Let's Go Play at the Adams

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It refuses to give its readers comfort or a safety net, instead forcing them through its twisted human interactions.

One such book from this release has morphed from a known book of misogynistic themes to an almost mythical level of desire. Does someone acquire the rights and give it a grand re-release with a new hardcover, a new foreword and some essay’s from horror heavyweights about the impact the book has? However, I don't think I ever expected it would still have such a strong impact on my thoughts and feelings about 25 years later. Each kid has their own horrid agenda and reasoning behind what they do and we are stuck in their heads for the majority of the time only leaving them to get sucked into Barbara's nightmarish vision as we are made to go through everything she goes through no matter how gruesome, humiliating and sickening. I have not read the book, so I can’t comment on whether its better/similar/worse than Let’s Go Play, but I have seen a number of people relate the two to having similar themes and scenes.As Matt Hayward tweeted recently; “Bad people doing and saying bad things in books is not an endorsement of those bad things. more importantly, I know how the world can be a cruel and relentless place; I've seen the horrible things it can inflict on people. But the McVeigh children threaten them multiple times and have no intention to stop the game until the inevitable ending. At first it seems like a game to the kids, but as the captivity continues, they find themselves getting bored of just having a prisoner and think up fun new games to play with their “toy” while Barbara tries desperately to appeal to their humanity and escape.

It has been noted that after his death three other novels in progress were found, but as of yet there appears to be no push to have them released/finished and none of them were tied into ‘Let’s Go Play…’ Mr Johnson has become enigmatic in that not much information is fully known, but some details have trickled out. Hendrix revisits a lot of the popular horror fiction of the 70's and 80s', and he gives Let's Go Play at the Adams' an entire 2 page spread. In 2022, Centipede Press issued a hardback edition, with a limited 500 copies signed by Stefan Dziemianowicz and Dan Rempel, who wrote a new introduction.Heel–Face Turn: Bobby is turned inside-out by guilt and ultimately redeems himself for what many would consider an irredeemable act. I found it interesting how well Johnson had John justify it mentally that by raping Barbara he was helping himself become a better man to the future women in his life. In Bobby's portion of the epilogue, a girl attempts to invoke this by pretending to drown; he ends up drowning himself when trying to save her. Maybe the most scary thing about both is that they exist as powerful and celebrated works because they hold a mirror up to the evils that lie so close to the surface of society which, but for a final 'No' would(and possibly do) become reality.

The horrendous act within the book appears to have been used as a device for the author to discuss the difficulties of peer pressure and as I mentioned before, what happens when someone doesn’t stand up to the group. Most ten-year-olds want to be the centre of attention from their babysitter and want them to be played with as well as involved. Because we’re being shown something terrifying or disturbing or just kinda squicky, there’s a distancing that authors do, whether it’s the injection of black humor, the killer being a masked unstoppable monster, or simply the evil torturer being so horrifyingly evil that they couldn’t possibly exist. I just found the writing style a little disjoined at times, I think it would have benefitted from better editing.Once they realize they have full control of Barbara, and that she is completely unable to escape, the game escalates, and pretty much goes exactly where you would expect it to. As a whole, many adults truly overlook a child's capacity to understand and interpret the world around them, and in doing so, tend to belittle and diminish that individual view without realizing it. Over the last few years and with the boost from Grady Hendrix and his release ‘Paperbacks From Hell’ there has been a resurgence in the classic books of horror, originating from the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s. Damsel in Distress: Barbara is probably the most extreme version of this trope in existence, since she is held captive and imperiled the entire book starting from the very beginning.