#Review Playground

[lovesick-girly]

the virgin suicides book review

author: jeffrey eugenides

genre: literary fiction, psychological drama

published: 5th april 1993

stars: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

synopsis: the lisbon sisters, five enigmatic girls, live under the strict control of their overprotective parents. their tragic beauty and mystique become an obsession for the neighbourhood boys, as the sisters' suicides loom over the town, unraveling the quiet suburban facade.

themes: isolation, the fragility of adolescence, obsession, suburban decay, the american dream, memory and nostalgia, death and innocence

fav quotes:

“That girl didn't want to die. She just wanted out of that house.”

“We could never understand why the girls cared so much about being mature, or why they felt compelled to compliment each other, but sometimes, after one of us had read a long portion of the diary out loud, we had to fight back the urge to hug one another or tell each other how pretty we were. We felt the imprisonment of being a girl, the way it made your mind active and dreamy, and how you ended up knowing which colors went together. We knew that the girls were our twins, that we allexisted in space like animals with identical skins, and that they knew everything about us though we couldn'y fathom them at all. We knew finally that the girls were really woman in diquise, that they understood love even death, and that our job was merely to create the noise that seemed to fascinate them.”

“It didn't matter in the end how old they had been, or that they were girls, but only that we had loved them, and that they hadn't heard us calling, still do not hear us, up here in the tree house, with our thinning hair and soft bellies, calling them out of those rooms where they went to be alone for all time, alone in suicide, which is deeper than death, and where we will never find the pieces to put them back together.”

“What lingered after them was not life, which always overcomes natural death, but the most trivial list of mundane facts: a clock ticking on a wall, a room dim at noon, and the outrageousness of a human being thinking only of herself.”

“We knew that Cecilia had killed herself because she was a misfit, because the beyond called to her, and we knew that her sisters, once abandoned, felt her calling from that place, too. ”

my thoughts/review:

the virgin suicides by jeffrey eugenides is, to me, the tragedy of being female. the novel explores how the lisbon sisters are misunderstood and objectified by the boys in their neighbourhood, who reduce them to mere sexual fantasies, failing to recognise them as human. this inability to see the sisters as complex individuals highlights the disconnect that ultimately leads to their death and why we, as the readers, will never truly know why they did it. despite the boys' attempts to understand—reading cecilia's diary, observing their lives, and even communicating with them—they remain incapable of seeing the sisters as anything more than sexual objects. their experiences and emotions are ultimately rendered invisible by the boys' objectification.

what i found most powerful about the novel is the way this detachment isn’t just something the boys experience; it’s something we, as readers, experience too. it’s tragic that we will never truly know the sisters, and that adds to the sense of mystery and sorrow throughout the novel. i really loved eugenides’ prose—his style is beautiful and haunting, which makes the tragedy even more striking. the themes of female invisibility and objectification are so layered, and despite how sad and dark it is, the novel still has an eerie beauty to it.

[slicedseafoam]

MADE IN ABYSS: JUDGE THE FAKE REVIEW!

Overall 4/10. I came into it with really high expectations but it really disappointed me. Don’t get me wrong there are some fun parts but the bad ones are too big to overlook. Full review under the cut because it contains spoilers. Keep in mind I’m just a random teenager on the internet so take this with a grain of salt lol

First things first, AI images. Almost every background in the game is AI, and because the non poker parts of the game are in a visual novel style there’s going to be AI on your screen 99% of the time you’re not in a match.

The other part that icks me is the story. I have defeated one witch (boss) so far and have met another. The first had some weird lines about eating the main character or whatever, but I looked past it since I thought it would be specific to them. The thing that first really set me off though was her punishment. (For context in the game the first witch challenges you to an all out abyss match, where the loser faces a punishment. If I remember correctly the punishments are deadly)

Can you guess what their punishment was? Well I couldn’t. It was s really sexual force feeding scene where she was stuffed with food and a hose of liquid chocolate until her clothes popped. Not the mention her expressions jesus christ… it made me really uncomfortable and I skipped it before it finished.

The second witch is also fetishized, although she falls into the “mommy” character trope. At the start of the second chapter, she made the MC go on a mommy-daughter date while referring to her as a kid the whole time. At the end there was even a CG of the MC’s face in her boobs?? You can draw that but can’t draw backgrounds??? Ugh

Now onto the praise! The actual poker match sections are really fun. I really enjoy the combinations you can make with your skills, plus Texas hold-’em poker is already a fun game in itself. It feels like just the right combination that it doesn’t feel unfair with enough luck elements to keep you on edge. I just wish more of the game was that though, 70% is the visual novel sections. (And all the joy that has to offer…)

Although I hate the witches a lot, and the npc’s have no personality at all, the main two characters have a nice design and personality! Not game of the year by any means but it’s nice. I love Asuha’s design especially.

Overall I do not recommend this game. It’s only 15 bucks (US dollars) so if you really want to buy it go for it but I would advise against getting your hopes high so you don’t get let down like I did. I really hope Yunyun Syndrome doesn’t follow this trend as I have been really looking forward to it for a while. :(

[sysig]

Hey, hey! RnR not requested! (Patreon)

[dateamonster]

the time i went to a local horror con and aron beauregard author of booktok infamous splatterpunk/extreme horror novel "playground" was there and i was like if i make eye contact with this man hes going to know i pirated his book and rated it 1.5 stars and started walking faster

[underdog1224557]

So I listened Aaron Beauregard’s book Playground a couple days ago, absolutely loved it. I decided to listen to The Slob by the same author and I’m really not as into it. In fact I kind of hate it.

What I want in a splatterpunk book is PLOT! I want comedy, drama, gore, and a HAPPY ending! Like yeah this book is just a woman goes into a house, gets assulted a lot, and leaves…great for telling me? I don’t care! I want stuff to happen!! That’s why I liked playground so much, not only was there the drama of the kids situation, but there was also the adults trying to “crack” Rock and make him admit that he essentially hates what he is doing. The part with Rock was actually much more interesting to me than the kids. I know what will happen with the kids, but with rock and the adults there’s more of an internal struggle than external. Although I will say during the “skateboarding��� scene I audibly was SCREAMING!!

Again I want a book that will not only make me audibly gasp but make me invested in the characters. I love splatterpunk but I feel like so much of it is just rape and murder with nothing else, I want a STORY to read!! Not just some case file of what happened to someone.

Anyway:

Playground by Aron Baeregard I would give a 10/10

Slob by Aron Beauregard I didn’t actually finish becuase I didn’t like it, but I would give it a 3/10

Ps. also haha if anyone knows good splatterpunk books with a dash of humor maybe u could reccomend me some idk maybe if you want to

[meganlynnhostetler]

My signed copy of Playground by Aron Beauregard has arrived! You guys have no idea how obsessed I’ve been with this book since I discovered it. I don’t consider myself a reader, but when I heard about this novel, I knew I instantly needed to have it! It’s truly groundbreaking, limit-pushing content that’s perfect for any horror fan craving new material. I never knew horror could transcend literature until I dived into this author’s beautifully twisted mind. I can’t wait to continue my collection! 🖤

📸 Instagram: @meganlynnhostetler

[readingtowritedawn]

I honeslty rated this a 2.5 but added up for the star raiting stickers on canva lol! I would honeslty warn anyone going into Playground there is for me a lot of uncessary things added, that do not add to the story in the slightes but to make you go What? -The Hell! Though if you like the Splatterpunk genre as a whole and can look past some of its major questionable red flags I think you could find the good within the tainted horors.

[mythos05reviews]

Not my traditional book review

Regret reading playground. I wasn't even scared.

Majority of the time this was my reaction:

Spent the majority of the time criticizing the traps and trying to remember if the characters were important. Kudos to the author for their trigger warning though.

[mdhwrites]

Arcane Episode 1 Review: A Playground Indeed

I have a LOT to talk about with this because Arcane is an amazing beast even in just its first episode so I’m splitting it up into parts so if you want to skip something, look for the bold text.

1. A Distinction to Be Made (Preamble in how I see this show)

2. Welcome to The Playground (Overall impression and tone)

3. A Crew to Run With (Side Characters)

4. Our Champions (Main Characters)

5. The Personality of Animation

A Distinction to Be Made

So I often worry with shows I’ve heard literally nothing bad that the hype is going to get to me. I’ll be primed to be harsh on it because my brain is hoping to see what other people see in it. It’s just a problem with my brain.

This was not one of those times because this series is already living up to its reputation... Though I’ll actually be critical first in saying that that’s not surprising. I don’t know if this is commonly true for Netflix series but a lot of people are going to judge this against Saturday Morning cartoons or normal broadcast stuff.

That opening sequence with Vander, Vi and Powder tells you this isn’t the same case. It is a confident choice to start so somber, to build pure atmosphere for the sort of hell that used to be this place to contrast it later against the struggling but surviving Lanes that we see later. It’s also one you’d NEVER get out of pretty much anything for broadcast television and dripping with enough money in five minutes to fund probably an entire episode of something like Amphibia.

It is prestige television like something like the Walking Dead so I’m going to try and not compare it to other things like The Owl House, Danny Phantom, etc. like that. It clearly is meant to be hard serialized, more serious, more impressive, etc. like that. I also don’t say this to knock it but it’s an important distinction versus a lot of its peers... Because it’s animated.

Anyone who comes to Arcane wanting a fun, PG-13 animated show is possibly going to be turned away just like those who hear it’s animated but serious might get turned away too. Luckily for me, I’m here for both sides so this pilot was FUCKING AWESOME.

Welcome to the Playground

Now I did compare it to prestige television but I want to start with the fact that unlike your Game of Thrones or Walking Deads, this first episode’s title lives up to it. This is a blast, in more ways than one. The overall energy, after the dreariness of the beginning, is a mix of excitement, tension and energy which is EXACTLY what it should be for an episode introducing us to young criminals trying to stretch their wings and find their place.

I’m trying to stick to this part being overall impression though so I won’t get into too many specifics. Part of what sells all of this though is the breath through the world of Piltover and the Lanes. The dynamic is nothing new but the episode is happy to really showcase each part’s different wonders as well as their dangers, despite how little time we get in Piltover. It makes the contrasts all the stronger and the threats all the more real.

But it never abandons wonder to wallow. This is what allows it to frankly keep up a positive feeling throughout the first episode. That things will workout, even as set backs and issues come up. This was just one bad job after all. What’s the worst that can happen?

Which I know enough to have had a rock forming in my stomach as the show began making it clearer and clearer that there was never a way for this job to go right. Even without light spoilers though, you can tell. It is curdling the sweet, warm milk that it’s trying to lull you to sleep with. That for as tough as Vi is, as capable her crew and how dominant Vander is over his domain, things are turning.

But the show is wise enough to wait. It has things to introduce after all like:

A Crew to Run With

So I won’t actually get into Vi and Powder yet, despite knowing them to be the main characters. Frankly, I think the fact that I can make this section at all though is a VERY good thing. The fact that this isn’t going to be just one line for these guys is even better.

Vi’s two friends are great. They feel like a play on the big dumb guy and small smart guy but they don’t play it entirely straight. The larger guy isn’t just a fat joke like one might expect or a liability because of his weight. Instead, they acknowledge the fact that vikings had very similar builds so while there’s a small touch of him just obliterating a cupcake, you know he puts in the work to at least mostly work it off. He is also the muscle and strength of the crew, alongside the heart. He appears to probably be about as capable as Vi in a fight but not nearly as ruthless. He frankly doesn’t seem to have the stomach to go quite as hard as Vi, nor the drive needed to be the leader, though the caution to be a great advisor.

The rogue of their party has his charm too. Not as good in a fight but more squirrely and scrappy. He’s also got more skills than the others, things that make him more invaluable and that has gone STRAIGHT to his head. He doesn’t see his fuck ups after all or his weaknesses because he always is justified on the team because he’s the one who can actually work the gadgets they need. He does need one proper kick in the ass to get his head on straight but he’s young and pride and ego are all too common for kids.

Vander might have one of the best introductions I’ve ever seen. “Don’t threaten the one who poors the drinks” is such a great line and honestly, the whole exchange is incredible. He is never actually nice to the traders beyond asking if they need anything but the VA does an incredible job delivering threats and joking barbs in such a way that it takes a while for you to realize just how upset he is with these two. When he says “You’ll get used to it” is when the sweetness drops as he makes it clear that this is how it works. You either leave or... get used to it.

It only gets more interesting though as we see him with the kids and especially Vi. You can see the contrast of the man who lived a life that led to him wearing iron gauntlets and beating an enforcer’s face in and the change required for him to now have a family and run the lanes as its boss. He’s not exactly a criminal lord but he can’t live by our sort of morality. The sort of morality that says one blown up building is enough to start a crusade, but he also can’t be so cutthroat as to sell out his own kind, especially his own kin.

A lot of others get good moments, like us learning Ekko is inventive and smart, or just the incredible impression that the villain leaves in his limited time, but nothing I can say too much of at the moment. I do love the fact that even accidental information does push the villain to show sympathy... But only with veiled sympathy. It’s a good way to show the act he might put up to get people to be loyal to him but also the wheels within wheels that he’s turning so as to be ready for whatever is to come.

Our Champions

Just the one shot of them overlooking the Lanes would tell you that these are your main characters: Powder and Vi. Even if you don’t know they’re Legends, you could tell these two and their relationship is going to be a major part of this, though the theme song does spoil that some too, at least once the timeskip that is to come happens.

The two simply have both too distinct of designs and too much importance to each other while not having any of the death flags someone like Vander might (though to its credit, I actually don’t know if Vander is about to bite it and the show hasn’t been too blunt on if that will or won’t happen.) With that said, anyone who thought Powder was the innocent set up to die... I wouldn’t blame them.

Powder is not bad but she suffers from writing that happens a lot with younger characters. Because she is less skilled and able than the rest, the episode centers a LOOOOT of what’s happening with her around that conflict. Pretty much all of the dialogue with her is about how she has a lot of growing left to do before she’s on par with those older than her. It could get a little tedious but I found it mostly fine but that has to do a lot more with Vi and Powder together than Powder by herself.

Not to say Powder doesn’t do right by herself regardless. Her inventiveness is well documented, her frustrations with those inventions but also her love for them is too. One can easily note that when she talks about them not working, she doesn’t discard them or even stop making them. It implies that she blames herself, not her tools which is VERY dangerous for an inventor that young because it means one of the biggest hurdles to learning is gone already. It effectively guarantees that she’ll only get better because she’s ready to get better.

She contrasts well as a more innocent figure though because while she’s willing to effectively make a grenade, it’s only when push comes to shove. It’s not her first instinct and you could absolutely imagine a different timeline where she grows up in a place less violent and so her gadgets wouldn’t be geared towards violence. It’s also just good to show that it does take time in this world for the innocence in someone to be crushed. That it’s not so cruel and scary so as to make someone like her unable to function.

It does cause a bit of a manic pixie feeling from her but it’s reigned in well by the lack of energy she has. She’s still mostly quiet as someone who doesn’t fight or isn’t ready for danger needs to be ready to hide. Again, she contrasts well with almost every other character we see.

This is especially true with Vi. Vi doesn’t talk a lot without a point. She definitely has gang leader energy to her and not in a bad way. She is working to be like her adopted father someday where she’s ready to run everything. This is both in her gruff attitude and her fists... But also in the kindness she’s learned from Vander.

She has a well of kindness and wisdom that is beyond her years. Frankly, it’s easy to see why the other kids look up to her and it’s not just because she can kick ass. She has a confidence that is infectious so when she says she believes you’re ready, you think it too. She’s also able to connect and make her point clear, whether it be through kindness to her sister or roughness to the dumbass on her team.

She really does save the wallowing that could be with Powder. The fact that the two are genuinely open to each other stops a misunderstanding plot and let it actually lead to a really sweet moment about bad days that just hit so well. But... This isn’t her only side. The other side I connect all too well with as someone who got told he was mature for his age.

An anger. This belief that if you are more mature, so smart and so talented, that you ought to be better. Ought to be somewhere other than where you are. You shouldn’t have to deal with fools or scraps or watch the popular kids get to break the rules that always feel so suffocating to you. That anger is starting to form in Vi and it could easily get out of control.

It actually makes a fun parallel to the angry enforcer who gets in Vander’s face. That man very much so looks at the people here, people he sees as skirting the rules and hurting others, and wants an excuse to do something about it. Meanwhile, Vi sees the topsiders ignoring their plight, feigned ignorance making them as culpable to their problems as if they were punching them in the face themselves and wants to do something about it. Wants to release that anger somehow. She doesn’t have the tools or smarts to do it yet though, which makes her sister’s potential all the scarier.

The Personality of Animation

The last thing I want to touch on is just the fact that the animation for this is SO GOOD. This is absolutely one of those shows where you could turn off the volume and still get much of the point of what’s going on. The expressions are incredible, from the big ticket emotions to subtle acting moments that would be hard for even the best actors to pull off and that is not easy for an animator to replicate. Just body language is incredibly on point though, like how Vi sits when Vander wants to talk. Literally the way she sits just screams “I know what you’re going to say so get it over with” because she doesn’t want this talk and thinks it’s going to be pointless because she’s a dumb tweenager who thinks she’s got the world figured out.

In general, EVERYTHING is dripping with personality like this. No two people do something in quite the same way. There is so much care and attention to detail that you really only get with movie animation nowadays, and not even every movie, even from big studios. Not all of them are paying this much attention. A lot of the personality I got the characters came from design and actions and what you can just read on their face and it’s just really impressive.

The fact that it’s BEAUTIFUL while doing this is just the cherry on top. It’s also more grounded and more adult than most kid’s shows in its writing and animation without losing the fun of animation. Honestly, and I know some might disagree with me on this, I’d love it if people took this as a sign that you don’t have to be boring in order to be more adult when it comes to animation. I see trailers for shows like “Fired on Mars” and sure, it looks like it could be fun... But it also LOOKS boring as hell. Like yep, I sure have seen this sort of stiff adult animation a bunch of times.

The fact that Arcane is so ALIVE with its animation is a just a fucking treat, though part of that is absolutely because Riot has the money to back this thing up. They’re not making these as cash grabs so they’re going to make sure that if everything else fails, the animation doesn’t.

And man... They’ve had well over a decade to refine these characters, regions, world, concepts, etc. and I’m really happy that despite their genre of games not demanding it, they don’t seem to have been sitting on their hands. You can tell this is the sort of project that can only be realized so well by having both confidence and polish that takes just a lot, and I mean a LOOOT of time.

And frankly, I feel a bit bad that I hadn’t given it my own time sooner. Hopefully it keeps ticking on as strongly as this first forty minutes.

===========

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead, If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

And finally a Twitter you can follow too!

[the-chaos-goose]

I’m gonna fucking cry

[thebanterboys]

My review of the newest video Karl uploaded on his main channel!

Okay so its the second video on Karl’s channel that takes place in GTA instead of Minecraft so I assume GTA is gonna become a staple of his. The concept is basically Mr. Beast gaming’s video titled “100 assassins versus 10 real cops”. Hide and seek in GTA. He has Nolan, Walli, Purpled, and himself running away from one hundred other players who are trying to kill them in GTA. No prize is given.

All that said, I wasn’t really engaged with this video tbh but that might have more to do with it being a concept I’ve already seen before. Funniest part of the video was when Karl said to Walli “You’re a crustacean on this planet!” lmao But I found the ending very anticlimactic

Oh and I took this screenshot of Karl with his nails painted the ace flag :)

Anyway, I am looking forward to the Star Wars video that he is gonna upload next (and I know Foolish is in that one too :D) Hopefully the two months working on it shows.

[the-acid-pear]

i'd really read tender is the flesh as a gestures broadly to self an horror loving argentinian. Like i feel its my Duty. I just feel there must be themes tied to the author's nationality that an outsider might not be able to get like I could, kinda like it happened w When Evil Lurks. I mean fact alone its an argentinian woman making an horror book about meat is very telling bc our society is very meat based (elbiotipo has a great post about it just listing off all the ways it comes up) so it feels so significant for her to be writing it. My biggest fear was the book would be preachy too like a bit sign going DO NOT EAT MEAT EATING MEAT WILL SEND YOU TO HELL but according to Jules Dapper that's not the case. So I am curious on it now

[literarylondonhq]

Passing on the Animal Farm Pelt!

Animal Farm by George Orwell – The Playground Theatre, London. In full disclosure, I know the Director and adaptor of George Orwell’s ‘Animal Farm’, Guy Masterson. He’s presented four of my plays at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival over the years. He is the sole actor in my version of Charles Dickens ‘A Christmas Carol.’ wowing the critics, appearing off-Broadway in New York, Europe and touring the…

[dateamonster]

i saw on your storygraph that youve read Playground by Aron Beauregard and gave it 1.5 stars. a coworker told me about the book and i was debating if i should read or if it would just be mental torment. what were your thoughts on the book?

first of all yayy i love when people check out my storygraph! now about playground, i should give a sorta disclaimer that i try not to rate books predominantly based on like my own enjoyment of them or agreement with the text as much as on how well i think the author achieved what they seemed to be trying to do. i didnt hate the book. at least, ive seen a lot of people responding to it with this sentiment of like "wtf a book like this should never have been made" and i seriously disagree with that. that said, i just don't think its very good lol.

imo it falls into the trap a lot of indie extreme horror writing does where it feels so in love with its own gratuitous grossness and shock value that it loses a lot of its impact as a whole. the writings not bad, most of the time, but you can sorta tell which scenes were the author really straining to disturb the audience as much as possible, and its not like it was entirely unaffective. just... mostly.

storywise... there were a lot of characters and most of them got very little development, especially the ones that actually stood to be somewhat interesting. it rushes pretty quick into the horror so theres not really any sense of anticipation, and from there its just kind of beat after beat after beat with no escalation or sense of resolution. there are aspects i find interesting- a multi level saw trap styled after a massive playground is a really fun concept imo, and the dynamics of one particular family make me wish it was kinda just about that family so the story could go deeper into their unique disfunctions, but the end result didnt really do it for me.

i think theres a lot of attention payed to the more shocking, grotesque aspects of the book in an "omg what did i just read aaa get the eye bleach" kinda way, and thats fair lol its pretty intense, but imo that discussion kinda distracts from the fact that its just really not a very good story. id probably check out a future book of arons because i think theres potential for growth but playground was not it for me.

thats my review! if it sounds like something youd be interested in evaluating for yourself, go for it! imo i dont think theres anything to be lost by reading a even bad book for yourself. but like definitely worth looking up the content warnings if you do.

[moxogeni]

just finished Playground by Beauregard. I fucking loved it. amazing book, stellar writing. not my favorite, but definitely up there. 8/10. would recommened