The Monsters Come Out to Play Online -- (Shadow Play book review)

By now—a quarter of the way through the 21^st century—we probably couldn’t survive without the internet.

 

We use it for shopping. Keeping up with friends and family. Work. Job hunting. Looking for love. And finding answers to every “How do I fix this?” or “What do I do now?” question that pops into our heads.

 

But it isn’t just a shopping mall/phone-and-snail-mail alternative/meeting place/encyclopedia.

 

Because while it does draw us together, it also allows for anonymity... a murky, shadowy space where con artists, conspiracy theorists, and bullies converge.

 

And sometimes, where maniacs come out to play.

 

Thriller author Sara Driscoll’s latest, Shadow Play, looks at the downside of online.

 

 

When physical therapist Krista agrees to be part of a weekly, live-streaming show offering relationship and life advice with her best friend, Hailey, it sounds like a fun hobby.

 

After all, Krista has always been good at helping people talk through their problems. Heck, even her PT clients pick her brain for advice while she’s working with them.

 

And Hailey—a techie, who already has a sizable gamer presence on the popular platform, Twitch—is stoked about the possibilities.

 

Talking live on-air from their homes in Chicago... answering questions coming in from around the world via the viewers’ chat... and encouraging viewers to post their own helpful advice? What could go wrong?

 

So, so much. [But we’ll get to that.]

 

Their regular-people-giving-advice show—A Word from the Wise—takes off, just as Hailey predicted... and as their followers grow, so does the money coming in. 

 

But popularity always comes at a price.

 

One night, a viewer—going by the handle Chase547—asks for advice about a woman he’s interested in. He’s convinced the best way to get her attention is by a grand gesture... but Krista disagrees, saying that’s likely to scare her off.

 

Chase547 balks at her response... but agrees to report back after he’s made contact.

 

When he does—now expressing contempt for the woman “he knows he’s right for” (despite the fact that she keeps rejecting him)—Krista and Hailey urge him to stop harassing her, because she clearly isn’t interested.

 

Chase547 goes off... becoming more and more irate, threatening her bodily harm, if she doesn’t accept his advances. Viewers go wild in the chat... and by the time their next show rolls around, viewership has skyrocketed.

 

The fact their show has gone viral due to this unhinged character worries Krista a lot, but Hailey insists everything will be fine, because the moderators can just ban him (and anyone else who chimes in, supporting violence).

 

In short order, that’s exactly how it plays out. The mods ban Chase547—but he somehow returns almost immediately, with a different user name... and then another... and another, after each successive ban—his threats successively more violent.

 

Until one night, he writes in the chat that he’s done it. 

 

Killed her.

 

A day or two later, the body of a young woman is pulled out of the lake, and Krista and Hailey’s worst fear is confirmed.

 

This maniac isn’t somewhere halfway around the world... he’s right there in Chicago.

 

And his fury seems to be turning towards them, next.

 

 

In Shadow Play, Driscoll does a nice job showing how live-chat shows work—from the at-home setups and the mods, to how they make money, and the impact viewership has.

 

She also gives each main character a “real job”—tech for Hailey, and PT for Krista—positioning them as independent women doing this—at least, in the beginning—as a passion project... that happens to go viral.

 

(My one minor quibble with Shadow Play, actually, is the amount of time Driscoll shows Krista in her job as a physical therapist. Having gone through a few rounds of PT, I know she’s definitely done her research, but those scenes could’ve been abbreviated.)

 

Overall, Shadow Play is a solid suspense/thriller... peopled by likable, relatable characters... spiced up with a dash of Chicago flavor... and imbued with a palpable sense of unease via its scary, ripped-from-the-headlines killer.  

 

[It would also lend itself perfectly to being adapted to film on Netflix or Amazon Prime. Just sayin’...]

 

Shadow Play is a fine choice to curl up with on the sofa, with the lights low, on a night you want an easy, enjoyable read that pulls you in.

 

(Even if it does make you rethink participating in any online forums, for a while...)

~GlamKitty 

[Thanks to Kensington Publishing for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are, as always, entirely my own.]