American Playground is set in 1970s Los Angeles, where the Mishel Manoucherian has moved from Iran with his family. The story follows Mishel's first years at an American school as he attempts to navigate the language and the rules and tries to be as powerful a character as he was at his Tehran school.

Unfortunately for Mishel, he's actually not a very nice character, and he changes allegiances with the wind as he tries to work out how to get in with the Pros (the influential boys on the playground). He'll cheerfully sacrifice anyone in his quest including the Nons (the younger or weaker kids) who have befriended him.

Mishel (now known by anything other than the Mike he wanted to be) finds himself having a much more difficult time than his lighter skinned brother, Saeed/Sid who seems to accept his place in the hierarchy.

As the years go by we see the Americanisation not just of Mishel but also his father who sees the American Dream as something to give himself wholeheartedly, even at the expense of family life.

American Playground does a great job of trying to look at being a stranger in a strange land. The language is particularly interesting as Mishel tries to use Americanisms but usually getting them wrong. It would be funny if it wasn't so sad. It is still quite hard to like Mishel, who shows zero loyalty to anyone, so much so that I almost wanted him to get some comeuppance.

It's an interesting story though and I'd recommend it.

Thankyou to Netgalley and The Thieving Magpie for the advance review copy.

I wasn’t fully sure what this novel would entail but I found it super interesting! I knew going in it was a coming-of-age story showing the life of an American immigrant and their family coming from Tehran but I didn’t know how it was going to be written and what would be included. I had different emotions happening throughout this read - happiness, confusion, silliness, empathy, anger, and more, which I always find to be a good thing. A thing I really appreciated about this book was how the author used words how the main character would say/think someone is saying it as and, as their time in America continued, you can see that vocabulary building. As someone who hasn’t had these experiences, I learned a lot! Definitely would recommend.