Playground: Child of Divorce by Aron Beauregard on August 15, 2025
Genres: Fiction / Horror
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EVERY PLAYGROUND HAS A PROTOTYPE Geraldine Borden has realized that there’s one thing her bottomless wealth can’t grant her: children. When an attempt to remedy her infertility fails, she’s left with nothing but rage, jealousy, and a murderous idea. She aims to take a place that all children adore and transform it into a twisted arena of carnage. And while her true masterpiece is still under construction, she seeks to entertain herself with a crude prototype filled with barbaric backyard games. Several children from a small New England city have gone missing under mysterious circumstances. This group of kids-who once believed fractured family and teen angst were their toughest battles-now have a whole new set of problems. With no parents to guide them, will the children thrust into Geraldine’s nightmare world have the grit and determination to escape? Or will they fall victim to their sadistic captor? The much-anticipated prequel to Aron Beauregard’s controversial book Playground revisits some of the author’s most reprehensible characters. It includes 18 interior illustrations and pushes the limits of incendiary literature even further.
Playground: Child of Divorce by Aron Beauregard is the follow-up prequel to the original Playground. Set in 1993, Geraldine Borden hates children with a passion because she wasn’t able to have any of her own. So much so that she takes pleasure in torturing them and watching them die. With the assistance of former Nazi scientist Fuchs, she creates the prototype for a playground that will let her live out her sinister desires.
Child of Divorce addresses some of the critiques I had regarding the first one, primarily with the plot. For me, I felt like Playground’s plot was pretty shallow. It was entertaining, but I just didn’t connect with or sympathize with any of the characters. The children were super annoying, so I found most of it pretty hilarious.
Child of Divorce, on the other hand, hits differently. Playground was more about Geraldine and Rock, whereas Child of Divorce was more about the children. The kids in this book felt like they could have been my friends, or even me. It wasn’t just all the references to things we loved in the ‘90s, but also the kids were written with soul. The way we’re introduced to each of them allowed me to build that connection I was missing from Playground. Even Taylor and Jazmine, who were these asshole bullies, had depth that had me questioning why they are the way they are. I wanted to know more about them.
The book’s structure is another area where I felt it was improved over Playground. In my mind, Playground was written in two distinct parts. Part one was all about Geraldine and Rock, and then part two was all about the Playground. Child of Divorce was more cohesive in weaving the introduction of the children, bringing them in, and the events that unfolded from there. It just had a really good flow. Even the memories Geraldine had of her mother were placed in such a way that they fit in the flow.
As for the gore and depravity, the death scenes were fun and pretty gruesome, which is definitely on par with an Aron Beauregard story. And if somehow your mind can’t create an image from the gory detail, there are 18 illustrations to help you paint that picture. My favorite is probably the Super Soaker. I will say, I don’t think Child of Divorce has a “page 40” like the first book had. Page 52 was kind of gross, but the original page 40 is going to be tough to beat. The real nastiness came with games.
Initially, you might expect them to be more savage and diabolical, but because this is a prototype playground, Beauregard made sure to simplify them. I hate it when, in prequels, the technology looks more advanced than the original. I’m looking at you, Prometheus. There is, however, the exception of Mildred, which seemed pretty advanced for this time period. That’s when I activate ‘suspension of disbelief.’ The only complaint I have is that I feel like some of the games could have been cheesed. For example, Skip-It. I’m pretty sure them kids could have found a way to cheat that one.
Overall, I really enjoyed Child of Divorce. It’s an excellent sequel and a great example of Beauregard’s evolution as a writer. Since reading Child of Divorce, I’m definitely going to revisit Playground and pick up the hardcover version to match this one. Speaking of which, the hardcover edition of Child of Divorce is fantastic. The artwork is amazing, and it includes some goodies along with it.
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