Reviews tagging 'Kidnapping'

Playground by Aron Beauregard

53 reviews

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

marslotus's review against another edition

dark emotional tense 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

1.75

I cannot express how disappinted i was with this book, so here's me making an attempt.

To start off, if I had a quarter for every time I rolled my eyes while reading, I could probably pay for my groceries. I believe the book was trying to do something clever, or just for the sake of writing explicit scenes, by not adhering to traditional story structure when introducing the antagonists and their motivations. We are seemingly meant to view the character Rock Stanley as the main character (I only assume so because the book starts and ends with his perspective) despite the fact he is an obstacle for the cast we are supposed to root for, therefore making him an antagonist (“his” side are the ones issuing most of the narrative challenges, not the children/parents who are facing them). We're shown through his detailed narration the horrible situation he has been raised in and how he longs to be free of it, as well as well as his abuser's motivation and history for why she's doing these things to him and to the protagonists. Showing these thoughts from the very beginning as opposed to discovering them alongside the protagonists leads to the issue of padding, something the book's middle suffers greatly from. The antagonists are already on the precipice of change (or stagnation in Geraldine's case) and are simply waiting for that last push towards either the dark or light, something that only comes at the end of the book. This creates scenes that are an absolute chore to return to over and over with the antagonists restating the same things they're feeling with different words. I feel like this could be easily rectified by focusing more on the protagonists experiences with the antagonists and find out their backstories either ⅓ or halfway through the story. This way, there's more things for the parents to do in the middle than cry or scream at each other and Rock thinking some form of “Maybe I'm on the wrong side” again and again.

The fact that Molly is able to piece together that Rock is a victim is so ridiculous to me because even though we the audience knows hes been horribly abused, she uses such little evidence to come to the same conclusion. If I was in her situation, I'd be pissed at him for only deciding to defy Geraldine after all of my children have been killed. I would not know his internal struggle and the fact that from the parent's perspective he changed his mind out of no where should infuriate them!

Additionally, this book has a serious problem with telling instead of showing. From the moment the author decided to describe a 7-year-old girl as sadistic, I was so curious how that description would have been built upon,

especially thinking about how she could be an unexpected competitor against Tanya in Geraldine's twisted perspective. Tanya may have been smart, but perhaps Sadie would be the only one with the headspace to be Geraldine's protégé is the thought I had the entire book.

But it seems that such a strong word would mean nothing and would never be touched upon again. It annoyed me because not one time do we see Sadie act out of line or abnormally from a standard little girl, we're simply told she's sadistic because the author didn't feel it necessary to create real examples. There's so many more examples of this borderlining on comedic in such an unpurposeful way. The fact that the author couldn't show us how evil Dr. Fuchs is by his deeds alone,

but instead has to throw in the fact that he's a literal nazi and compares the suffering of the children to the suffering he saw in concentration camps is so cartoonish,

I literally could not believe what I was reading.

This book very rarely struck fear or horror in me which I find so upsetting because I love being horrified. I will give the author the fact that he's talented in describing the gore and injury these characters go through as well as establishing traits that make me care and hate certain characters (though the “telling not showing” issue occasionally arises in the latter aspect). I just wish it was all structured a bit differently, that horror was the utmost goal of the narrative and not a simple gross-out attempt.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Incest, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Cursing, Homophobia, Infertility, Misogyny, Kidnapping, and Alcohol

Minor: Fatphobia

itsjustgrumpy's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

4.75

Relentlessly brutal, but not without payoff. What moisture you don't lose from sweat from the extreme tension or gagging at vivid descriptions, you'll lose from ugly sobbing in the final chapter. Absolutely awesome character work in this one.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Confinement, Homophobia, Excrement, and Alcohol

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Infertility, and Pedophilia

finneasty's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Incest, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Kidnapping, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

citareads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Kidnapping, 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

grimoireofsabotage's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

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

1.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Confinement, Incest, Infertility, Misogyny, Sexism, Kidnapping, and Grief

Minor: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Cursing, Homophobia, Toxic relationship, and Classism

goregirl1986's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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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, Incest, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

sugarysweetlibrary's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-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

2.5

Overall not my favorite dark horror read. The story was an interesting concept but not anything that interesting once you continued to read the book. I liked some of the gore. The fact that children are killed in this book was actually refreshing in a way. It really gave me the sense that this was serious and that no one was safe, not even the kids. The rating was low for this because I struggled with the book just not being interesting aside from what I found interesting. I might give the book another go, but only time will tell. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Incest, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Blood, Kidnapping, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

kyra_joy's review

dark emotional sad fast-paced

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

4.0

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.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gore, Incest, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Death of parent, and Murder