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A review by furaleii
Playground by Aron Beauregard
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I LOVED IT. When I decided to read, I was really unsure of it-- the idea of a bunch of children getting tortured wasn't exactly my idea of an amazing time. However, I had it recommended to me by a friend who I strongly trust with their book opinions, so I gave it a chance. I am so glad I did, because it was SO MUCH MORE and better than I ever expected, and I was hooked. I will say, there was more mentions of coprophilia than I would have liked at the beginning of the story, though it was not a regular occurrence and was overall only there for the disgust factor and to make the villain seem more taboo and disgusting (which it did succeed in).
"Playground" is if the hunger games involved a walk-through room of horrors style murder park and a bunch of actual children at the mercy of the park, instead of at the mercy of each other (though that can be one in the same). The last one at the finish line being the "winner" and getting to continue the Geraldine legacy-- something that, despite the financial gain, literally no one would ever want.
Geraldine, the main "bad guy" is... well, horrible. She's disgusting, horrid, cruel, and every other bad word I can think of-- something that I think equals a great villain character. Similar with Fuchs, secondary bad guy. The book doesn't necessarily have a main character-- it focuses on the group of kids assigned to the playground, the parents, and the owners of said playground. That being said, I Rock was the main character of this story in almost every other sense of the word. We learn the backgrounds of the kids and their families pretty early on, but Rock stays mostly a mystery-- we know bits and pieces that we can put together into a lovable-- if not extremely morally gray-- character. But by the end of the story, I had become so attached to everyone in the book. I was hoping for Rock's story to evolve and I found myself celebrating along with the characters in the book when they did something well, or rooting for certain characters over others to survive.
Character well-being spoilers-- [ Because of my eventual attachment to every character, each time a child died in the playground, I was a lot more strongly invested in a character death than I would have been had it been nothing but gruesome horror. It was gruesome, definitely, but it was the way the characters were shown as real people that actually made it influential to me. I guessed Isaac's sacrifice early-on; however, when it did hit, I was still very distraught because I had come to root for him to finish the playground (though I was SO glad he got rid of Bobby in the meanwhile).
"Playground" is if the hunger games involved a walk-through room of horrors style murder park and a bunch of actual children at the mercy of the park, instead of at the mercy of each other (though that can be one in the same). The last one at the finish line being the "winner" and getting to continue the Geraldine legacy-- something that, despite the financial gain, literally no one would ever want.
Geraldine, the main "bad guy" is... well, horrible. She's disgusting, horrid, cruel, and every other bad word I can think of-- something that I think equals a great villain character. Similar with Fuchs, secondary bad guy. The book doesn't necessarily have a main character-- it focuses on the group of kids assigned to the playground, the parents, and the owners of said playground. That being said, I Rock was the main character of this story in almost every other sense of the word. We learn the backgrounds of the kids and their families pretty early on, but Rock stays mostly a mystery-- we know bits and pieces that we can put together into a lovable-- if not extremely morally gray-- character. But by the end of the story, I had become so attached to everyone in the book. I was hoping for Rock's story to evolve and I found myself celebrating along with the characters in the book when they did something well, or rooting for certain characters over others to survive.
Character well-being spoilers-- [ Because of my eventual attachment to every character, each time a child died in the playground, I was a lot more strongly invested in a character death than I would have been had it been nothing but gruesome horror. It was gruesome, definitely, but it was the way the characters were shown as real people that actually made it influential to me. I guessed Isaac's sacrifice early-on; however, when it did hit, I was still very distraught because I had come to root for him to finish the playground (though I was SO glad he got rid of Bobby in the meanwhile).