Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Playground by Aron Beauregard

32 reviews

moosereads1's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

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

2.5

This was… certainly something. The redeeming parts of the story were CJ and the development of Rock, overcoming the abuse he faced at Geraldine’s hands. The ending was a little sad, so there was enough good writing to develop an attachment. 
However, that’s where the good parts stopped. The scenes with Geraldine were just disgusting, and not only that but they were just poorly written. So many parts were horribly written. The descriptions were just strange and some of the lines were unbearably cheesy and cliche, especially toward the end. Overall it was disgusting, brutal, and all over the place in terms of writing style. Can’t say I recommend at all.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Incest, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

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

anni_ly22's review against another edition

Bad writing and terrible plot. The female villain was not written well at all. Very misogynistic 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Incest, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, and Classism

sabrina_the_alien's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Incest, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

bennifersbody's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense fast-paced

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

3.25

This book is incredibly dark, disturbing and twisted. It’s definitely for more hardcore horror fans who feel like they can handle some truly awful imagery and situations.

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Content Warnings

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

meganhornex's review against another edition

challenging dark medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Incest, Infertility, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

heavyheart_messysoul's review

dark emotional sad fast-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Incest, Mental illness, Violence, Excrement, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

fifthyshadesofreading's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

3.5

⭐️3.5 or 4... idk

I was curious so I read Playground...

First of all... idk what I feel about this book. A rollercoaster of emotions.

Second of all...I don't think this is my genre.

Was it as bad as social media made me believe? Not really. Despite the obviously very disgusting parts and extreme discomfort I felt due to what happens to the kids (It is very SAW-esque), this book was very well written and I will never read anything from this author again.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

dirtyal_93's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

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

3.75

Check the trigger warnings…and understand that AB goes out of his way to put his picture into your brain. There were points in the book where I had to put it down and breathe, and there were points where I wanted nothing more than to see which horrid situation occurred next. A fun ride into splatterpunk. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Incest, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

fracturedpage's review against another edition

too gross , could not handle it. I feel some was there for shock value only and it took away from the story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Gore, Incest, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Sexual harassment