Let's Go Play at the Adams

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Hearing Barbara’s thoughts as she’s continually put in helpless situations makes you wish she could break out, and forces you to care about her as she slowly loses her mind. So Barbara thinks about what’s about to happen, John’s second raping of her and she decides two things. I highly recommend this book to those who can read the book and truly grasp the message of the tale. It has been noted that after his death three other novels in progress were found, but as of yet there appears to be no push to have them released/finished and none of them were tied into ‘Let’s Go Play…’ Mr Johnson has become enigmatic in that not much information is fully known, but some details have trickled out. But no, Johnson's writing seems to skirt around this just enough so that the kids simply come across as evil.

Sheryl Friedlander, writing for The Tampa Tribune, compared the novel favorably to The Collector and Lord of the Flies, praising its "style and flow of thought" as "smooth and interesting.

Shocking and sickening, yet tender and nakedly human, you will never forget reading this one, I promise.

Throughout the book, Barbara has a running inner dialogue between ‘Sexy Barbara’ and ‘Normal Barbara’ which Johnson used as a good talking point leading up to this pivotal scene. When I got home, I side-eyed my 13-year old neighbor who was sitting on the balcony and wondered just what cruelties he was capable of inflicting on the adults in his life. Eventually, as all these stories do, it becomes a battle for survival, because if they let Barbara go, she’ll probably tell and they’ll get caught, but the longer they keep her prisoner, the more she becomes a living, breathing burden that they have to either let go or kill eventually.

Took a Level in Badass: Barbara almost manages to fight her way to freedom, all while still tied up. I'd like to express both my admiration for Johnson's writing and for the thought it must have taken to create such a thoroughly dark and cerebral book at a time when this sort of book might have garnered a great deal of trouble for him. Damsel in Distress: Barbara is probably the most extreme version of this trope in existence, since she is held captive and imperiled the entire book starting from the very beginning. What Barbara doesn’t know is that the five children – aged 10-17, have decided their next game is to imprison her – and go from there. I made sure to not break the spine and I read it in thirty to forty-five-minute spurts while my son was sitting on me watching something or having some snacks.

the author brings a certain sardonic detachment to the material, but this is no stylized dream odyssey.In 2020, Valancourt Books republished it in paperback format under its Paperbacks from Hell series, featuring its original mass-market paperback artwork, and including a new introduction by Grady Hendrix. At the heart, there's the same soul sickness, the same nihilistic sense that the world is an empty and cruel place. The Fort Lauderdale News praised the novel, writing that Johnson "is a master of the art of storytelling and suspense, but this one isn't fore the squeamish. There was a case I read about a few years ago, which is quite a well known case in England, which disturbed me and has stayed with me.