Book review by Corey
Let's go play at the Adams
Let’s Go Play at the Adams’ follows Barbara, a young babysitter staying with the Adams children while their parents are away. What starts as a normal babysitting job becomes terrifying when the children decide to imprison her and turn the situation into a game, with the rules becoming more cruel and dangerous as they go.
The book is disturbing because most of the horror comes from control, fear, and the children treating what they are doing as if it is completely normal. It is not especially complicated, but the simple setup works because Barbara’s helplessness gets harder to watch the longer the story continues.
The Goods
- Very unsettling psychological horror
- Strong sense of helplessness
- The children are genuinely disturbing
- Simple setup that works well
- Builds tension without needing constant gore
The Bads
- Extremely bleak
- Some scenes are hard to read
- The children can feel unnaturally cold
- Very little emotional relief
- The cruelty may be too much for some readers
My Recommendation
This is a strong choice for readers who like dark psychological horror, captivity stories, and books that create fear through control and helplessness rather than monsters or nonstop gore. The children are what make the story so unsettling, especially because they treat everything with such a calm and almost ordinary attitude. If you enjoy bleak horror about group behaviour, cruelty, and the loss of empathy, Let’s Go Play at the Adams’ is difficult to read but very memorable.