A review by lilmooniex
Playground by Aron Beauregard

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

2.0

Spoiler filled review/ description: 

The book begins with a woman named Caroline at a park with her child, Donnie, on a leash in the rain before yanking him forward, having him crash into the ground head forward. It cuts to Molly getting an offer for 3k to have her and Tom's children play on the playground for a couple of hours because it is ultra modern. Tom is skeeved out because he feels the offer is too good to be true because they have "shit luck." Greg was another fine suitor with sons named Kip and Bobby. He is a verbally abusive parent that forces Kip into baseball. Tanya is a young girl who wants to get enrolled in swimming classes but her mom Lacey told her it just was not affordable. Next is CJ who is obsessed with gore and adult comic books, he's also the brother of Kip and Bobby, his dad also forcing him into baseball. Practicing despite all of his children showing they hate it to try to make up for his lost dream. Tanya is also a sibling of Cj, Kip, and Bobby. The woman behind operations is Geraldine while her henchman (adopted son) that finds the children is named Rock. The first family to arrive is Tom and Molly's, their children with them is Isaac, Sadie, and Sam. Sadie was the abusive sister even though she was the youngest (7) and Sam had been born first but never was the one to initiate the abuse, always following along after Sadie. Geraldine branded Rock with the words," MINE", the smell of his smoldering flesh and the pain a constant reminder of what she'd done. She had branded him all because he looked at the maid, cracking her skull open. Geraldine for sure giving off pedophile vibes, grooming Rock ever since he was a teen boy. At 7 years old Geraldine had odd feelings about her mom's ass, wishing her mom rode her face. While her mom was in a noncommunicative state due to illness she sat her 40 something year old snatch on her mom's face and suffocated her to death, having her first orgasm come from her mom just as she took her last breath. Next Greg and Lacey show up to the playground, they have their children step out first to go play. Geraldine's way of separating the children from the adults is by telling them she will up their payment by 4k and they can watch them play through a screen. It is to "see how they interact with the new equipment." Isaac was the only kid that was not impressed with the playground equipment. He was able to identify each one and thought it would be more impressive. Bobby was a boy who was impressed with the park but was not impressed by Isaac and how ungrateful he seemed. In the room where all the parents are allowed to watch, they chose their seating position and were "adjusted for comfort" by Mr. Fuchs the german. As they sat in a meditative position they were locked into place by Geraldine so their heads couldn't move. At the same time her slap bracelet was falling so the machine that was meant to hold Lacey in place snapped and cut into her neck instead as she went to grip her bracelet. Rock deals with the clean up after Geraldine's play time.  Rock went off and finally snapped, killing the mom who had her kid on the leash. He imagined it to be Geraldine as he pulverized her into a pulp. Molly said she'd do anything for Geraldine to leave her kids alone and only hurt her, instead. It piqued her interest. Bobby and Kip his brother were tormenting Isaac. CJ their other brother was against the bullying. Fuch told the children to head behind the big slide but they were feeling like something was very off. Geraldine was upset (understatement) and smacked Rock after finding out he had killed Donnie's mom and she wouldn't be able to watch. The kids are thrown into action - forced to go behind the big slide. As soon as they all followed to the slide Rock let go of these foaming, hungry downs and Isaac getting the worst of the injuries as he was punctured by a dog and CJ took initiative and told his brothers to stop fawking around and listen to them because clearly none of this is normal and it is life or death. Geraldine kept trying to get pregnant after the death of her mom but realized quickly that she was the problem. Fuchs was involved in the construction and creation of many concentration camps. The children were forced down the slide, it wasn't a normal slide for one it went deep down into the ground and for another it was embedded with razor blades  and barbed wire. When they finally fell it was only onto marbles. The next game involved hang man. Both of Isaac's bratty sisters got mangled and mutilated, Sadie had her leg blown off below her knee and was bleeding out, the ceiling fell down and penetrated Sam leaving her out of commission completely and possibly dead. Isaac and CJ tried to help Sadie with her one leg escape - but Isaac lost his footing, twisting his ankle. Tanya was the one to figure out the hangman phrase," stab him in the head." But the kids debated on whether it was a trap and if their parents were in on it. CJ, the leader, was trying to help his siblings but slipped and fell into the ball pit, salt inside the balls hitting all of his wounds. Greg had a sick sense of pride knowing Kip, Tanya, and CJ were even still alive. The hangman instructed the kids to stab it in the head but when they did a bunch of fire ants scattered out of the head. Meanwhile the remaining parents: Tom, and Molly were plotting and working on getting Rock to let them free but Greg is a competitive asshole and refuses to work with them. He claims his kids will whoop ass in the competition and that nothing even matters now. The next "game" is hopscotch. Geraldine has taken a liking to Tanya, noticing that she tends to really take initiative when it comes to these decisions and games while CJ is more pretending to be leader in terms of chaos. During the game of hopscotch all the children made it across and landed either on Heaven or Hell at the end of the numbers. Kip ended up dying by falling in a meat grinder, his body crumbling while Bobby still needed to finish the game as he was last. Bobby no longer has faith in his brother, CJ. Bobby ended up going crazy and punching Isaac and back slapping Sadie; thinking Isaac was responsible and hating Sadie for interfering.  Thinking he was against him. Everyone landed on Heaven but Donnie went and chose Hell. Geraldine and Fuchs believe Greg is a psychopath. Next game is a typical playground set filled with abnormal swing sizes, a seesaw with different objects such as vampires, etc. The next game is monkey see monkey do and the kids have to swing on large monkey bars. Bobby continues to be a jackass much like his dad Greg thinking everything is all a game and competing against everyone, even his own brother. Rock has reached his breaking point and realizes he's tired of being abused while watching the kids in the game. The next game Geraldine, Fuchs, and Rock begin to doubt there will be mass survival. The slides are back and more sadist as ever with blades that spin and move around before the slide descends into darkness. They had to choose the slide or the snapping possibly poisonous reptiles that were making their way top side. Isaac timed the seconds it takes to avoid the blades by using his shoe and a long lace for a test run and was the first to test drive making it down the slide. Sadie was terrified of going down the slide so Greg finally spoke over the speaker and used it for evil, telling Bobby he needs to take revenge for Kip. Bobby took it in the worst way possible and took a knife out to shank Sadie in the back, causing her lung to collapse. Bobby wanted his dad's approval so bad he used Sadie's body as a skateboard to get down the slide. Bobby is going around waving his knife and threatening everyone to do what he wants them to. The merry go round final game involved them to hold on tight but there was fumes in the room making it hard for them to breathe. The merry-go-round spun so fast it caused nausea for everyone. Bobby the villain came out again as Isaac was slipping off the bar. He used his knife to cut into his knuckle and mess up the only grip he did have.  Isaac did not go down without a fight and gripped Bobby's knife'd hand, toppling onto him so they would fall into a pit of acid together. They both went out in a pile of goo.  The final survivors were Donnie, CJ, and Tanya. The last game involves a seesaw that they have to stay on this is the only game left for them to see their parents. CJ and Tanya had to balance at the same and if they didn't blades would slice into their skin. Tanya got tired in the process after CJ had passed out and he ended up falling off the beam. She was trying to get out of the steel beam to make the last 10 score and ended up getting CJ killed, the sharp blade going into his cranium. As she plummeted bc CJ was no longer on the seesaw, she fell into the sweltering fire. They were tricked and there seemed to be one last game involving a sandbox where they had to ring a bell. Donnie finally reveals he can't speak with spelling blocks bc his mom chopping off his tongue due to him," speaking too much." Right before Donnie could go and try to ring the bell, Rock told him not to and that he was getting them out, using Lacey's turn to speak since she couldn't. Geraldine came into the room demanding Rock stop and when she realized she had no control she called Fuchs into the room. Fuchs had a gun and shot a bullet into Rock's arm. He got pissed and ended up strangling him before he violated his body, remembering he was a bystander throughout the years while Geraldine abused him. After Fuchs ended up dropping the gun when he was dying Geraldine ended up picking it up, shooting him a few times into his stomach/back area and he collapsed to the ground and she ended up escaping. Molly and Tom were going to make their exit and Greg stopped them, strangling Tom with his bare hands because of the previous shit talk. Rock was still alive and ended up shoving his thicc hand down Greg's throat until his mouth ripped open and he ended up passing away. Rock was on Molly and Tom's side completely and told them to wait for him there. Rock headed into Geraldine's usually closed room to find it ajar, it took a while but Rock found her in a room of mirrors. He ended up breaking through after constant trash talk from mummy dearest and then took her down to the floor. Her face was beaten and battered in glass before he spread her unwashed cooch and shoved glass into it. Killing her off. Donnie and Tanya finally met with the remaining people Rock, Tom, and Molly and Tanya broke realizing both of her parents weren't there. Molly offered to take Rock to get checked out at the hospital and he finally felt cared for in the first time in his life but he declined and said he was going to play for the first time in his life. The book ended with Rock playing for the first and last time, being too big for the slide and swing he hurt himself along the way (understatement), the monkey bars caused more injury and blood loss but he finally passed away on the monkey bars reevaluating his life as his heart slowed from all the blood loss. That was it, that was the end.
 

Final thoughts: 

Love that this author used little illustrations for his horror story. It added to my imagination and helped me envision the scene easier. This book was a rollercoaster but took me forever to finish. I just really feel like I was trying to get to the end and see all the hype that was thrown for this book. Pushed out for the ending but very disappointed it how it ended. The gore was nice but the book was one I put down constantly.