Playground

Product Information

A riveting 1920s Hollywood thriller about the making of the most terrifying silent film evermade, and a deadly search for the single copy rumored still to exist, from the internationally acclaimed author of The Devil Aspect.

It felt like a mash up between an insight into the dark side of early Hollywood, early Agatha Christy, an Indiana Jones style action thriller, throw in a pinch of horror extract and you’ve got something very different with its own appeal.I felt like there was a decent plot in here . . . somewhere under all the density and excessive descriptions of everything, but it was just too much work to get to it under and around all the padding. Goodreads Librarians are volunteers who help ensure the accuracy of information about books and authors in the Goodreads' catalog. The Goodreads Libra Goodreads Librarians are volunteers who help ensure the accuracy of information about books and authors in the Goodreads' catalog. The Goodreads Librarians Group is the official group for requesting additions or updates to the catalog, including: In some recent essays, Brian Keene has identified six or seven generations or waves of horror writers. The number itself isn’t as significant as the creators themselves and where the genre is headed. For those interested in this topic or examples of this type of writing done very well, I highly recommend joining Brian Keene’s patreon and reading the books he’s published.

The children get enough development for you to really care about them as they go from horror to horror, and you root for them to try and make it through each one.

The New Splatterpunks

Of course there is also the bloody, disgusting gore and putridness. Yes, there are descriptions of smells that will possibly engage that gag reflex. Beauregard, ever the prolific writer, has released yet another intriguing piece of devastation. As a member of the aforementioned “extreme-light” clique, though, I have yet to read any of his works. They’re fantastic in theory, but severe horror has never held any interest for me. This work was nominated for Best work at this year’s Splatterpunk Awards, and as I strive to support as many authors as I can, I decided it was a good choice. Why you should buy this: If you’re a fan of Aron’s you probably have already snagged this and most likely have read it. If you’re new to extreme horror and want to see what it’s all about, this is an excellent place to dive in and discover how these novels will contain really well done plots with fantastic writing and some of the most horrific gore-filled scenes you’ll ever read. And in this story, the Playground is hell, the place where children go to be bullied and beaten, and it is this fate, that of living a childhood of torment, that Charlie wants to save his son from experiencing.

This is a terrific book on many levels. It is actually three stories in one and they all work well as the reader tries to figure out how they are related. While the plot is fairly minimal, this story is more about how the characters interact with the premise they are forced into, with the children reacting to the situation and each other, the parents forced to watch on and try to convince their captures into letting them go, and the antagonists watching each scene with glee. First off, I found the author's writing style a bit precious and dense. He obviously had his thesaurus close to hand while he was writing this, because he never used the clear and simple word when he could find the more obscure and - I assume he felt - important-sounding big or complex word instead. I am pretty well-read and am a business-writer so I have a fairly wide vocabulary, but even I had to look up multiple words while reading this. More than one of the words I looked up once I had the definition seemed completely unnecessary to get the message across and felt used solely to hammer home how smart the author is. It was a bit annoying and did not endear the author to this reader. Playground by Aron Beauregard is a truly chilling and uncomfortable novel that will leave even the most seasoned horror fans squirming. The author’s ability to create a relentless and suspenseful atmosphere is commendable. From the very beginning, the story grips you with its intense and diabolical premise, and it never lets go. She tells him a tale of a great movie, of a curse hanging over it, of a great movie actress, of a real-life drama, even greater than the one that played out on the screen. Of a time and a place where deception came naturally. She tells him a tale of Hollywood.”

Splatter vs Extreme

The narrator hired for the novel was honestly the highlight. Likewise the children in the book are written pretty accurately to their ages. I think those two things are about all the positive things I can say about it though.