good Jessica Jones story should find a way to merge the noir genre, the super powered world of Marvel (and the action that comes with it) and social commentary on mental illness, sexism, abuse and all that fun stuff. It’s the quintessential mix of neo noir and superhero comics that brings such an allure and metaphor to the storytelling. Playing With Fire is a pretty damn solidly executed work of Jessica Jones storytelling in that sense, a case of tragedy, mutants and abuse that isn’t so unpredictable (in fact it’s fairly obvious for the most part), but thrilling and compelling nonetheless as it engages with the very nature of young societal outcasts trying to find their place and thrive, while also exploring the nature of exploitation. It’s engaging, fast paced and generally just a damn good little Jessica Jones story. Good!

[Shel B · Rating 5 out of 5]

Months later this audiobook still stays with me, from the sound effects to the voices, to the plot. Sometimes in quiet moments I still hear the opening and closing music of each section and chapter. But enough waxing poetic, I listened to this because I'm a huge Jessica Jones fan, and as a Jessica Jones fan I was far from disappointed. There were so many moments that felt perfect to her character, especially the therapy sessions. They were almost cathartic.
I enjoyed this so much that minor issues I saw with the plot and pacing hardly bothered me, and again, the fact that this audiobook came with sound effects made it even easier to ignore. I would absolutely rate this as one of my favorites from 2020 and I can't recommend it enough.

[Cid · Rating 2 out of 5]

Have to mark you down quite a bite for all of the pronoun crap you placed on one character throughout this book. Stop using that as this is just made up ways people with mental health issues use to address themselves. This doesn't help anyone nd seriously takes away from the book.

Sam and Jessica were talking in one part and you kept addressing Sam as they but then would say they when referring to both Sam and Jessica. It just seems like a poor writing style to use this pronoun crap in books.

The story overall was great besides the choice of writing style.

[Joanna Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5 stars
I love Jessica jonessss 🫶🫶🫶🫶
- the dialogue was corny here and there but idc I love her
- I loved her interactions with other characters
- I love the barely-there, only-if-you-squint, Jessica x Luke that did not get in the way of the plot
- ohhh lord I love Matt Murdock (tell me why he was written better here than in the book I just read in which he was the main character…)

Anyways that’s all

[Fay · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Jessica Jones as a character. She is so interesting and complex.
See Jones in therapy is such a good arc for her, and I'm glad she finally has someone she feels she can stick with so at least sort out a tiny bit of her trama.
The main mystery storyline reads like a crime thriller due to her private detective work, and it is very good. It was slightly obvious who the main bad guy was, but there were some unexpected twists.

[Rowan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Written from Jessica Jones' tight POV, the book also manages to give us a great glimpses of other Marvel Universe characters. Wonderful action and a thrilling plot are intertwined with insights into Jessica's personal growth. Manages to stay true to the MCU but still give us not only a great story with new and old characters and move Jessica's arc forward a little.

[Zack · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun, feel-good, and gripping. Much better than I'd expect from standard Marvel; nice messages etc. Though some of the core plot set-up was quite (non-Marvel) derivative. But I wanted a trashy easy read, and it more-than supplied. I read it because of the authors, not Marvel, and though I'd like a sequel, I don't expect the other Marvel ones in the same series will be at all similar or good.

[Randy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This Serial Box story truly captured the essence of Jessica Jones. It could've easily been a season of the Netflix show. Includes Luke Cage & Dare Devil as well. Rather enjoyable book that works to humanize Jessica and show character development.

[Hayley Hobbs · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I had a nickel for every story I read this year where Jessica Jones was hired by a parent to look for their kid and encountered an energy vampire I’d have two nickels. Which isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it happened twice.

[Hazel (hardcover.hazel) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a great audiobook, the sound effects added so much to it and I loved the intro/outro - it added so much to the private detective theme.

Great read showcasing superpowers in a realistic type of world and way of uncovering the plot.

Love that there’s disability and non-binary rep ✨

[Kristina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Can't wait for season 2!

[Celia Lee · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rather lame sorry

[Jade · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you Tumblr for sharing this with me!

[Nathan Saylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unfortunately a little disjointed continuity from the last JJ novel I read, but I guess you'll have that with different authors and their interpretations. But still a solid read for JJ fans.

[Olivia Ambrose · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really fun listen. A noir yet super powered mystery story that helped pass the miles