Playground is a 2022 Splatterpunk book created by Aron Beauregard.
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?
Tropes:
- Abusive Parents: Geraldine Borden. There's very little she HASN'T done to Rock.
- Greg Matthews views his children as useless unless they're good at sports and barely even cares when Kip falls into a meat grinder.
- Caroline Clark keeps Donnie on a leash and burns him with cigarettes. She also cut his tongue out because he talked too much.
- Acid Pool: The merry-go-round trap utilizes one, threatening the kids with a brutal demise should they lose their grip on the ride. Isaac and Bobby both meet their ends here.
- Anyone Can Die: Don't get attached to anyone in the story. Six out of the eight children die and all of the adult cast sans the Grimley parents also die.
- Asshole Victim:
- Bobby is a pretty rotten kid from the beginning even before his behavior in the playground where he is responsible for the deaths of Sadie and Isaac.
- Greg Matthews actually begins to treat the playground like a game and cares very little about the danger his young children are in.
- Caroline Clark treats Donnie less than human having him own a leash and burning him with cigarettes. She was later beaten to death by Rock before the games start.
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Isaac and Sadie have a pretty rough relationship as siblings going into the playground, thanks to the latter's consistent tormenting of her older brother. After surviving the swing trap together, the two reconcile, and put their past squabbles behind them.
- Bittersweet Ending: Rock stops the game before the last trap, frees the parents and kids and kills Geraldine and Fuchs. But Molly and Tom Grimley have lost all three of their kids, and Tanya and Donnie are now orphans (though Greg and Caroline weren't really much of a loss) with all of Tanya's brothers also dead. Rock is also too injured to go on and opts to spend his final moments playing on the playground, where he bleeds out as the four survivors drive off.
- Bond One-Liner: Rock delivers one before he kills Geraldine.Geraldine: But— But I'm your mother!Rock: And I'm a motherfucker.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Where to start?
- Sam Grimley gets her leg blown off and is crushed to death by the collapsing ceiling with only her left arm intact.
- Kip Matthews is knocked head first into a meat grinder and what's left of him is splattered on Bobby.
- Sadie Grimley is stabbed multiple times by Bobby and then used as a human skateboard on the slide trap (also causing her spine to crack). Her body was completely shredded as a result.
- Bobby Matthews and Isaac Grimley are both melted in an unknown toxin (presumably acid).
- CJ Matthews has his head sliced apart by a propeller after passing out from his injuries.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Rock is basically Geraldine's slave, who the latter abuses physically, emotionally, sexually and mentally.
- Deadly Game: The rooms are deadly versions of games and rides you see on normal playgrounds, such as slides, hopscotch, swings, spring rides, monkey bars, merry-go-rounds, see-saws, and rope climbers.
- Final Girl: Tanya is the kindest and most resourceful of the group and is the only girl to make it out alive. Though she does manage to help Donnie through. With regards to the parents, Molly Grimley also survives and is by far the kindest hearted mother in the book
- Forced to Watch: The parents are up in a viewing room where they are made to watch the kids go through the playground. They are each allowed to speak to the kids on the intercom for ten seconds but beyond that they're restrained in front of the screen.
- Girlish Pigtails: Sadie is depicted as having these in the illustrations.
- Groin Attack: Geraldine receives this from Rock during their fight at the end.
- Hate Sink: Oh so many examples...
- Geraldine Borden, full stop. She racks up a lengthy list of heinous actions over the course of the story, including but not limited to abusing Rock in any way possible, having innocent children lured to her twisted playground, forcing the parents to watch as their kids die in horrific ways, and attempting to murder Rock herself in the climax.
- Adolpho Fuchs was a former Nazi scientist whose experiments were considered too extreme even for others working alongside him. Naturally, Geraldine recruited him to aid in her nefarious plans, and is just as depraved as his boss.
- Caroline Clark is quite possibly the worst parent in the entire story. Despite Greg's abusive behavior, as well as coaching Bobby to kill two other children in the playground, and even attempting to kill Tom himself, Caroline has done so much to Donnie that he hardly even cares about returning home, shown by his reckless actions on the playground.
- Speaking of Greg, Mr. Matthews also displays extremely villainous behavior, from parental favoritism and emotional abuse, all the way to attempted murder.
- Heroic Sacrifice: In the merry-go-round trap, Isaac, the last remaining child of the Grimley family, gives up his life in order to take Bobby down too, and prevent him from harming the other kids.
- Herr Doktor: Fuchs was a Nazi scientist.
- Jawbreaker: How Rock kills Greg.
- Karmic Death: Geraldine.
- Last of His Kind: Donnie automatically qualifies as this, as he is the only child of the Clark family. Isaac Grimley and Tanya Matthews also become this for their families after their siblings die, with Isaac also perishing in the merry-go-round trap.
- Lovable Jock: CJ is the most athletic kid of group and also the most selfless
- Nice Girl:
- Tanya takes care of Donnie during the game and generally tries to help the rest of the group.
- Molly Grimley is genuinely concerned for all the kids and does whatever she can to help them.
- Parental Favoritism: CJ is clearly Greg's favorite because he's the most athletic of his kids (though it's implied Tanya is actually very athletic, she's just ignored because she's a girl). However, this favoritism is a double-edged sword as the pressure constantly crushes him.
- Taking You with Me: Isaac pulls this on Bobby on the merry-go-round trap.
- The Heart: CJ. This is even lampshaded when he chooses to ride on the heart spring ride.
- The Load: Bobby literally does nothing but hinder the group by being antagonistic towards Isaac, or try to take charge of the situation while getting help from everyone else.
- The Smart Guy:
- Tanya, Geraldine notes from her viewing room that Tanya is the brains of the group. It's likely the group wouldn't have made it far without her there to decipher the clues. This is also lampshaded by her spring ride being a brain.
- Isaac, the stereotypical nerd, manages to correctly deduce when it's safe to use the slides without getting shredded by the saws.
- The Unfavorite: Bobby is Greg's least favorite, being unathletic and not good at baseball. This leads to him taking some very extreme actions in the playground to try and gain his dad's approval. Like killing Sadie and Isaac, even though the latter brought him down with him.
- Tomboy: Tanya shows shades of this. Despite her mothers wishes, she would rather be a swimmer than a cheerleader.
- We Hardly Knew Ye:
- Lacey Matthews is unceremoniously killed off by the chair restraints before the game properly starts.
- We get to know a little more about her than the other mentioned characters but Caroline Clark dies before the games even begin by Rock's hand.
- Sam had little characterization and was killed in the hangman game.
- Wise Beyond Their Years: Both Tanya, CJ and Isaac show a lot of maturity in the playground.
- Would Hurt a Child: Geraldine Borden is an equal opportunity monster.
