Playground by Aron Beauregard

Title: Playground
Author: Aron Beauregard
Publisher: Independetly Published
Genres: Horror, Splatterpunk
Pages: 290
Release Date: November 25, 2022
Book Rating: 💀💀💀💀
Spice Rating: 🌶🌶🌶

Click here for the goodreads page and here for the storygraph page

Disclaimer: This book is bought with my own money. It is not an ARC.

Trigger Warnings:
Child death, Gore, Child abuse, Cursing, Homophobia, Bullying, Animal death, Pedophilia, Infertility

Book Summary

Three low-income families have been given a handsome retainer to join Geraldine Borden for a day at her cliffside estate. All the parents must do to collect the rest of their money is allow their children to test out the revolutionary playground equipment Geraldine has been working on for decades. But there’s a reason the structures in the bowels of her gothic castle have taken so long to develop—they were never meant to see the light of day.

When a band of dysfunctional children is suddenly thrust into a diabolical realm of violence, they must grow up instantly to have a chance at survival. Will they find a way to put their differences aside, or be swallowed up by the insidious architecture all around them?

My Opinion

Playground is a book that is in need of some serious trigger warnings. I went into the book knowing all these trigger warnings and thus had a general idea what it was going to be about. The book was like Saw meets Final Destination meets Squid Game but then with children, which makes it even worse. As a splatter punk / body horror / torture porn enjoyer I could appreciate the gruesome and violent deaths in the book. The book helped me out of a reading slump and I was invested from start to finish. Now, I completely understand that this book might not be for everyone. The trigger warning list is almost as long as the book, at least that is what it feels like. But for enjoyers of splatterpunk, I consider this a must-read.

"The wheels were turning in all their heads, but the one with the dead hamster inside spoke first."

Aron’s work is twisted, brutal, sick and extreme. But that is what sold the book for me. The writing style is simple and to the point, sometimes even too simple. However, it didn’t bother me as much as I thought it would. Normally, too simple language can put me off, but that was not the case with Playground. I think the detailed descriptions of the gore kept me engaged through out the story.

I have to admit that this was my first read of Aron and it left me craving more. I am looking forward to read more of his work and already have my eyes on books like The Slob and Try the new Candy.

The cover of this book is absolutely perfect. It gives you a very solid indication of what you are in for. It delivers exactly what it promises and that’s what I like most about this book. Just don’t go into the book expecting realism, because that is not what you will get. It doesn’t make sense, the gruesome traps will never work in real life, but that didn’t make the book less enjoyable. Just have fun with it and enjoy the mayhem.

Something that I found really cool was the fact that there are illustrations in this book. It added to the general atmosphere of the whole story and really helped to pull it all together themeatically. I wish more books did that, because it just adds so much to the story. I was kind of living for those illustrations!

Now on to characters. To my surprise there was a pretty solid redemption arc within the story. I had not expected this at the start and it was a nice little surprise. What can I say? I’m a complete sucker for redemption arcs. The characters, especially Rock, were pretty well written. I actually got attached to a few and for a book of less than 300 pages that’s quite an achievement.

The pacing of the story was fast, which was really fitting to the overall storyline. I don’t think I would have enjoyed the book as much as I had if it had been a slow-paced book. I doubt I would even have enjoyed it as much if it had been medium-paced. There also are some twists and turns to the story that I could quite appreciate!

There is one more thing I have to mention, something that I didn’t quite like. And this are the sex scenes with our main antagonist. I’ve seen it plenty of times in other Splatterpunk books and know it is part of the genre. But there simply was something about the ones in Playground that left me feeling very uncomfortable, and not in a good way. I personally think that if it was turned down a notch, the book would have been even more enjoyable.

To sum it all up, this book was what I call ‘torture porn’ and I enjoyed it for what it was. The characters were decently written and there were enough surprises to keep my squirrel brain entertained. I had lots of fun with the book and for me that’s the most important. It isn’t a litterary masterpiece, but it doesn’t has to be. If you’re new to the splatterpunk genre, I do not reccomend this book as your introduction to it. Unless you want to jump right in.