Let's Go Play at the Adams' by Mendal W. Johnson

And the ending! I fully expected a shocking finish, and was still freaked. These kids, all teens except ten-year-old Cindy, have highly active, deeply cruel minds. The portrayal of her trapped, terrified mind is grimly heartbreaking, and the POV shift to other characters, especially to the torture-obsessed Paul, the knife wielder, or the sexually malicious John, is rarely much of a breather. The nastiness starts early and never lets up following a prologue establishing a sense of order between the Adams children and their new babysitter, the first chapter smashes that order by opening with Barbara coming to after being drugged and tied up. No doubt about it: if you like tales that warm the heart, this ain’t the book for you. Fearing that she may not survive, she starts fighting back, at which point the brutality escalates even further. Thereafter, Barbara is physically tortured and sexually abused. Soon, however, John and Paul, the neighbor boys, strongly abetted by Paul’s sister Dianne, push for further victimization. Barbara is minimally cared for by the five children their objective, initially, is simply to do away with all adult supervision.

Bobby and Cindy Adams, conspiring with three of their neighbor friends, drug and tie up Barbara, the Adams’ overnight summer babysitter, intending to keep her captive until their parents return from vacation. Set in a rural but affluent Maryland countryside, told in fluid third-person omniscience, Johnson’s novel is an imperfect but unforgettable plunge into hell. The surprise, however, is that this notorious book, which depicts the worst bad behavior imaginable, is so good. The reputation isn’t unjustified the scene described above isn’t the novel’s most disturbing, or even a strong contender. Indeed, due to scenes of youth-administered brutality and for having been so long out of print, LET’S GO PLAY has acquired an unholy contraband mystique. Horror fans owe Hendrix and Valancourt a debt of gratitude for resurrecting this brutal lost classic.

LET’S GO PLAY AT THE ADAMS’ is part of Valancourt’s reissue of various titles discussed in the excellent PAPERBACKS FROM HELL (2017), Grady Hendrix’s book about the paperback horror market of the ‘70s and ‘80s. Johnson’s LET’S GO PLAY AT THE ADAMS’ (1974), a vintage shocker newly reissued in mass market paperback. Welcome, friends, to the gruesomely sadistic world of Mendal W. Then, in a stroke of inspiration, he solves the problem by blindfolding her. When the boy notices her pleading eyes, he feels not guilt or remorse, but annoyance. She is tied to a chair, her mouth gagged. A teenage boy, wielding a knife, tortures a naked young woman.

Let's Go Play at the Adams' by Mendal W. Johnson