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Let's Go Play at the Adams'

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Let's Go Play at the Adams'

By: Mendal W Johnson
Narrated by: Matt Godfrey
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About this listen

"They're just kids.... It's only a game." That's what Barbara, a lovely 20-year-old babysitter told herself when she awoke bound and gagged. But the knots were tight and painful and the children would not let her go.

"They're just kids.... It's only a game," she told herself again. But the terror was real...and deadly!

In the decades since its original publication, Mendal W. Johnson's best-seller Let's Go Play at the Adams' (1974) has gained a reputation as one of the most harrowing horror novels ever written, and copies have long been unobtainable except at exorbitant prices. Now this first-ever audiobook version of the novel, read by award-winning narrator Matt Godfrey, adds a new dimension of horror to this cult masterpiece.

©2020 Mendal W. Johnson (P)2020 Valancourt Books LLC Horror Scary Game

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A true classic, turmoil and suspense, a brilliant performance that keeps you hanging on every word

Wow

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Let's Go Play At the Adams has a reputation. It's the sort of book you hear stories about people burning after reading. This isn't something light and fun like Stephen King or James Herbert. It's not even comparable to splattergore stuff or "literary" dark fiction like Palahniuk or Welsh. This is book that looks straight into the eyes of evil and reality of suffering with no shock gore or glib satire to lessen the impact. It's pain. Pure and simple.
But it's not like there's no story. The story and characters are given serious focus. They are given dimension and variation. It wants to draw you into it's world. Where other books would go into as much detail as possible, making the cruelty near pornographic, this book steps back. Focusing on the characters as people, rather than dragging the misery out forever. It ends up making the book more awful in the end, because you do really pay attention to each new development in the plot wanting to see where it will go next.

Is this praise, or a warning? I don't know. It is clearly well put together on a technical level. But I can't imagine wanting to read it again. I feel like giving it a good or bad rating is a bit of of a distraction. It's not a "Good" book or a "Bad" book. Just a brutal one. And odds are you already know if you want to read a brutal book or not. But I'm leaning towards the positive in the rating, because this is not a sloppy or lazy book. No cheap shocks or trite prose. It's expertly put together. But even if you go for it, you might only read it once.

Hard to praise, hard to hate

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Ok yes this is dark and alot of people won't handle or like it but if you know what your getting and by the front cover and a little description you should get the idea .
A group of children in prison and torture there baby sitter over a week gradually getting more and more sadistic.
I thought it was really well done .
The darkness of human behaviour explored and the curiosity and innocents of the children come through as they commit horrible acts .
It was well written and held my attention and kept me glued to it .
The righter apparently only got this book published but wrote a few more all of what were passed by by publishers and then he died a few years after ,
I would be interested what his other books were and if they were as dark .

know what you getting in for

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I first came across the book years ago... I only read part of it, meaning to finish it later. However, the book went missing and I couldn't find a replacement. I looked on and off over the years but I came to be under the impression that it had been banned. Eventually, just out of interest I searched on Kindle and saw there was an audible version so I downloaded it. I regret having done so! I should have left this novel where it was, in my distant memory. It is one of the most disturbing things I have ever listened to. I've done Dracula, most of Lovecraft, Poe, Dunsany and been satisfyingly shocked. I've even read The Execution of Damiens and seen films like Eden Lake and The Last House on the Left but NEVER have I been so sickened by this exercise in twisted writing. Mendal Johnson is a SADIST by proxy.

The product of a disturbed mind

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It was discussed in paperbacks from hell and I figured I should read/listen to it as it’s is discussed like a kind of rite of passage for horror fans of a certain vintage before mine. The book was published in 74 and could not be have written in another decade it is a clear blueprint or precursor to kerchum’s girl next door but if it is possible to be a more sleazy unpleasant version of it. It is not a pleasure to enjoy more an endurance of an ordeal, but worth the time if you are of such a mind set.

One of the darkest books I have come across

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