The Dead Children's Playground
A cemetery filled with innocents. A ghostly chill in the air. Will a short walk through the woods awaken a dark power?
Kylie Macklin is eager to live a normal life. Freshly moved from Florida to Alabama and finally in remission from cancer, the optimistic nine-year-old is used to dodging her overprotective mom’s warnings. So when a new playmate invites her to hang out, the happy girl thinks nothing of the playground being located in a graveyard for young victims of the Spanish Flu… and a local serial killer.
Kayla Macklin hates starting over. Forced to relocate after her little sister’s recovery, the sullen nineteen-year-old despises her new home more when she sees a terrifying vision in the nearby crypt. And as kids around town start to fall gravely ill, she begins to suspect there is something sinister at play.
Tormented by a frightening specter’s ever-closer appearances, Kylie turns to her older sibling for help. But as Kayla digs into the history of the haunted ground, the twisted truths she discovers hint at a bloodthirst that can never be sated.
Can they face down the malevolent force without tripping into their own graves?
The Dead Children’s Playground is the bone-chilling first book in the American Horrors series. If you like dark twists, scary puzzles, and poignant moments, then you’ll love James Kaine’s supernatural spine-tingler.
Plot/Idea: 7 out of 10
Originality: 8 out of 10
Prose: 8 out of 10
Character/Execution: 8 out of 10
Overall: 7.75 out of 10
Assessment:
Plot/Idea: The Dead Children's Playground offers readers a well-formed, easy-to-follow plot that affords several surprises. Kaine interlaces dark history from Huntsville, Alabama into present times, as siblings Kylie and Kayla Macklin adjust to a new town, find where they belong, and cope with the sinister forces at work in their new surroundings. The resolutions come quickly in Kaine's story, but it holds interest well.
Prose: Kaine smoothly adapts to different voices and uses their unique perspectives to draw readers in—and help them connect more deeply to the characters. The prose is direct and articulate, capable of building suspense naturally as the novel progresses.
Originality: Kaine delivers a satisfying ghost story that incorporates attention-grabbing complications and is loosely based on a local legend, making this multilayered novel appeal to a wide spectrum of readers.
Character/Execution: Characters in Kaine's dynamic story are well-defined and distinct from each other, each demonstrating growth throughout the novel, though some come across as juvenile, even for their actual ages.
Blurb: Poignant yet spooky, The Dead Children's Playground will chill readers to the bone, then warm their hearts.
Date Submitted: June 23, 2024
