rat_9991 's review for:

Playground by Aron Beauregard

2.0

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I'm completely rehauling my og review because I FINALLY figured out what was bothering me about the book that made it so mediocre to me. in my original review, I said I felt bad not giving this book 5 stars, but there was this gnawing "So that's it?"-type vibe to the whole story (and especially the ending) that made me give it 4 stars. what's holding it back is that EVERY CHARACTER IS AN INHUMAN CHARACATURE. the most relatable characters are the children and, only two of them survive! (personally it was the only two I had no possibility of relating to). Rock is *almost* relatable; he's semi-grounded, and his motivations are human, but he's also a very individual case. because of this, rocks pov felt like a novel story with a mid tier ending, and the same goes for the kids. THEN THERE WAS THE PARENTS AND GERTRUDE. listen, I LOVED how campy gertrude was throughout the story, her little natzi bestie for resties were stars. I assumed while reading this book that gertrude and her bnf (best natzi forever) were the comically evil villains, which I would have loved! BUT THEN THE 75% OF THE ADULT CHARACTERS TURNED OUT *EQUALLY* FUCKED UP. I think this was the root of that "so that's it?" feeling I had when finishing this book; if 75% percent of adults in this books universe are cartoonishly evil, who gives a fuck if anyone lives or dies? the mute boy's tongue was cut out by his mom. Why did his mom hate him like that? who knows and who cares. the dads obsession with sports caused him to scream at his boy until he killed a girl. why was he so desensitized to murder so fast? idk probably because his neighbors kill eachother every day. who gives a shit. not to mention the "good" parents are hollow husks of humans, no real personalities. maybe their personalities weren't given the time to shine like they would have if they weren't watching their kids die, but they were *sooo* boring. like I said in my original review, this book left me feeling like nothing happened. I won't say it wasted my time, but the longer I think about the book the more I realize how mildly dogshit it was. 3/10 stars