Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Playground by Aron Beauregard

33 reviews

callofthewild's review against another edition

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? Yes

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

nikrib's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Incest, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, 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

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

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

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

zyderm's review against another edition

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? No

If you’ve heard all of the recommendations for this book, ignore them. I went into this book knowing nothing about it aside from it was well recommended. 

I ended up with a copy of this book from my sisters colleague, who is a published author and used to work at penguin publishing. She raved about this and called it a pinnacle of modern horror. A complete load of shit. 

Any bad reviews you read about this are true, including the authors particularly misogynistic writing. His blurb at the back states he has a wife, but I refuse to believe that since this reads like he’s never touched a woman in his life, and in fact seems like he’s actively disgusted by women’s personal parts. 

The authors writing is exceptionally juvenile, and were it not for the subject matter, his writing combined with the illustrations included would lead me to believe this was ya. He also has odd wording choices “a single tear pissed out of his eye” that he uses consistently and that quickly became irritating. 

The worst part is I think the author may have actually been trying to write a mature book that was disgusting and at times clearly intended to be emotional and impactful. However everything comes off extremely comical, the end had me laughing, the rest I was amused or annoyed by. Writing for these characters is non existent. I wouldn’t recommend this to anybody unless you actively like schlocky garbage. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Incest, Infertility, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

kaiyamooks's review against another edition

dark sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Amazing descriptions. A very bleak story with a somewhat happy end. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Infertility, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cursing, and Alcohol

junebug333's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense fast-paced

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

2.5

The book was very gory, sadistic and heartbreaking. I was very disappointed with how lazy the writing was. The villains are very cartoonish. And the infamous page 40 did not need to be in the book. There was no point other than shock value. Disappointed. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Incest, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Homophobia, Infertility, and Alcohol