In 2022, Centipede Press issued a hardback edition, with a limited 500 copies signed by Stefan Dziemianowicz and Dan Rempel, who wrote a new introduction. Immature, terrifying people who do whatever they feel like because they can and think up convoluted justifications for why they should hurt a human being as part of their game, but people nonetheless. From the article I shared about some of Johnson’s life, it doesn’t sound like he was that liked of a family man and I can’t speculate on if his family wants to be involved with it at all. Definitely worth a read for folks who appreciate lost, forgotten, overlooked unique novels from yesteryear. Barbara is hired to work as a babysitter and caretaker of the Adams’ house and their two children, Bobby and Cindy, while they spend a week away.

They practice tying each other up, forcing each other to go with out clothes while restrained, and even mild forms of torture.

Moreover, it's hard to express how close Game's End came to being the authorized sequel—even the original author's widow gave her blessings, and many fans consider it canon. Barbara was an attractive 20 year old competitive swimmer whose summer job was to baby-sit the Adams’ children, Cindy (age 10) and Bobby (age 13), while their parents are away for 10 days.

While it is based around a political/societal narrative of ‘ what if good people do horrible things,’ I can’t separate the overall plotline as being anything else than coming-of-age. It goes on behind closed doors and is only hinted towards – this doesn’t make it any less skin crawling, however! It doesn't matter if you're into Stephen King, Octavia Butler, Jack Ketchum or Shirley Jackson, this is the place to share that love and discuss to your heart's content. I'm fascinated by the mental processes that people go through when they're in the process of objectifying others -- and, from that perspective, this book is amazing.So we have a cult status horror novel that's so despicable people either tore it to pieces or felt like vomiting upon finishing it. 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. By using the Web site, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agreed to be bound by the Terms and Conditions. Because this book has developed a bit of a cult-like status amongst horror aficionados, I’ve decided to delve deeper into this tale than I normally do with reviews.

It’s a book that has a profound effect on people, one that keeps horror fans looking for it almost as much as it makes them breathe a sigh of relief that it remained (until recently released as part of the Paperbacks From Hell collection of reprints) incredibly scarce.A few years ago, Peter Francis, a British author, wrote "Visiting the Adams," which also went under the title "Let's Go Play at the Adams' 2. When the story is so dark and heavy, you need a bit of a breather sometimes, and you didn’t get much of that with this novel. 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. In that case, 16-year-old Sylvia Likens was imprisoned, tortured, abused and eventually succumbed to her treatment over a period of three months. Meanwhile, the narration from the Freedom Five’s point of view continues minimizing Barbara’s presence until finally they stop thinking of her as a person at all, instead referring to her simply by her pronouns, and then in the end as “it.