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Post by humgoo on May 12, 2020 19:12:49 GMT
Mendal W. Johnson - Let's Go Play at the Adams' (Valancourt Books, 2020, with an introduction by Grady Hendrix; originally Crowell, 1974)
Blurb:
"They're just kids ... It's only a game." That's what Barbara, a lovely twenty-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!
"Will harrow you and haunt you after you have finished it." Publishers Weekly
"Outstanding ... A horrifying thriller." Library JournalHorrible times call for horrible readings ... or do we really need an excuse here on Vault? Quite the highlight in Valancourt's "Paperbacks from Hell" series.
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Post by dem bones on May 13, 2020 18:18:56 GMT
Mendal Johnson - Let's Go Play At The Adams' (Grafton, 1988: originally Hart-Davis, 1974)  Cover photograph by Bob MarchantBlurb Experiment In Horror
Barbara lovely young babysitter, awoke bound and gagged, a helpless captive of solemn twelve-year-old Bobby and his younger sister Cindy. It's only a game, she told herself at first. At first, she wasn't frightened. But then she came to realize this was no ordinary prank. Her charges and three of their friends were completely caught up in their new‑found power, and determined to experiment with it — to its limits. They had in store for their victim a series of ordeals such as only the compassionless childish mind, schooled in today's sophisticated violence, could conceive.
`A horror tale that will harrow you and haunt you long after you have finished it' - PUBLISHERS WEEKLYA pre-Vault personal favourite - seem to remember thinking Bernard Taylor's Mother's Boys owes it a debt, though Johnson's is unquestionably the more horrible of the two. Must schedule a rematch.
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on May 13, 2020 18:23:39 GMT
I wonder what something that combined LORD OF THE FLIES and THE EXORCIST would be like. Maybe it is a good idea.
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Post by bluetomb on May 13, 2020 21:28:59 GMT
This is one of those that I fear might be too much for me nowadays, I can do horrible but real horrible makes me feel bad for ages so I prefer more fantastical. It's great to see any title get rescued from the unreasonable second hand market though.
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Post by humgoo on May 17, 2020 6:52:33 GMT
I can do horrible but real horrible makes me feel bad for ages so I prefer more fantastical. I actually put down the book halfway. Now it's official: I AM A WUSS. I know my curiosity will get the better of the wussy side of me sooner or later, but just not now. We talk about horror all the time and now Let's Go Play ... does feel real horrible, and I balk at it. I'm afraid I'll be excommunicated from the Vault!
Dem: Would love to read your notes, but remember to use a spoiler tag for this one!
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Post by cauldronbrewer on May 17, 2020 19:54:17 GMT
I can do horrible but real horrible makes me feel bad for ages so I prefer more fantastical. I actually put down the book halfway. Now it's official: I AM A WUSS. I know my curiosity will get the better of the wussy side of me sooner or later, but just not now. We talk about horror all the time and now Let's Go Play ... does feel real horrible, and I balk at it. I'm afraid I'll be excommunicated from the Vault! I know what you mean. I think that’s why I prefer supernatural horror and weird fiction over other types of horror. At heart, I’m looking for escapism, and maybe, if I’m lucky, a sense of the uncanny. |
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Post by dem bones on May 19, 2020 6:46:34 GMT
I can do horrible but real horrible makes me feel bad for ages so I prefer more fantastical. I actually put down the book halfway. Now it's official: I AM A WUSS. I know my curiosity will get the better of the wussy side of me sooner or later, but just not now. We talk about horror all the time and now Let's Go Play ... does feel real horrible, and I balk at it. I'm afraid I'll be excommunicated from the Vault! Dem: Would love to read your notes, but remember to use a spoiler tag for this one!
We had a thread on Vault MK I, but as I can no longer assess it and didn't keep notes, nothing for it but to "enjoy" a rematch. "We got her - we got her .... we got the babysitter! And they won't be back for a week!" Bryce, Maryland. Dr. Adams and wife are traveling in Europe, leaving kids Bobby, thirteen, and Cissy, ten, in the care of a sweet-natured college girl, Barbara Miller, aged twenty. When the babysitter retires to bed following a day's swimming & piano tutoring, Bobby claps a chloroform-soaked cloth across her mouth and nostrils. Regaining consciousness, Barbara makes the terrifying discovery that she is gagged and tightly bound to the bed by hands and ankles. Bobby calls the rest of 'the Freedom Five' - John Randall, going on seventeen, Paul McVeigh, thirteen, and his big sister, Dianne, also seventeen - to confirm that everything went to plan, Barbara is their prisoner and they can do as they please for the next seven days. Come over and see for yourselves! Four pages into the novel and we are already wondering just how far the Freedom Five are prepared to go in their tormenting of the captive. On first reading (circa 1990), seemed to me the ghost of the Manson murders - specifically that of Sharon Tate - hung over the novel, which couldn't help but amplify the unpleasantness of it all. P.52 of 270 |
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Post by humgoo on May 19, 2020 17:53:03 GMT
Four pages into the novel and we are already wondering just how far the Freedom Five are prepared to go in their tormenting of the captive. It's certainly a no-nonsense book. Things have already been done to her before you can say knife. Rereading a novel 30 years later? It must be a very interesting experience! PS Thanks for the link to the old site. Some of the threads can still be read. It's nice to know how the seed of evil was first planted. |
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Post by cromagnonman on May 19, 2020 19:41:12 GMT
Has anyone here ever read Irving Wallace's THE FAN CLUB? As this sounds like a debased/amplified variation on it. Also published 1974 coincidentally.
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Post by dem bones on May 20, 2020 7:54:26 GMT
Has anyone here ever read Irving Wallace's THE FAN CLUB? As this sounds like a debased/amplified variation on it. Also published 1974 coincidentally. ... and another title added to the wants list that knows no sanity. It's a challenge not to spoiler Let's go play at the Adams' as, once you've read the blurb - or cast eyes on the Bantam/ Valancourt cover art - you probably have a pretty damn shrewd idea of where the novel is headed. Have now made it to p116. Author is piling horror upon horror. It's one unflinching read, and no mistake. |
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Post by dem bones on May 24, 2020 6:49:07 GMT
Now the Freedom Five have gone way too far, their new challenge is to somehow extricate themselves from threat of prosecution by incriminating a transient worker, Cruz, who has taken to camping in the woods. Dianna, rising to the occasion, hits on a plan of action. Of course, this bodes ill for Barbara, but as the kids are keen to remind her, it's only a game, and with games "Somebody has to win, and somebody has to lose," otherwise everything would be too pointless to bother with. All prospect of rescue long gone, Barbara's one hope is that they make it quick and painless. The reader feels the same way. The kids - maybe not so much.
If you are looking for a horribly unpleasant, unrelentingly bleak reading experience, Let's Go Torture-Murder a Babysitter should see you right. Mendal Johnstone's solitary horror novel is a brilliant achievement on it's own harrowing terms, but, as remarked above, most certainly not for those seeking a few hours relief from the abominations of everyday life.
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