I hope everyone had a fun, safe, happy New Year. I took another trip to The Playground for mine. Child of Divorce is the disturbing prequel to Aron Beauregard’s splatterpunk hit I didn’t know I want or needed.
The year is 1993 and Geraldine Borden’s macabre magnum opus is under construction. But after a heated swing with young Matthew Cookson went awry, Geraldine and her compatriot, Fuchs, see there’s a road ahead. In the meantime, she ordered Fuchs to build a separate structure, a prototype, ordering her broken adapted son Rock, and Fuchs to abduct a unlucky set of children. Confused, hunted by a nightmare with little explanation, who will survive the first Playground, and what will be be left of them?
Prequels are normally cursed to be inferior to the originals. Sometimes forced, sometimes bloated by needless explanations, sometimes they are decent stories twisted and mangled to fit a mold. Child of Divorce actually avoids all these pitfalls. The book improves immensely from the first. My biggest complaint from the first, the structuring, has been smoothed out, flowing much more naturally. The children themselves are flushed out a lot more and written more three dimensionally; I was much more invested in these kids and their story arcs, feeling truly saddened and impacted when they met a horrible fate. I loved the set up. Mildred, who hunts the children and keeps them moving, truly freaked me out and I tip my hat to Beauregard for making a stalker enemy that is truly nightmare fuel. The book stands really good as a standalone, only nodding to the first a few times. It is a quick read that fits perfectly, not being too short or long. The only downside I can think of was some of the games didn’t resonate with me as much and the dodgeball room utterly confused the hell out of me towards the end. In the end, I loved this book. Hell, it’s one of my favorite prequels. Can I recommend it? Yes, but do your research because there is a massive set of triggers in this book- if the cover upsets you, this book isn’t for you, and like last time, it is a scene from the book and there are disturbing pictures inside. Personally, I loved it, and I think it was captivating, grim, creepy as hell horror story I’d recommend, especially if you loved the first. May the gaming gods bring you glory.
Savior Gaming 