I get wanting to give your kids some freedom, especially when you have 2+ acres of woods to run around in, but you can’t do that with a two year old! Tweens/early teens, not a big deal, but they also shouldn’t have to keep a constant eye on younger siblings.

I will say that it was interesting to watch how the mystery played out. I figured it out early, but one character made it especially intriguing! Too bad, more of this character wasn’t featured. Overall, I can't say I would recommend The Playground. It has some interesting moments, but the narrative style combined with vile characters makes this a miss for me. His mind rebelled. The smell and look of the place were still vivid. That writhing world with its atmosphere of cuts and beaten noses, the air as full o I had my theories as to who might be behind everything and even with all the twists and turns, it turned out I was correct, but this in no way detracted from my enjoyment of this book. I thought for sure I was wrong and while I wasn't, I still didn't know the why. This was such a dark, clever book and I know for sure I will be reading more from this author.He heard the voice and turned to see who had called him. There on top a metal slide, a boy of some nine years was waving. "Hello, Charlie . . .!" By the end though, I was riveted as the true nature of the characters was revealed. I don’t often read twisty plots, so it was fun to go through the unraveling process. It’s fair to say I wasn’t completely surprised by the ending, but it didn’t play out exactly as I expected. My Rating Though I could feel his pain, the father was a bit of a mess and I felt sorry for him and the kid. Let the kid be a kid, I wanted to scream, but damn if that man listened to me!

Ever wonder what happens to your children when you aren’t paying close enough attention? The Playground is a chilling reminder that kids are capable of more than we could ever dream. Over the course of a summer, three families develop a close friendship. While the parents are bonding, hiding secrets, and having affairs, the children are left to themselves. Some of the subject matter, especially with domestic violence, is too vividly described for me and made those parts difficult to stomach.The story jumps between multiple perspectives and I have to admit I found this a little confusing in the beginning. There are a lot of characters and I couldn’t exactly figure out whose kid belonged to who for the first little bit, but once I did it became a little more clear. This book really kind of made me think about people’s priorities and made me put myself in these character’s shoes. Some actions are a little more forgivable than others, I’m still a little angry with some of these characters. A twisty story with a disturbing ending that still has me reeling.

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.”Playground by Aron Beauregard is a gripping and unsettling horror novel that takes readers on a terrifying journey into a nightmarish playground. The story revolves around three low-income families who are offered a substantial sum of money to participate in an unusual experiment. They are invited to Geraldine Borden’s cliffside estate, where they must allow their children to test out her revolutionary playground equipment. I loved the title for this book, The Playground, because it is the sort of metaphor that worked on many levels. And no, it isn’t a physical playground the way you would think of it. But what sort of playground games do you think might arise in a book about three couples and their secrets and deception? What do kids get up to when left to their own devices? Who becomes the alpha? 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