Lately I have had a bit of
too much free time on my hands which resulted in me being able to finish a big
thick book quite quickly, Play Dead by Harlan Coben. As usual, I am linking you
to its Goodreads page without hyperlinking as I don’t have the slightest clue
how to do that http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7809428-play-dead and as
usual my review contains spoilers.
In the beginning of this
book, Harlan Coben does give us a warning. That if you haven’t read any book of
his in the past then you should put this down, read another book of his first,
then come back to this one. Well, me, I just ignored the warning and just went
on and reading the book. I have been over some of the reviews people have
written on Goodreads and they do say that his other books are much better than
this one, but like I said, this is my first Harlan Coben read, so I can’t
testify that myself in any way.
This is a book full of
conspiracy and full of cliché. One world class top model gets married to one of
the best basketball players. Something you typically find in supermarket
tabloids, right? Well, so the model, Laura and the basketball player, David,
want to get married but Laura’s mom is so hell bent against it that they run
away to Australia and get married and do their honeymoon there. In Australia,
David vanishes and turns out he is dead by drowning. So far so good.
But after this, I felt like I
was reading the script of some soap opera or cheap Indian drama. I usually like
stuff with conspiracy as that increases suspense and makes stuff more
interesting. But in this case, even though I did enjoy the conspiracy, it
appeared so soap opera-ish.
Just take a look at the way
the conspiracy unfolds. Laura’s mom Mary tells her to stay away from David. Laura
don’t listen. So Mary follows them to Australia and tells David that he and
Laura are brother and sister as Mary had an affair with David’s dad and Laura
is a result of this affair. So David, instead of leaving Laura or ignoring it
or doing something a rational human being would do, David went and got a face
transplant and his voice changed. I mean, seriously? Face transplant? Reminds
me of some Indian drama whose name I can’t remember where they claimed a
character got injured in a car crash and they claimed she got a face transplant
because of the injuries because the actress who played the role changed.
David with the face
transplant and new identity goes back to playing basketball and even though
everyone notices the new guy plays just like David, nobody raises a finger in
suspicion. Anyways, the conspiracy builds up more and more and more and then
the way the entire thing unfolds is actually quite interesting, especially when
the truth behind David’s dad comes into being.
The way the whole conspiracy
unfolds is quite interesting and quite shocking too. When things become much
clear things begin to point either at Mary or at Mary’s sister Judy. I was, at
one point, convinced that its all Judy’s handicraft. I was actually very
shocked and taken aback when I realized who was behind it and how that
individual carried out the conspiracy. Such a dramatic soap opera this turned
out to be when all was revealed at the end.
And the part of David and
Laura being brother and sister? Nothing can resemble a soap opera or a cheap Indian
drama more than that!! Judy tells James, James gets pissed off, drugs Mary,
aborts the baby and then makes Mary pregnant with his kid. And all this time
Mary is under the impression that James knows nothing and that he has fallen
for the web of lies that have been spun around all of the characters in this
book. So they are not brother sister after all!
I know throughout I have
been ranting about the soap opera element of this book and how it resembles a
cheap Indian drama, but please don’t get me wrong here. Despite having its soap
opera/Indian drama element to it, its actually a really awesome book. Yes, the
author does take some time to actually build up the conspiracy. Building up the
conspiracy is quite slow and I personally think the author should have done
that quicker. But once you get tangled in the web of the conspiracy, it really
grips you strongly, and then you just can’t put down the book. You want to keep
on and on reading and see how the conspiracy unfolds because it takes like a
million different twists and turns, many of them unexpected.
One thing in the underlying
tone of the book is the bad side of beauty. Beauty of the human body, to be
specific. And how it can actually destroy and harm other people. Whenever we
think of beauty, we always think of the benefits it gives you. About how it can
help you get ahead, how it can open doors for you, how it can get you favours. And
for those who crave the attention of the opposite gender, beauty can give you
that attention. But the downside of beauty? We ignore that. Harlan Coben has
addressed that wonderfully. I honestly wonder if he intentionally intended to
do this or if it is something that I just happened to pick up on. We learn
about how one sister lost not one, but two, men to her sister because even
though she herself was beautiful, her sister was beautiful-er. We learn, in one
scene, how girls have used their beauty to get an unfair advantage. We learn
about how someone took advantage of another person because the other person was
beautiful. I like the way the author has addressed the bad side of beauty like
this.
At the end of the day,
despite the soap opera element to it (and my personal hatred such soap opera
type clichéd stories) I would still definitely recommend it. Its a book to read
to pass the time. And its quite interesting to see such a conspiracy being spinned
and then unravelled. This requires a lot of talent. Even though from what I have
heard, this is not one of Harlan Coben’s better works, his talent still shines
through this for sure.
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