Reviews tagging 'Infertility'

Playground by Aron Beauregard

50 reviews

sfarfalfa's review against another edition

dark fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

 Remember guys: female infertility makes terrifying, crazy murder women~✨/s

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Homophobia, Infertility, Misogyny, and Pedophilia

radtj's review against another edition

challenging dark fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

This book was fucked.

I really feel like the incestuous shit masturbation and graphic nasty pussy descriptions weren't necessary, even if they provided a shock factor. Geraldine could’ve gotten one paragraph of backstory and I would have been 1000x happier reading this. 

I was really reading this book more for the parents and kids povs and less.. weird nazi works with shit eating old rich nasty woman who abuses Rock.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Incest, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Homophobia

Minor: Genocide and Infertility

rosaelia's review

dark sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Incest, Infertility, Pedophilia, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Bullying, Pedophilia, and Sexual assault

Minor: Gun violence, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Vomit

abryan12's review against another edition

dark sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

If children had to endure a Saw film. Playground is disturbing yet intoxicating. At times I hated what I read but I could not bring myself to put it down. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Incest, Infertility, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

pabsies's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Some descriptions of events and the antagonist were so over-the-top that at times I couldn‘t take it seriously. Nonetheless, i found myself not being able to put the book down. Of course, it was incredibly gorey, I mean look at the cover of the book, that was to be expected. Did the gore add anything? No, not really. It felt kind of unnecessary even, kids being in life-threatening situations already gets the message across imo, but I suppose it wouldn‘t be splatterpunk otherwise. I pictured Geraldine as Izma from Emperor‘s New Groove and just couldn’t take her or her motive seriously at all. It just seemed too comical.
That being said, I actually loved the underlying story of it all. Rock‘s background story, pent up rage that eventually reaches its climax and kind of a heartbreaking ending is honestly all this book needed. Him seeing himself in little Donnie was adorable and soul crushing.
I do not regret reading this book at all. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone else though.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Incest, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Body shaming, Fatphobia, Infertility, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, and Alcohol

Minor: Ableism

latati711's review against another edition

The first couple of chapters were good I read past all of the parts that people were complaining about all over tiktok and I thought the book had some potential... 188 pages into the book and I just can't finish it because it's boring to me. Like the author is good at writing when it comes to gore and stuff of that nature but it's the other parts of the book besides the gore that did not pique my interest. For example, the overly detailed description of the characters was literally snoozefest there was a whole chapter that delved into the backstory of the male Nazi scientist that I just skimmed through because I didn't care. I just wanted more action and less explanations.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Torture, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Confinement, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Excrement, and Vomit

Minor: Incest, Infertility, Panic attacks/disorders, Grief, and Abandonment

arianaxnicole's review against another edition

This book is vile and not in a way that has any merit or logical reasoning. Everything is disgusting and seemingly just for shock value. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Incest, Infertility, Torture, and Excrement

add_a_little_spook's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

https://youtu.be/wJLxxC1r0vc?si=Qfxx-KZnXOhOosV1

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Gore, Incest, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Infertility, Suicidal thoughts, and Alcohol

eliias's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Infertility, Pedophilia, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Homophobia

madelinequinnee's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Not sure how I feel about this book. 

I’ve rated it 4 because as someone who loves horror but is also extremely desensitised to it, this did have a big effect on me and left me disgusted and horrified. However, the writing wasn’t great, and i think the whole character of Geraldine was written in a sexist light. For example, her ‘villian origin story’ is that she can’t have kids, like that’s the absolute worst thing that could ever happen to a woman? Also, the way female genitalia was written was highly misogynistic at times, like how it was described as dirty if not washed with SOAP, which is incredibly dangerous btw since you should NEVER EVER put soap down there!!! I don’t know whether the author is just uneducated about the female body or is misogynistic, but either way, very weird choice. 

The deaths were incredibly tragic and disgusting. Sadie’s demise affected me the most, I had to take a break from reading and go touch some grass after that scene because YIKES! 

I don’t know whether i would necessarily recommend this book, since it’s very dark and gross, but if you want something that’s gonna stick with you and potentially make you feel quite ill, maybe give this a go! check trigger warnings tho please omg 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Incest, Infertility, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail