Playworld is a bold, slyly unsettling novel that dives into the murky intersection of adolescence, power, and desire with unflinching precision. Adam Ross captures the blurred lines of memory and morality through a narrator whose innocence is both credible and compromised. It’s provocative, layered, and lingers long after the final page.

This is a coming of age novel that is getting tons of buzz. Griffin Hurt lives in Manhattan and goes to private school which he pays for. Griffin is an actor and stars in a children's superhero television show. He has also done movies and commercials. His parents are also in the arts. His father is also an actor although he has never gotten that big breakthrough. His mother was a ballet teacher and now is a Pilates instructor. Griffin also has a younger brother Oren who is interested in business and making money. Griffin is about to make a major breakthrough in acting with a movie about to come out but he isn't sure at all that he wants to be an actor.

But things aren't going well on the romantic front. Griffin is in love with Amanda who dangles him on a string while dating a boy several years older. Griffin isn't sure what love is so accepts this behavior hoping she will change her mind. But he is mostly around adults and is abused by two adults in his life. His wresting coach is known for his attentions to the boys on the team, taking them to his apartment or the practice mats during school breaks.

Then there is Naomi. She is married with two children and twenty-two years older than Griffin. She and her husband are good friends with Griffin's parents. But she falls in love with Griffin. They meet daily, going in her car to a secluded place where he spills his troubles to her and they kiss. At first that is all it is but when Griffin is sent to spend the summer with her and her family while his father is on tour and his mother visits family, she seduces Griffin and introduces him to sex. Griffin's parents are on the verge of divorce and he welcomes not only the sex but the feeling that he is the most important person in the world to someone else.

Adam Ross is an author and editor of the Sewanee Review. Griffin is fairly autobiographical as Ross was also a child actor and had parents in the theatre world. He also was a wrestler and there is lots of informed talk about wrestling and what it means to those who take up that sport. Griffin is left to basically raise himself, free to wander in and out of his apartment at will, to go places with his friends and to try to determine what he wants in life without a lot of adult guidance. The fact that he encounters two adults who want sexual favors from him is arresting and while it has hints of Dustin Hoffman and Mrs. Robinson, Griffin is much younger and unable to process the encounters. This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction.

I ended up switching to audiobook on this book, because the kindle version was dragging.
I think from the description of the book, I was thinking this was going to be more about the relationships rather than the acting.
I just didn’t feel like I had much depth in the story. Book was just “OK” for me.

I never would have thought I would be into in a long book narrated by a 14 year old boy, but here we are. I really enjoyed this!

A coming of age story centered around a young actor and wrestler, and his relationships with the adults in his life. Ross shows how adults can be harmful and abusive in really subtle ways.

The narrative gets bogged down at times with lots of extra details that didn’t necessarily need to be there, but it didn’t stop me from enjoying it. This book is t about plot, but more about the moments of a young man coming into his own. I feel like this would make a great movie or limited series!

I went into Playworld with high hopes—especially as a fan of The Catcher in the Rye. I was expecting a coming-of-age story with emotional complexity, a distinctive voice, and characters who linger in your thoughts. Unfortunately, this novel didn’t deliver on those expectations for me.

While the premise had potential, I found the execution underwhelming. The pacing dragged, and rather than drawing me in, the narrative often felt flat. The characters, who should have been the heart of the story, never truly came to life. I kept waiting for a moment of connection or insight that never arrived.

It’s clear that Adam Ross is a talented writer, but Playworld lacked the urgency and emotional pull that makes literary fiction sing. For a book aiming to explore youth, identity, and self-discovery, it felt oddly disengaged. I wanted to care about the protagonist’s journey—but I just didn’t.

"Playworld" by Adam Ross is a coming of age story about a year in the life of Griffin Hurt, a child actor and high school freshman, and his family, in late 1970s/early 1980s New York City. His father is an actor, now primarily doing voiceover work, his career failing as his son's is rising; his mother, a graduate student and Pilates instructor; and his younger brother Oren, an angry teenager both trying to find his way and more aware of reality than the rest of his family.

The title, "Playworld," is a multi-layered synopsis of the story. At its base level, it's about theater/film, the world inhabited by Griffin and his father. Then, as a subplot of the story is about Griffin creating an elaborate Dungeons and Dragons campaign complete with maps, it's about moving from the play of childhood to the world of adulthood, and finding your way. At bottom, it's a play on Shakespeare's "All the World's a Stage," in that we are all playing multiple roles in the world, with Griffin being everything from a successful actor to a dutiful, if confused, son to a young man learning to play roles in his romantic life.

I was a big fan of "Mr. Peanut" and "Ladies and Gentlemen," and waited for years for a follow up and this was worth the wait. This honest review was given in thanks for an advanced reader copy from NetGalley and Alfred A. Knopf.

In this speculative satire, Ross imagines a near-future where every interaction has a price—and morality is just another transaction. Fast-paced and darkly humorous, it’s part Black Mirror, part Kafka. A biting critique of late-stage capitalism’s logical extremes. A wild ride.

While I wanted to dive in and enjoy this one, with the premise and the setting contained as somewhat contemporary historical fiction, I found myself very unsure and uncomfortable as I started to read. I knew what I was getting into with the premise, but something about the darkly, unapologetically chaotic energy made it hard for me to get through. It's one that I would absolutely go back to and give another try! My copy access expired by the time I felt ready to dive back in, so I was not able to finish this one, but I would recommend giving it a read if it catches your eye. The premise alone is something that I would gravitate towards in a bookstore, so if you feel that pull to pick it up, definitely indulge!

Playworld was an excellent read. The writing was propulsive and the character development was rich. I would read more from this author.

"Playworld" by Adam Ross is a fascinating story about a young actor named Griffin Hurt, who is trying to figure out life as a teenager in 1980s Manhattan. Griffin is a fourteen-year-old who stars in a popular TV show called "The Nuclear Family," where he plays a character named Peter Proton. While he enjoys acting, he also has to deal with the challenges of being famous, managing his family relationships, and meeting the expectations of adults around him.

The author, Adam Ross, writes in a way that is both touching and funny, showing us how Griffin feels as he tries to balance his TV role with his studies at a fancy prep school. The story takes place during a time when Manhattan was changing, moving from the presidency of Jimmy Carter to Ronald Reagan. This historical setting adds depth to the story, making it feel like more than just Griffin's personal journey.

Griffin meets a character named Naomi Shah, who becomes an important part of his life. She is both a friend and someone who influences him in unexpected ways. Their relationship is complicated and helps Griffin grow, even though it sometimes leads to confusion. The author handles this relationship with care, allowing readers to think about the differences between being young and becoming an adult.

Griffin's family life is also a big part of the story. The book shows how his family struggles to stay connected and communicate with each other, which highlights the loneliness Griffin sometimes feels, even when he's with his family.

"Playworld" is not just a typical story about growing up. It explores the challenges of being a teenager in a world full of adult pressures and difficult choices. Adam Ross does a great job of capturing what it's like to be young, with all its happiness, confusion, and sadness, while also looking at the adult world around Griffin.

"Playworld" is a heartfelt and thought-provoking book that makes readers think about growing up, love, and finding out who you are. It's a great read for anyone interested in a deep and entertaining story about adolescence.

I jumped at the chance to dive into this story of a child actor growing up in 80s New York. The prose is beautiful and Ross is clearly a talented writer, but I ultimately struggled to get into this one despite multiple attempts. Clearly this feels more like a issue of poor timing and I'm sure one day I'll pick this up and won't be able to put it down.

Adam Ross' Playworld has been years in the making. It's a big book that is exquisitely written but it will not be for just any reader.

Our MC is Griffin, 14 yo actor in NYC in the '80s. His earnings as an actor are used to keep the lights on for the family and pay his tuition, so while he is nominally a child, he finds himself pulled every which way in terms of adult responsibilities.

Ross spends a lot of the book considering sexual dynamics, power dynamics, and putting us firmly in the New York of Reaganomics. Some aspects of the story are solidly disquieting and it was tough at times to get through the story.

I've been thinking of this story for quite some time after reading it, considering who I could recommend it to readers to by comparison, but it's really doing it's own thing. If Tom Wolfe met your classic bildungsroman, that might fit the bill best.

I didn't finish this book, but I did read nearly half of it and since it's such a long book, I feel like my thoughts are warranted. I struggled with the adults in main character, Griffin's life. From his parents, to his wrestling coach to the much older woman he was involved with everyone was out for themselves and what Griffin could do for them. I don't consider myself a sensitive reader, but eventually, I just grew weary of it. Had the book been shorter, more compacted, I think it would have gone down easier. In the end, a book I very much looked forward to just didn't work for me. Since I didn't finish I'm giving the book 2 stars here, but have not shared my thoughts on any other platform.

What a gaudy, fascinating, ambitious, and entertaining read. The city of New York in 1980 is a character in and of itself, and as the narrator proclaims it's a lost city, where young teenagers ran free, and adult supervision was scant. Protagonist Griffin experiences all sorts of trouble--and gets himself out of it too, in very inventive ways. Perhaps too long---the author's gift for physical description is prodigious--but the novel is an absorbing look at growing up in a certain time and place that transcends setting to reveal truths of the heart. Great!

i found this pretty compelling on the whole as a tale of a young boy coming to terms with the fact that the adults around him are fallible. there were some points where the specificity was delightful and some that were truly monotonous. a good addition to one of my favorite genres: the social focused family epic.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Knopf for providing me with an advance e-galley of this book in exchange for an honest review. Look for it now in your local and online bookstores and libraries.

my goal for 2025 is to finally dive into all those long bildungromans on my tbr bc i typically love them but just rarely take the time for a lengthy book. <i>Playworld</i> reminded me of why i love these books - Ross’s writing makes it feel like a coming-of-age movie. It’s a drama following a year in the (quite unique) life of a 14-year-old boy in the ‘80s, a child actor and wrestler. And although it follows his journey there, the focus of the book is the adults in his life and how he gets accustomed to being treated certain ways by them; it explores the ways adults can subtly be abusive, and the book itself is never really graphic and leaves a lot implied which feels metaphorical for what Griffin himself is experiencing. a really interesting and well-paced book (i flew through this 500-page book in 3 sittings) that will stick with me for a long time, and likely end up being one of my 2025 favorites.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for an advanced copy for review of Playworld.

I had high hopes for this one, but it did not live up to my expectations. It was too slow and drawn out.

🎟️“I was taught the indelible lesson that, to arrive at love, I must suffer through someone else’s idea of it. And yet even now, I resist the notion that we are reducible to our wounds.”

An author I love, who blurbed this book, described it as one which sits close to the bone. I couldn’t say it any better, but I’ll try:

In Playworld, we spend a year in the 1980s with a 14-year-old boy named Griffin, obsessed with the world of adulthood. He is let in, though mostly because every important adult figure in his life is taking advantage of him.

Softly told through the perspective of Griffin, who is now in adulthood, there is no attempt to shelter even himself from all that transpired: only the events, as they occurred, handed to the reader with all of the vulnerability, which can perhaps only so freely be given when we are that young.

At 500 pages, there were times when I felt a little overwhelmed by the density, though I never found myself wishing the book were finished. The longer I spent within this world, the more unwilling I was to leave it.

It’s a tender slow-dance of a novel. It left me examining all of my wounds, wondering if I might too one day be able to write about them so kindly.

In order for a five hundred and twenty five page novel about a person's freshman year of high school to be compelling two things have to be true; there has to be a considerable amount of self awareness on the writer’s part, that is, they need to know what they have decided to tell us is not only interesting and compelling to them but that it is also interesting and compelling to us, the audience. Also, the way in which they give us the story has to be undeniably captivating which is to say the author has got to know how to write. In Adam Ross’s latest novel Play World he gives us both.

In Play World we follow child actor Griffin through his freshman year of high school. Some things are par for the course. Griffin’s identity is closely attached to his high school wrestling career and he insistently prioritizes the female gaze. Other things are not so standard; throughout the year he’s groomed by his parent’s 36 year old married friend and mother of two and of course, his ever expanding acting career. Griffin’s entire family also sees a therapist named Elliot once a week religiously which might be commonplace in 2025 but is not a standard practice during Griffin’s coming of age. Griffin is surviving the New York City of yesteryear, the book takes place in 1980. Patron’s of the hit TV show Bluey know that when the 6 year old eponymous protagonist's father Bandit starts telling her a true bedtime story about his childhood he is often meant with disbelief merely based on things like the language that was permissible or the thresholds the children were allowed to occupy with little adult supervision. When Bluey and her sister push back Bandit simply responds with ‘it was the 80’s.’ I found myself experiencing a sentiment in community with both Bandit and Bluey as I consumed this story. I shrank at the way teacher’s spoke to Griffin, at the way an insurance man conned Griffin’s father after a house fire. Even the way Griffin’s family was able to comfortably survive New York City as a middle class household of four occasionally confused me. But hey, it was the ‘80’s.

As this book is a bit of auto fiction Ross seems to be exploring what the effects of being a professional performer were on his adolescent self. Already at 14 he had mastered not only being able to read what the person in front of him truly desired out of an interaction but he had also mastered the ability to give it to them. He defaults to this practice so much that it was making him lose track of himself. I’m not sure if he was realizing he was lost real time or if it was the hindsight of the narrator who revealed it to us, either way 14 proved to be a formidable year in regards to experiencing this false selfhood and in finding the language and the feelings to begin the process of kicking the habit.

I loved this book. Ross's command of his craft was prevalent from opening line to closing. I was immersed, the host of characters were vibrant and alive. Ross’s ability to expand his writing just enough so that we were firmly placed but not to much as to burden us with unnecessary details is a super power. Universal experiences like first crushes, surviving the hierarchy of high school or slowly realizing the humanity of your parents were immortalized in these pages for anyone to connect to. It has been 15 years since Ross gave us a novel. I would be willing to wait another 15 but I’m hopeful I don’t have to.