Plaything is a novel about obsession, image and cruelty, as a Cambridge PhD student becomes entangled with a closed-off man with an ever-present ex-girlfriend. Anna moves to Cambridge to start her PhD, and soon finds herself top in her lab and with new close friends, even though she's haunted by a chance car accident when she arrived. She meets Caden, a physiotherapist, and is enthralled, but she also feels the echoes of his ex-girlfriend, who he will barely talk about, and Anna starts to become obsessed, as the Covid lockdown removes other distractions from her life.

Told from Anna's first person perspective, the narrative unfolds with a languid menace, an undercurrent of violence and a strange sense of unknowing because Anna doesn't really know much about Caden, even when you think she should. The actual plot is pretty straightforward, with a twist or two at the end that leave unanswered questions about guilt and blame that do seem to tie together some of the themes of the book in their unanswered nature. The book is full of unlikeable characters and that makes it compelling in wondering what they will do (and why, as there's a few random plot/character details that come out of nowhere and don't really go anywhere).

The narrative explicitly states it is not a Cambridge novel nor a Covid novel at various points, but what is quite interesting is how it is those things. Though the book is at its heart about a relationship between two people who weren't really connected to each other and about a clever twentysomething woman who should have it all but falls into a hazy world of obsession, it is also—despite Anna's protestations—a look at Cambridge and Covid. The Cambridge element, not just the setting but in Anna's position as a PhD scientist and elements like the cruelty of lab animals, catalyses the obsession, making her someone who needs to know, and it is interesting to think how much this is crucial to the narrative. At the same time, the book depicts the onset of Covid and the first lockdown, and that too feels crucial to the obsession and threat, and the choices people made during that time.

The central plot with Anna, Caden, and Caden's ex-girlfriend is perhaps less interesting to me than a lot of the other elements of the book, but I enjoyed the atmosphere of it and its occasional forays into questions about what violence people inflict on others. I find it funny how much it was explicitly not dark academia, when for me, it's the sort of thing dark academia should be, exploring how particular academic environments might cause violence and harm, and it's interesting to see this kind of narrative focused on a scientist.

This was a real page turner! I picked it up because the blurb on NetGalley sounded interesting, and it really was. Anna was despicable and so well written, she was flawed and had me wanting to scream at her. Caden was equally as unlikeable, and usually I struggle with so many unlikeable characters, but somehow this worked.

I found the middle of the book a bit of a drag to read through, but it was still entertaining. The plot twist at the end came out of no where and completely shocked me, making the entire book even more compelling.

Plaything by Bea Setton gives similar vibes to The Idiot by Elif Batuman and The Rachel Incident by Caroline O'Donoghue. I didn't enjoy it quite as much as Setton's previous work - Berlin.

Plaything is wonderfully dark and always compelling. The plot set at Cambridge is intriguing from the beginning, and the writing is sublime throughout.

Sorry, but this just didn't work for me: the blurb sounds so enticing and the cover is fab - but the writing feels jumpy and doesn't flow, and the constant flashbacks are distractions. I couldn't see how the story comes together: there seems to be no connection between the central relationship, the PhD research and the onset of covid.

Cambridge is one of my favourite places and this novel transported me there: the author’s prose is so vivid that you yourself are strolling along the River Cam and watching the rowing teams, then stopping at the pub along the way and talking loudly with your friends about classes and the uncertainties looming in the future.
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At its core, this is a story about self-image and how insecurities always keep us on the edge, without truly letting us experience anything. Anna is smart, paradoxically seeing herself as a ‘low maintenance, self watering succulent’, so when she starts a relationship with Caden, she’s always expecting something bad to happen. The fact that Caden is super closed off and traumatised by a past relationship doesn’t help at all, making everything 100x more intense. His half-compliments are a direct hit that make Anna spiral and constantly feel in a competition with Giselle.
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What I loved about the story is that I had different expectations plot wise, I thought it was a messy love story set in an academic town, but it was much more profound, especially towards the end. Anna’s thoughts and family dynamics make you feel raw, as a powerless witness, but I also felt myself empathising with her struggles.
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Is this book on your TBR? I’m definitely reading Berlin soon!
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Thank you @doubledaybooks for the copy!