The Playground

Product Information

A thousand times before and after his wife’s death, Mr. Charles Underhill ignored the Playground on his way to and from his commuter’s limited train. He neither liked nor disliked the Playground; he hardly knew it existed. Was childhood a time of never-ending play and wonder and happiness? Or was it a time of being terrorized by other children who beat and bullied and belittled us? It’s hard to remember accurately, once we’ve grown up. It was a cooling September night, with the first sniff of autumn in it. Next week, and the children would be raked in off the fields like so many leaves and set to burning in the schools

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. These characters are not the most likeable, I'll be honest, but they do have this power over you where you want to know all their secrets because they all have them. Each of these families may seem normal on the outside, but behind closed doors it is anything but. It is clear that they all have some form of dysfunction in their lives and perhaps that leads to the obliviousness when they are all together - leaving the children to get up to whatever games they want...games that aren't all that safe it turns out. I don’t care about that. All I care is I saw a dozen kinds of bats and clubs and air guns. By the end of the first day, Jim would be in splinters. They’d have him barbecued, with an orange in his mouth." Some,” replied the boy on the playground. “Maybe this is the only one like this. Maybe it’s just how you look at it, Charlie. Things are what you want them to be.” The main character's motivation was a little questionable, personally. It is hard to tell, however, how realistic his concern actually was; he seemed a bit of an unreliable narrator to me, and I'm not sure what he was really seeing on the titular playground and what he was imagining in his head or taking extremely out of context. Is this a dystopian future where playgrounds are terrifying or is he an overly-concerned helicopter parent?

When you have two precious bits of porcelain and one is broken and the other, the last one, remains, where can you find the time to be objective, to be immensely calm, to be anything else but concerned? No, he thought, walking slowly, in the hall, there seems to be nothing I can do except go on being afraid and being afraid of being afraid.” –Charles Underhill Clearly bullied as a child, a father will do everything in his power to try to achieve the unattainable: to protect his child from any hurt and pain and suffering that others can inflict. A pen of misery, thought Underhill. Why do children insist on making life horrible for each other? Oh, the continual torture. He heard himself sigh with immense relief. Thank God, childhood was over and done for him. No more pinchings, bruisings, senseless passions and shattered dreams. Others who suffered in childhood use their experience to strive to make sure the next generation do not suffer in the same way. Three families’ lives become increasingly intertwined when they meet during tutoring sessions for their children. Throughout the summer and into the fall, the adults become more and more preoccupied with each other, leaving the kids to amuse themselves. But what exactly are the kids up to?

He’ll get it in school. Better to let him take a little shoving about now, when he’s three, so he’s prepared for it." He sniffed the cutting odors of salve, raw adhesive, camphor, and pink mercurochrome, so strong it lay bitter on his tongue. An iodine wind blew through the steel fence wires which glinted dully in the grey light of the overcast day. The rushing children were hell cut loose in a vast pinball table, a colliding, and banging, and totaling of hits and misses, thrusts and plungings to a grand and as yet unforeseen total of brutalities.Who said childhood was the best time of life? When in reality it was the most terrible, the most merciless era, the barbaric time when there were no police to protect you, only parents preoccupied with themselves and their taller world.” But only this morning his sister Carol, who had occupied the empty space across the breakfast table from him each day for six months, quietly broached the subject. What an interesting web you weave, Shemilt! The synopsis definitely says best when it comes to Big Little Lies feels because those are definitely all there! These parents are the worst. I mean, they don't mean to be but they're so busy dealing with their own issues to really pay attention to their children. Then again, what's really right or wrong - every one has a different parenting technique. I don't even want to blame them *too* much even though there are definitely some that I just wanna slap silly.