After being involved in a scandal in the New York theatre scene, playwright Cass runs away to LA where she gets drawn into the movie-making process with her neighbour and 7 teen girls. Things get out-of-hand when the truth isn't disclosed early on and Cass has to come face-to-face with some tough love.

I have come to describe my feelings about this book as: meh. It isn't the worst thing I have read, but I have read better too. My main issue with the book is actually how it is being marketed and described. First off, under NetGalley's shelves it is considered LGBTQIA. So with that, I was expecting representation of varying different people in these categories and that to have a large impact on the story progression. It does not. It is mentioned mostly off-handed as Cass is queer and has several interactions with her sexuality. That isn't a huge issue to me, I still love the representation of a strong, feminist woman who is fully secure in her queer identity. The largest problem with this books marketing/description is the way they mention a disappearance of one of the girls. They make it seem like this huge pivotal point, that the book has some thriller/mystery aspects to it. It doesn't. Not even close. It does play into the story but not in the way they make it sound.
Cass as a main character is both relatable, and dislikeable. Relatable in the fact that she feels what I would consider to be imposter syndrome, which I know a lot of people in the millennial age group relate to (even me!). However, instead of growing from it, trying to overcome it, while still being happy for those around her that succeed, she just gets bitter. I found she had no redemption, which I was really hoping for. The story does end on a very relatable note and pulls things together, its more of a journey of self discover and purpose than her redeeming herself after her involvement in a 'scandal'. I found myself wanting more from secondary characters than I did from Cass.
One of my favourite things from the book was an interaction between Cass and her play director, Helene. She mentioned that no one is going to be as happy as you are for yourself when things are going well; but when shit hits the fan you better believe people want to be there to watch it all fall out. This to me is a perfect description of a lot of our downfalls as humans and it hit me close to home.
This book was a nice easy read, I did enjoy it at points, but there is always room for some tweaks and improvements that could make it just a tiny bit better.

Thanks to NetGalley and RandomHouse for the eARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own!

*I was sent a free ARC of this book by Random House in exchange for an honest review*

Author Jen Silverman’s first novel “We Play Ourselves” follows Cass, a playwright moving to Los Angeles to escape the scandal she found herself in in the New York theatre scene. Cass soon meets enigmatic neighbor Caroline, a filmmaker working on a project that immediately grabs Cass’s attention. As Cass devotes herself to the film project and attempts to pick up the pieces of her life, she discovers that theatre, art, and people are often not as they seem.

At its strongest, “We Play Ourselves” is a poignant and witty satirization of the absurd politics of the professional theatre scene. The way that Cass’s path entangles with that of other emerging playwrights was virtually the only part of the story that seemed believable and resonant. I had trouble suspending my disbelief on much of the other story elements, though. The reveal that should have been gut-wrenching and intense was shallow and anticlimactic. The dialogue was far too clear and intentional to feel realistic. The narration was often heavy-handed and over-explained the rather basic concepts being illustrated in the scenes.

Even more than the odd and out-of-character movements perpetrated by Cass, rival Tara-Jean, and even more tertiary characters like a friend’s boyfriend, the weakest point of the novel is undoubtedly its unsympathetic and immature hero - Cass herself. I was most taken back by her immense immaturity that she never seems to acknowledge or grow out of. She is supposedly in her thirties but acts like an irresponsible teenager. Her positioning in the narrative is virtually indistinguishable from the actual teenagers and she often acts inappropriately with them. By the end of the story I had no sympathy for Cass left, simply didn’t care if she succeeded or failed, I just wanted to be done with this entirely too long novel.

Maybe it’s just that common failing of debuts to try and Do Too Much, maybe it’s Silverman still finding her voice in the literary scene, as I understand her primary experience is in theatre, but “We Play Ourselves” was ultimately a disappointing attempt at navigating success and failure in the modern art world.

I absolutely loved this book. I was inclined to like it, just because I love anything about theatre, but it really exceeded my expectations and frequently hit way too close to home. I was a big fan of the bisexual representation--something often hard to find, even in literary fiction--and the way the book played with the idea of truth/reality. Overall, I would definitely recommend it and I look forward to reading whatever Jen Silverman writes next!

I thought this story would be about a comeback. It’s not. Don’t be fooled; this story is not a redemption arc, but it is about finding yourself and your own voice. It is not however, an easy journey.
The main character Cass is self sabotaging, she runs away, she’s unable. She is, in short, a mess. She’s an unlikeable main character.
It can be a frustrating read if you are wanting her to do the right thing, cause chances are, she won’t.
Worse than Cass/ Cath is Caroline... she only cares about herself and has a huge agenda.
Jocelyn, however, was a welcome reprieve and I found her hilarious.
Overall, I found this to be good, but I do wish we saw Cass pick herself up a bit more.

I was disappointed by this book. First of all, the summary blurb was misleading. I believed that this book would be more about finding a missing girl, but that ended up only being a small part of the story. So I believe that this book was not really advertised accurately. For people looking for a contemporary crime novel, this not NOT it. I also felt like the “fight club” girls were advertised as being a bigger part of the book, but again, they were not that important in the grand scheme of things. I actually would really like to read a book just about a group of teenage girls starting a fight club, without all the failing playwright stuff.
I did not like the main character at all. I think that I was the wrong audience for this book. I am not a fan of plays (musicals, yes - high brow plays that everyone pretends to understand but they really don’t, no.) I liked and appreciated the overall message of the book, that everyone has many lives and paths within them and any failure is not too big to bounce back from and make something new (and maybe unexpected) out of your life. I think it’s an important and timeless message, one that I and definitely other people can definitely relate to. But I couldn’t get over how unlikable Cass was.

I am not the biggest fan of contemporary books. This is usually something I can get past for a book marketed as a queer book, but this particular story made it difficult. It felt as though we were not moving towards anything throughout the entire book. Cass continually runs away from her problems while creating more for herself. This story felt as though it was marketed to be more of a contemporary-thriller based on the given summary. This is not at all what the book is. Cass is given opportunity after opportunity, with privilege literally handed to her, and she continues to sabotage herself. She blamed success itself for turning herself into a bad person when, in reality, she was already that person.
The writing of this book was solid. The intrigue of wanting to know what happened to BB and why Cass was running from NYC were the only things the kept me reading.

Oh how I loved this book! I seriously underestimated it when I started reading it--I went in worried that what I was about to read would be a self-serious meditation on NY versus LA art, a path I think we've all seen treaded far too many times before. Having finished it, I now feel terrible for jumping to that conclusion. This book is sharp and ambitious--much more ambitious than I ever expected. Silverman interrogates everything from the boundaries of what we can call art to the questionable authenticity of the roles we play in our lives. She creates a very vivid and real protagonist in Cass, a 33-year-old playwright dealing with depression and shame in the aftermath of an incident that remains a secret until about halfway through the book. Cass leaves New York for L.A. to get away from her tainted legacy, and in adopting a series of new personae, she finds herself reexamining old lies she told herself from a new perspective. Through much trial and error (seriously, a lot), she drags herself through the process of recovery and tries to find a new, and altogether healthier, way to approach the process of making and sharing art.

Favorite parts: I was very compelled by Silverman's satirical depictions of NY theater society and equally witty depictions of Silverlake hipsterism. I feasted on the connections the novel draws between its many different threads--the parallels between Helene and Cass' relationship and Cass and B.B.'s; the parallels between Caroline's project and Tara-Jean's; the parallels between Dylan's lies and Daniel's lies and Cass' lies. This book explores the notion of authenticity from all angles--artistic, romantic and otherwise. I think it did a wonderful job of covering the subject.

The things I didn't like as much: I never say this, because I think an uncertain ending can be a good thing at times, but I wish the book had offered a bit of resolution on Cass' most important relationships, specifically with Helene, B.B., Dylan, Jocelyn, Tara-Jean, and, yes, Caroline. I love that we don't know what her future looks like as far as her career goes. I want to know if those relationships are going to endure, or if she's going to scrap them in the project of starting a new life. It felt a bit hasty how quickly Cass moved on from her friendship with Dylan (the narration said that Dylan was eager to get rid of her). Her relationships with Liz and Nico, too, had no focus in the present-day timeline. I know Cass is someone who is quick to make an exit when she needs to "just leave" (as her play points out at the end), but as a reader, I wanted to know about those relationships we invested time in. I also felt that Tara-Jean, a satirical character in the pre-Incident timeline, was a bit hard to believe in the present. It's hard to add depth to a figure who your protagonist has hated for so much of the book, and I'm not sure Silverman entirely succeeded.

Last but not least, the irony of writing a review of a book whose protagonist finds reviews to be so loaded gives me some pause as I write this. Cass wouldn't want readers to rely on a review to tell them what a book is worth. (Of course, she also might not care, because I'm no Ben Brantley.) Cass would say that if you're reading this review and you're unsure, you should give it a chance. I have to defer to her on that one.

Absolutely loved how this book began - it promised to be funny and dark and strange and unpredictable. The lead character is a wonderful antihero whose side you're on even through acts of sheer crazy. But about halfway through, I got the feeling the writer talked herself off the ledge she'd started out on, and decided mainstream was the way to go. Still a good read, but one you just know was on the cusp of being great.

I absolutely loved this book! Every character is both absolutely infuriating and unlikeable, but I also found myself rooting for all of them at different times. Silverman's character development, the way she has the reader constantly questioning who's good and who's bad, who deserves our sympathy and who just needs to get it together, is masterful. I loved the incorporation of theatre and film into the plot. Also, the "big moment" plot twists were genuinely completely unexpected and absolutely nuts, but somehow worked perfectly for the story. The ending was not at all what I expected, but realistic and perfect. This was an extremely frustrating book at times, but also a book that I enjoyed more than many others I've read recently.

My thanks to NetGalley and Random House for an advance reader's copy.

Book Review for We Play Ourselves by Jen Silverman
Full review for this title can be found at: @fyebooks on Instagram!

This was a sort of dark yet comedic book. I think the description is slightly misleading because it is really more about pressures on women than it is something Fight Club-esque. Anyone who has worked in the arts would appreciate it this more than the average reader I think--it really speaks to the arbitrariness of who becomes famous.

Cass is a young NYC playwright who flees to LA after an embarrassing and potentially reputation-ruining event, as well as a little heartbreak. She stumbles on the next door neighbor Caroline and learns more about a documentary/film project she's undertaking: a teen female fight club with underlying themes of female empowerment versus a culture of toxic masculinity. Cass thinks this project might be a way to escape her imagined faults and failures and embark on a new creative endeavor.

This is a fascinating story about ambition and the constant need to record and perform for others online or in person. What is authenticity in this day and age, who cares and whose opinions matter?

This was an interesting coming of age novel. I’m here for the feminist LGBTQ+ millennial vibes. It definitely wasn’t what I expected though!

This wasn't what I expected but I really, really enjoyed it. It was dark in a really fun way, while maintaining the heart of a true coming of age type of story.

I'm a fan of Silverman's plays, so this was a particularly fun and insider-y read. Most notably, I found Silverman's descriptions of what it feels like to make theatre absolutely stunning and accurate (I highlighted a LOT of it). The plot of the novel seemed a bit surface-y to me, all things considered, but Silverman knows her prose and her characters definitely come to life. I liked it a lot.

We Play Ourselves is Dark humored, fast paced and well written.
A playwright on the rise in New York flees to Los Angeles after a scandal.
Its about Self Discovery. What length is one willing to go to succeed,
Without going into details, I will say the main character Cass is Self destructive, Jealous, Obsessive, and never faces her problems.
Overall it was a good read but I would have loved to see Cass do less running and face her problems head on.


I was given a copy for my honest review,
Thank you NetGalley, Random House Publishing Group, Jen Silverman, We Play Ourselves.

We Play Ourselves is a dark, funny coming-of-age novel about the worship of success that really resonated with me. I don't know that it will have an especially wide audience but I do think that people who like this sort of thing, or are interested in queer stories and/or the theater world, will enjoy it too, and I would definitely recommend to those readers.

I was immediatly drawn to this book with its absolutely gorgeous cover and an intriguing summary - and the novel is every bit as good as the cover.

The main character of this novel, Cass, is a fresh arrival in LA. She was a playwright on the rise about to make it big in New York. But due to a certain scandal which I definitely want to leave to the reader to find out about, she moves to Los Angeles to reinvent herself as a person and as an artist. Her neighbor Caroline also turns out to be an artist - an aspiring movie director currently in the process of filming a documentary about a violent fight club of teenage girls. While the initiative seems impressive and capivating to Cass, who looks up to Caroline's focus and determination, soon she realizes that the filmmaker's relationship with the girls is shady and manipulative. And then, one of these girls goes missing...

I really liked the journey of self-discovery Cass is undergoing. The coming-of-age element is particularly well done, given that Cass doesn't only change as a result of her move and change of circumstances, but also due to the influence of other people. Caroline is such a different character as well, and with the shady things she would do for her art, I wanted to learn a lot more about her.

The novel poses this ultimate question: how far can you go to become famous and successful? Jen Silverman mastefully explores this topic with Cass's well-developed character. I think the title "We Play Ourselves" is a wonderful summary of the reality that we play ourselves in life - differently depending on circumstances, stages or the audience. It is such a memorable, unique novel which I highly recommend.

*Thank you to the Publisher for a free advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review,

I love the dark feel that comes with this book and how the main character’s aspiration for success also related to the obsessed artist theme that is seen in films such as Black Swan and Whiplash. The book honestly keept me on the edge of my seat and I like how the story was unfolded in flashbacks up until a certain point where the new plot began to take place

I was interested in reading this because I really enjoyed Silverman’s debut short story collection. In long form she doesn’t disappoint. This is a book about find oneself…not, not quite right, this is a book about finding equanimity within yourself, an ability to be at peace with your place in the world, even if that place isn’t what you had planned for or imagined. But first…adventures and obstacles. And Cass, the protagonist, chooses a road fraught with the latter, because she decides to dedicate herself to theatre. One of the most masochistic career choices out there, the most arrogant and least permanent of the arts. Plays, the ultimate goal of it all, are the castles in the sand of the art world, admired by a few for a short time and promptly vanished. Being a playwright is possibly the most permanent aspect of the entire field, and that’s what Cass plies at for 10 long years until a major boon of an award and cash prize elevates her on a new level and allows her to have a play produced properly with a well known director and lead actress. Cass is determined to make the best of it, but finds herself in love with her director and sleeping with her star and constantly surpassed by a fellow prize winner on the success ladder. And then the reviews come out…So onto the second act, for this is a classic three act play in itself. Reinvention. Cass is now in LA, staying with a friend, witness to the slow dissolution of his seven year long relationship. In a theatre world and world at large Cass is now a persona non grata with social media’s public morality never letting her forget her sins. Cass meets a neighbor who is directing an all girl version of Fight Club and gets involved in that, but eventually finds out that movies are just another imperfect art form, less real than most, and rife with lying liars. Third act…Cass goes back to the small town she has so eagerly left so many years ago to stay with her parents and figure out what’s next. Tries to find some peace in small scale pretense free life, but much like art, in some form or another it is everywhere. So there you go, a faulty and flawed, but surprisingly compelling narrator stumbling through life in that very millennial specific way of desperately trying to be an artist at all costs. But, because Silverman is such a great writer, this book never become an ode to millennial wishywashy uncertainty and immaturity, instead it goes further to mediate on the very nature of choices and authenticity. We play ourselves in life, for different people, on different stages, often until we forget the really important things, the permanent things, the things that matter. For me, that’s what the book was about and overwhelmingly it succeeded. Certainly I enjoyed reading it way more than most millennial adventures out there. Interestingly enough, the author is a playwright herself, so it’s impossible not to think of how much of her is in Cass and so on, but then again, she seems to have made it, unlike her protagonist, but then again…the odds, the odds. Liked this book very much. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.