Playground Zero

2021 Readers' Favorite Book Awards Finalist in Fiction: Social Issues

"This intense retrospective on people yanked out of the strait-laced Fifties and tossed into a culture of anything goes will appeal to readers wanting to learn more about Berkeley's days of rage."
-Historical Novels Review

“Like the writing of Jodi Picoult, Sarah Relyea has the ability to build a particular drama into a compelling plot, unveiled through multiple points of view. . . . Through music, literature, and actual events, the author creates a clear picture of the 1960s, especially the tumultuous events and the free-love flower power that swept the west coast in particular. This is a powerful, historical drama. Well constructed.”
—Readers’ Favorite, five-star review

“An eerily compelling déeacute;jàagrave; vu of the free, wild, and jeopardy-ridden kid scene in late-1960s Berkeley. Uncanny and powerful.”
—Charles Degelman, Editor, Harvard Square Editions

“Like a trip through the Looking Glass, Sarah Relyea’s engrossing debut novel takes you by the hand back to the sixties, where social rules were being challenged and political upheaval was the norm.”
—Patricia Hurtado, Brooklyn writer and journalist with Bloomberg News

“A fascinating exploration of a strange and exciting time in US history . . . I was totally immersed in the story as Alice grows and develops in a world in which freedom has many different outcomes.”
—NetGalley