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| Release: April 18th, 1988, Pages: 320 |
I really enjoy picking up a random book that I have no idea what it’s about and just cracking it open and enjoying the heck out of it. Playmates, written by Andrew Neiderman, is a psychological thriller, with enough tense moments on it’s pages, you’ll be sweating bullets until the thrilling end. Read on to see what this book is all about and decide from there, whether you should scoop it up.
Short nitty-gritty plot description from the back cover is as follows: A woman driving upstate with her five-year-old daughter takes a shortcut
that leads to disaster when her car breaks down in a rainstorm. When
they seek refuge in a nearby farmhouse, she and her daughter become
“playmates” in a violent whirlpool of unrelenting terror.
Stacey and her daughter, Tami, are on their way to meet her husband, David, at a resort, for a few weeks of relaxing vacation. On their way there, while taking a shortcut, Stacey’s car breaks down, so she decides to head up to the nearest farmhouse, to call for help. It’s there she meets Gerald, Irene and Shirley, three awfully strange people, who keep referring to Stacey and Tami, as Marlene and Donna. Stacey is of course incredibly confused and is about ready to leave, when she loses track of her daughter and goes looking for her in the house. From there, Stacey gets kidnapped, along with Tami. Stacey is kept captive upstairs, while Tami is forced to be the playmate for their troubled daughter, Shirley, a really mean spirited girl.
Meanwhile, David is concerned about his wife and daughter, who haven’t shown up yet, or called, so, he decides to call the cops and go looking for them on his own time. Will David find his wife and daughter in time, or will he be too late? The hours tick by and the strange family become crazier and crazier, so time is certainly running out.
This book had me from the first page. It takes no time getting started and keeps you glued to each page. The tension is palpable and I swear, even though I was only half way through the book, David was getting closer and closer to the truth and the book actually had me hoping he would find them then and there, even though I still had the rest of the book to read. It’s seriously that good. In fact, my favorite parts of the book, weren’t actually with Stacey and the deranged family, but with David searching for his wife and figuring out what exactly happened to them. There were several times where I almost shouted at the pages, “you’re almost there! Keep looking!” I actually wouldn’t have minded a few more chapters of some investigating work, as it kept me so involved.
There isn’t much wrong with Playmates (of course there isn’t) and honestly, I’m having a hard time trying to pick up on something that I thought was negative and in fact, I can’t. The book’s story flew by and kept me invested big time. The characters are well developed and the author knows how to truly convey some terrifying situations, with the one part about a horrific climb up a well, being one of my favorite parts of the book. I highly recommend picking up Playmates and giving this one a read, as it’s a psychological shortcut, you’ll be happy to take.
Rating: 5/5 (+5 for a story that kept me up reading late into the night.)