Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

Playground by Aron Beauregard

99 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

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

janachigo's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense fast-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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Excrement, Vomit, Grief, Gaslighting, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Bullying

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

mickey09's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

On a whole this book was well written despite the first 50 or so pages, that made me want to stop reading. But despite these pages this was a well written book. 
However it does have loads of trigger warnings, so be warned. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infertility, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

wholecuppatea's review against another edition

dark 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? No

2.75

I honestly didn‘t expect much other than a lot of gore. So I was really pleasantly surprised to find the writing good and finding myself getting quite attached to some of the characters. It‘s definitely not for the faint-hearted so make sure you check the TW! I liked it more than I expected. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Infertility, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Death of parent, and Murder

unexplainabl's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

4.0

 This was wild. A lot more gruesome than I'd originally thought but still a good read. I definitely would recommend checking on TW/CW's before you read this if you're wanting to because it's very disturbing in some parts. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Incest, Pedophilia, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Excrement, and Murder

mortemidnight's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

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

4.0

Playground is a book that is in need of some serious trigger warnings. So here we go, the trigger warnings:
Child death, Gore, Child abuse, Cursing, Homophobia, Bullying, Animal death, Pedophilia, Infertility.

I went into the book knowing all these trigger warnings and thus had a general idea what it was going to be about. The book was like Saw meets Final Destination meets Squid Game but then with children, which makes it even worse. As a splatter punk / body horror / torture porn enjoyer I could appreciate the gruesome and violent deaths in the book. The book helped me out of a reading slump and I was invested from start to finish.

I hope my list of trigger warnings might help someone make an informed decision to read this book. I loved it, but it is definitely not everyone’s cup of tea. Read with caution. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Gore, and Violence

Moderate: Bullying, Cursing, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, and Sexual content

Minor: Animal death and Infertility

theacousticfuneral's review against another edition

dark funny medium-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Child death

Minor: Incest and Sexual content

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