Let's Go Play at the Adams

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I was finishing up this book while visiting with my stepdad today. A 10-year-old neighbor came over and brought a few items from the corner store along with his change. I then warned my stepdad about trusting kids with his money and the danger of letting them step foot into his house. He just looked at me funny. When I got home, I side-eyed my 13-year old neighbor who was sitting on the balcony and wondered just what cruelties he was capable of inflicting on the adults in his life. The Stranger is the second novel from Steve Stred and 9th release overall. The Stranger is another offering following in the footsteps of similar books Invisible, YURI and The Girl Who Hid in the Trees. As Steve describes his works; “dark, bleak horror.” But Barbara is still tied up, helpless, and terrified. They can make her pay for what she's making them do to her.

Author Appeal - Some people speculate that Johnson was a sadist and the book is nothing more than an exercise in self-indulgence. Others say this isn't the case.If you are reading this review on Goodreads you’ll have already seen my star rating, but before I divulge it here, I wanted to go through a few things about my rating. Adams'" actually has a lot more in common with such films as "Last Summer," in which a group of teens (including a young Barbara Hershey) end up brutally abusing one of their so-called friends, or "The Sailor who Fell From Grace With the Sea," in which a young boy ends up murdering (and dissecting) his mother's lover. These are stories about children untamed (or what children can do before they are "broken" by adult rules and society - this is a phrase specifically used in "Adams'"). The novel is horrific not because of what these five children do to this young woman, but because of how little it bothers them and how easily they begin to see her as outside of humanity. Actually, the descriptions of abuse are quite tame, especially by current standards (fans of Ketchum's work, for instance, are likely to be disappointed). This is a very literary novel, with a detached omniscient narrator who is not after a prurient response from his readers. We hear few details of Barbara's rape, and even the final murder scene is told in such matter-of-fact language that the horror of it seems almost commonplace (which of course makes it all the more horrible). What never seems commonplace is the children's easy acceptance of murder as part of the game they call life. As Dianne, one of Barbara's tormentors explains, it's "the game that everyone plays. The game of who wins the game. People kill people. Losers lose." In a way, this is what we really do believe. But, as adults, as functioning members of a social world, we can't admit it. After I had finished less than half of the book, I felt I had already gotten as much out of it as I ever was going to get. And would you believe that it was boring? Oh yes! Never had I before read something with this intense of content and had so much trouble staying awake, like Droopy Dog with sleep apnea.

I was blown away with the philosophical ending Johnson arranged and didn’t expect it. 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. Author Appeal: Some people speculate that Johnson was a sadist and the book is nothing more than an exercise in self-indulgence. Others say this isn't the case. Dirt, the only god she knows. Daylight, trees and leaves, cicada-song. The smell of wet earth and rotting corn husks after a rain. Redemption Equals Death: In the epilogue, a now-teenaged Bobby dies saving a girl who he thought was drowning. She wasn't really drowning, she thought he was cute and was just trying to get his attention. His father speculates on whether, in his last moments, Bobby finally found the ability to forgive himself.Mendal W. Johnson was a one-hit wonder as a novelist, but his one novel, Let’s Go Play at the Adams’, was a doozy. Released in 1974, the novel about a babysitter held captive and tortured by five children was perhaps inspired by the very real (and very horrible) story of young Sylvia Likens. Beneath the pile-on of the kids, Barbara made sounds one does not hear in everyday life, or at least not often. The various tones could be taken as sobbing, embarrassingly so.’