Vivian, the protagonist of  Clara Drummond's short novel Role Play, is a young woman from a wealthy family who lives in Rio de Janeiro and works as a curator at an art gallery. The story is written as an inner monologue, commenting on the events Vivian witnesses, the most dramatic of which is a case of police brutality.

Vivian is beautiful, intelligent, and an excellent observer. Surrounded by her equally gorgeous friends, she devotes most of her time to sex, parties, and drugs. In her words, "there is no such thing as a rich person who is genuinely good," and indeed, her wealth seems to be a handicap. She knows how shallow her everyday life is but doesn't care about changing it. Full of self-deprecating, ironic remarks and sharp, excellent descriptions of other people in her life, Vivian's character looks like a modern, spoiled rich girl who tries to find distractions to convince her that everything is fine. If something or someone - like Darlene, a woman selling beer in front of Vivian's place - succeeds in piercing Vivian's carefully constructed barrier, the sensitive side that we see is short-lived and quickly buried under another few hours-long sex and drugs. However, the protagonist of Role Play is never simplistic; on the contrary, I found Vivian complex and thus fascinating.

This novel is a biting satire, and for me, it was a rather depressing read, more sad than funny. I didn't see the joy in Vivian's life. She was really trapped in her situation, playing a role that society expected her to play.   I couldn’t escape the question – when will Vivian be in ten years? What role will she play then? This short book gave me more food for thought than I expected.

3.5

I love books with morally grey female protagonists and Vivian fit the bill perfectly. She was incredibly privileged, unlikeable but also funny. I enjoyed the humour and sarcasm. Despite being short, it packed a real punch and Vivian was well fleshed out. I also think the mental health portrayal was well done. Would love to read more of the authors work in the future.

Big thanks to NetGalley for the eARC!

3.75 ⭐️
Vivian is greatly self absorbed and morally grey making her a comically entertaining unlikeable narrator. Within the short span of this book, her character is thoroughly developed as we follow her inner monologue through how self absorbed, performative and contradictory all of her actions are. Definitely recommended for fans of Ottessa Moshfegh, Halle Butler and The Guest by Emma Cline.

Thank you to NetGalley and Farrar Straus Giroux for the e-ARC!

Role play follows Vivian, a young, wealthy woman in Brazil whose worldview and self perception is disturbed when she is witness to police brutality, after which she attempts to balance the moral repurcussions of ambivalence to such an event and the re-curation of her self image in a way that feels most socially advantageous
This book so wonderfully encapsulates every wealthy young woman/person who curates their image, the likes of which are regularly seen among influencers. The person who does things 'for the plot,' engaging in performative activism while carefully maintaining their wilful ignorance of real issues.
Perfect for fans of Otesssa Moshvegh.

Strong and well done work about an incredibly dislikable protag. Thanks so much for the ARC netgalley

I wasn't sure how I felt about this one at first. our protagonist, vivian, is very shallow, pretentious and privileged (and v aware of these qualities) - which I guess is the point, but even knowing that, it took me a sec to care about this kind of narration. that said, I did love the (often very pseudo) social criticism and the way it was almost always centered around Vivian's own self-image / self-obsession - I think it was a very honest portrayal of the ugly + egotistic underbelly of the human experience. I also appreciated the exploration of her own mental health struggles in relation to her present-day observations, et al, and probably would've liked to learn more about her. I will say, the last chapter was the best part, and turned my rating around a bit.

3.5 stars, rounded down to 3 for the sake of the review.

thanks netgalley and FSG for the arc!

Across her slim, slick, razor-sharp takedown of Brazil's self-obsessed, silver-spooned elites, Clara Drummond stages the collision of several seemingly incongruous worlds: the favela and the filthy rich; the down-to-earth and the out-of-touch; the self-aware and the inconsiderate, the insensitive, the thoughtless.

From her very first line, Drummond's protagonist, Vivian, an art curator who has carefully arranged every facet of life to her liking - her furniture, her fashion sense, her group of friends - reveals herself as a walking, talking contradiction; the millennial manifestation of self-delusion and cognitive dissonance: "I'm a misandrist and a misogynist [...] But I'm not a misanthrope 'cause I do like gay men". Vivian, like all well-written unlikeable narrators (fans of Ottessa Moshfegh, Halle Butler, and Lauren Oyler will find much to love here) is often delightfully obnoxious, so enthralled by her performative and privileged social circle she fails to notice the harsh reality that exists just beyond its borders. But what is most impressive about the novella, aside from the expertly-chosen cultural references and the sharp, pithy turns of phrase, is that Drummond's portrait of her protagonist is still so fully fleshed out, rich with glimmers of perception. "I'm filled with a sense of grandeur", Vivian muses at one point, 'the beauty of being part of something bigger, even if that something is rotten".

A perfect, absurd, magnetic satire - reading Role Play feels like scrolling through a curated Instagram page on the cracked screen of a cellphone; like swiping a finger across something shiny, only to later find little splinters of glass buried just beneath the skin.

Thank you to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for this free ARC!

Role Play fits an impressive amount of story into relatively few pages and we are immediately dropped into Vivian’s privileged world in Rio de Janeiro. The writing is sharp and energetic. Vivian is a fascinating, terrifying, and hilarious narrator - I was following her every word.

Thank you to Farrar, Straus and Giroux and NetGalley for the opportunity to read a copy.

Thanks to Netgalley and FSG for the ebook. This short novel dissects the rich as they live and party, both to excess, in Rio de Janeiro. After setting the current stage of characters, Vivian, our guide, takes us back to the history of her own hotel owning family and their always tenuous foothold in society. Vivian, after early traumas that led to a time in a mental health facility, wants us to believe that she is just watching her city, but a violent crime that happens on the street where she lives, to a woman who sells beer in a stall in the street, seems to cause cracks in Vivian’s cool interior, as she doesn’t know if she should get involved.

I first encountered Clara Drummond when an excerpt from ROLE PLAY was published by Astra Magazine. I was immediately hooked by the voice, the humor, the decadence depicted, but not without intention--it's never decadent for decadence's sake. Rather, our narrator seems to learn a lesson. This first comes in her being witness to police violence. Then, as the story continues, we're plunged further into her monied circles, each vignette scratching away at her psyche, everything slowly unfolding. It's a delicious read. Thanks to the publisher for the e-galley!