Playworld by Adam Ross

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💤 Book Review: Playworld by Adam Ross — A Pretentious Slow Burn That Burned Me Out

I want to like “literary fiction,” I really do. But this one felt like wandering through the most boring museum tour in the history of ever, and the exhibit is “Emotionally Unavailable Men: A Retrospective.”

⚠️ Content & Trigger Warnings

This novel includes sensitive content such as:

  • Child sexual abuse

  • Grooming

  • Sexual harassment

  • Substance use

  • Bullying

  • Eating disorders

  • Infidelity

  • Verbal/emotional abuse

  • Age-gap sexual relationship involving a minor

Please read with care and protect your peace 🛑

📚 What Is This Book About, Anyway?

Playworld is a semi-autobiographical coming-of-age novel set in 1980s Manhattan, written from the POV of 14-year-old Griffin Hurt, child actor and wrestling team punching bag. It’s about growing up too fast, complicated adults, and disillusionment with everything from parents to sex to fame.

Sounds interesting on paper, right?

In practice? Cue soft snoring noises.

⚠️ Spoiler Warning: We’re Going Deep (and long… like this book)

You’ve been warned! Major plot spoilers (and yawns) ahead.

📝 Full Plot Summary (Because I Did the Reading So You Don’t Have To)

Griffin Hurt is a former child actor (hello, trauma!) attending a fancy private school called Boyd. His parents—Shel (actor, narcissist) and Lily (honestly just tired)—use his acting money to pay for his tuition. Griffin wants to wrestle and blend in, but he's too famous for The Nuclear Family sitcom to ever be normal.

Griffin’s coach, Mr. Kepplemen, is a predatory creep who bullies and sexually harasses him. This abuse—never fully addressed—is one of many emotionally horrifying things Griffin buries and never tells anyone about (not even his therapist).

He finds solace (sort of?) in a weird pseudo-relationship with Naomi, a 36-year-old woman he meets through his parents. They start casually seeing each other. By “casual,” I mean “completely inappropriate emotional grooming followed by an actual affair.”

Meanwhile, Griffin juggles acting auditions, eating disorders to make weight for wrestling, and an unreciprocated crush on Amanda, who is dating someone else but likes to flirt anyway. (Because OF COURSE she does.)

Eventually, Kepplemen is quietly removed after Naomi alerts Griffin’s mom about his physical deterioration. Naomi becomes his savior-slash-seductive-mom-friend and continues her VERY illegal relationship with him. They hook up multiple times—in her car, in his room, while her family is away.

Griffin finally escapes when her husband Sam catches them, punches walls, and the whole situation explodes. He literally steals Sam’s car and drives back to Manhattan like a middle-school action hero.

In the final chapters:

  • Griffin quits acting

  • Breaks up with Amanda (good)

  • Cuts ties with Naomi (better)

  • Confronts his dad (okay!)

  • Takes a reflective bike ride through New York and finds peace (??)

Then the novel just kind of... ends.

😬 My Honest Take: The Slow Burn That Just... Smolders

Listen, the writing isn’t bad. It’s atmospheric, thoughtful, detailed. Adam Ross knows how to write. But this felt like a very long therapy session I didn’t ask to be in.

Why I struggled:

  • The pacing is glacial. Seriously. Nothing happens for pages at a time.

  • The relationships are all uncomfortable, especially Griffin and Naomi.

  • I kept wondering: “Why do I care? Why should I care?” And the book never answered.

  • The ending doesn’t build—it just trails off into a bike ride.

There’s probably something deeper here about adolescence, trauma, sexual confusion, and powerlessness. But for me, it didn’t land. I finished it out of stubbornness, not because I was emotionally invested.

⭐ Final Rating: 1.5 out of 5 stars

A long, well-written but emotionally numbing exploration of a boy’s sexual and emotional confusion that reads like a confessional but lands like a lecture.

If this was your jam? I love that for you. For me? It was like being stuck at a party where everyone’s talking in metaphors and I’m just trying to find the chips.

🛒 Want to judge for yourself?

👉 Buy Playworld by Adam Ross:
Amazon Affiliate Link (Or, you know, don’t. No judgment.)

📚 If You Still Love Slow Literary Fiction, Try These Instead:

  • The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath – Slow and moody, but with a gut-punch.

  • On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong – Emotionally raw and beautifully told.

  • The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky – Also about a boy and trauma, but with emotion.

  • Black Swan Green by David Mitchell – For another well-written but slow coming-of-age tale that earns its stripes.

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