Playground
Ratings34
Average rating2.9
ONCE IN A LIFETIME
Three low-income families have been given a handsome retainer to join Geraldine Borden for a day at her cliffside estate. All the parents must do to collect the rest of their money is allow their children to test out the revolutionary playground equipment Geraldine has been working on for decades. But there’s a reason the structures in the bowels of her gothic castle have taken so long to develop—they were never meant to see the light of day.
When a band of dysfunctional children is suddenly thrust into a diabolical realm of violence, they must grow up instantly to have a chance at survival. Will they find a way to put their differences aside, or be swallowed up by the insidious architecture all around them?
"With Playground, Aron Beauregard transcends himself, delivering a genuinely chilling, uncomfortable novel that will make even the most jaded horror fan squirm. A harrowing, relentless read that left me breathless."
- Brian Keene
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Was a fun concept and not as brutal as I expected. It was gross, especially the infamous page 40, but clever. this reminded me of Jigsaw in how a group of people go through different traps until there is a victor. I liked having alternating chapters of the parent's view, and the illustrations were thoughtful, though I wish there were more to show the playground equipment. Sometimes I had a hard time picturing it. Also the revenge story was an interesting approach, I felt sympathy for Rock and was glad he got to “play”
Haven't read The Slob yet, but being in circles with A. Prunty and CV Hunt means I'm quite aware of the noise Aron has been making over the last year or so. While Playground had been floating around my TBR for a while, I hadn't given it a lot of thought. Splatterpunk with kids...probably boring and predictable even if “popular” (for the genre). But a friend wanted to read it - and an opportunity to do that - with this genre? Yes!
We have a 290 page book, not a collection, not a series of interconnected shorts - a full proper novel sized book about kids getting fucked up on a playground. And while it is heavy on the (bad) metaphors, the story is actually almost character-driven, and the characters have history, and depth, and their own unique voice. By the time the blood starts truly pouring you actually give a shit about these people. The deaths, the tension and torture are relatively creative if occasionally predictable. So despite some errors and just bad metaphors, the writing won't blow you away, but for the genre it is I was overall impressed.
If the trigger words don't bother you, perhaps you've read the genre before - if you're on the fence on this, this is a great book to take a leap from and impale yourself on that fence.
and I just don't see any of that sexism spoken of here - she was a disgusting human being, and there is no word, no insult, unworthy of her. And seriously, this book had a Nazi in it without ever promoting hatred, or bigotry - that's some careful writing.
This is a hard book to rate, it's written pretty well, and it truly is a horror but it's also extremely graphic so while I did “enjoy” reading it, it's not a pleasant read. Reading trigger warnings is a must do not read if you're very sensitive. It's very much a graphic death game with young kids.
