Reviews tagging 'Misogyny'

Playground by Aron Beauregard

13 reviews

wwmck's review

challenging dark sad tense fast-paced

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

2.0

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS!!!!

a). to my absolute chagrin, i … wouldn’t exactly say i enjoyed this book so much as i was morbidly hooked by it. finished it within two days. 

b). i’m about to critique and hypothesise upon a book that admittedly doesn’t really offer up more than the hallmarks of its genre. i have a major gripe with modern splatterpunk and it’s largely pointless nature I guess. where it’s creation was founded in rebellion against censorship, those walls have now by and large come down, at least by a great margin. so there’s a real lack of motivation - i feel - behind the senseless depravity found in splatterpunk literature.

anyways, i was pleasantly (?) surprised by this book. there’s a skeleton of something genuinely enthralling here. i grew up on saw (weird kid with unfiltered internet access) and with a love of the whole “death game” concept. so the twisted playground at the centre of this morbid tale was unfortunately right up my alley. obviously the extra twist of the knife, with the victims being children was deeply uncomfortable - but they’re written in a real “wise (?) beyond their years” sort of way so i could mostly just read them as adults. soften the blow a little i guess? back to my point i guess, the groundwork for some great philosophising on childhood abuse and cyclical violence is laid bare within certain beats and as a reader you really are rooting for a surprising number of these characters. i absolutely appreciated the “happy” (?) ending, wherein the absolute monsters of utter evil met their violent end. tanya made it out. three cheers for the diva. if she’d died as well that would’ve really been the straw that broke the camels back for me personally.
ANYWAYS: there’s a decent book in here somewhere, but just when it gets …. not good or entertaining but like … enticing i guess? - aron beauregard throws in some fuck ass bullshit with geraldine or something. truth be told i’d argue “playground” exists closer in nature to “dipper goes to taco bell” than any sort of horror novel. at points it read like a 14 year old boy sat down to write the most grotesque sadistic drivel he could come up with. i’m not sure if an editor was involved here and i don’t care to check because if they were, some peer review was desperately needed. beauregard’s writing again feels immature in a more literary sense, in that some good metaphorical parallels were set up, only for him to quite literally write “look at this metaphor i just accidentally wrote, let’s just say it again more plainly”. it just beats you over the head again and again as if things weren’t glaring obvious to begin with. there’s no “between the lines” here, everything is as tell not show as one could manage.
in some alternate dimension there exists a version of this story that could’ve been pretty great actually. but the constant reminder of geraldine’s tuna box just fuckin like whatever dude. with that said, beauregard sometimes demonstrates at minimum an understanding of good writing. every so often i’d read a passage and ask myself “where was this 5 seconds ago?” - in regards to his literary prowess. with that said this motherfucker seems very capable of viscerally describing extreme violence, yet his descriptions of some of the “playgrounds” was flimsy and confusing. i found myself at odds with what i was picturing and kept having to re read certain descriptions because i could not for the life of me pick up what he was putting down. 

at the end of the day, i’m only disappointing myself. this book never had the intentions or claimed to be thought provoking. it’s mean, sick, sadistic, and thoroughly over the top. it’s a splatterpunk book. yay for genre fiction? i think the reason i’ve felt the need to linger on this for so long is because it was an uncomfortably captivating read. and like idk. idk. i truly believe  this could be reworked into a more satisfying theme exploration. i hope tom, molly, tanya, and donnie went on to live a calm and fulfilling life filled with absolutely zero mentions of a playground. 
#rotinhellgeraldine #rockredemptionarc 
oh god actually on the subject of rock, like fucking good god we gettt itttttt. like from the jump you know how that whole situation is gonna play out. aron please im begging you for some subtly, for some - rather for less of like, everything i guess. really sucked any kind of climax out of the books ending when so many chapters would basically end with “rock is getting there guys, he’s gonna save the day soon”. 

maybe i’ll be the one to rewrite this. i can guarantee that THAT chapter and anything even vaguely similar would be scrubbed out so clean you could see your own reflection. fuck the scat people #kinkshamingisok 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Confinement, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Infertility, Death, Emotional abuse, Torture, Suicidal thoughts, Gaslighting, Fire/Fire injury, Blood, Gun violence, Vomit, Incest, Grief, Death of parent, Cursing, Child death, Bullying, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Misogyny, Excrement, Body horror, Homophobia, Gore, and Domestic abuse

zyderm's review

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

marslotus's review

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

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

Minor: Fatphobia

grimoireofsabotage's review

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

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

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

gunch's review

You can’t tell me that this wasn’t Kronk and Yzma fan-fiction at one point in the draft process. Also i dont think this author understands how german accents work. There is a cartoonish nazi character who appears one page after the sample. It was like i was duped into believing this book would be interesting. Also the nazi’s dialogue is written with the letter “z” in front of every 5th word or so. Just stupid. The idea behind a sample is to give the reader a taste of the rest of the book, not write an interesting story and then switch to whatever was happening here.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Murder, Domestic abuse, Incest, Gore, Pedophilia, Torture, Sexual assault, Ableism, Death of parent, Misogyny, Body shaming, Adult/minor relationship, Excrement, and Sexual violence

I love transgressive films and books, but they have to actually be made and written well. Otherwise what’s the point? Over explained metaphors, grueling prose, 1-dimensional characters, clunky unnatural dialogue, and just the most bizarre and pointless plot additions imaginable made what seemed like a terrifying descent into violent and sexual abyss really more like the inane ramblings of a first time writer looking to shock and awe and make a vehicle for his scat, STD, and incest fetishes. It’s not that type of content that bothers me. Its that it’s written poorly.

titanium_liv's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• 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: Abandonment, Excrement, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Rape, Self harm, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Blood, Classism, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, Child abuse, Child death, Gun violence, Misogyny, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Homophobia, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Incest, Mental illness, Murder, Pedophilia, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, and Vomit

literarysoph's review

dark emotional sad 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? No

Eu recuso-me a dar um rating a  este livro, mas por favor, não leiam se nao tiverem um estomago forte

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Grief, Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Animal cruelty, Hate crime, Violence, Vomit, Incest, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Animal death, Blood, Confinement, Excrement, Murder, Child death, Gun violence, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, Abandonment, Death of parent, Gore, and Sexual assault

nicole_cob_reads's review

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

1.5

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Content Warnings

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

kat_dee_ann's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

5.0

 

Somehow I ended up on extreme horror tiktok and this book kept showing up, so I decided why not. Part of me really regrets that decision. There are scenes in this book that will forever be scared into my brain. Overall I felt like the book did what it intended to do and that was make you incredibly uncomfortable. Please do not take the trigger warning lightly. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Cursing, Murder, Emotional abuse, Violence, Bullying, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Sexual content, Animal death, Sexism, Animal cruelty, Vomit, Child death, Death, Blood, Child abuse, Misogyny, Adult/minor relationship, and Torture

jackie_reads_314's review

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

3.0

Unsure how to rate this book. Like yeah, it delivered on the premise, but I was so incredibly uncomfortable in ways that I wasn't ready for. The gore was well done, the descriptions of the torture contraptions were questionable though. I feel that the more simplistic writing style helps keep the focus on the horror at hand, but some things could have been left up to the imagination (unless that goes against the genre in general, this was my first splatterpunk novel tbh.) I probably read the first 15% of the book with a scowl or groan on my face, and the last 85% mouth agape and ready to vomit. I might try another book in this genre but with adult characters FOR SURE. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Incest, Murder, Blood, Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Body horror, Child death, Domestic abuse, and Gore

Moderate: Antisemitism, Grief, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Animal cruelty, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Excrement, Bullying, Homophobia, Sexual content, Animal death, Classism, Death of parent, and Misogyny

Minor: Infertility and Suicidal thoughts