Child's Play

by Andrew Neiderman

They were four perfect little children. Alex had taught them well. They helped with the house, set the table for meals, and went straight upstairs after dinner to do their homework. They did as they were told -- that is, as Alex told.

Sharon didn't miss the glances that passed between her husband and the foster children. From the day they arrived, they had looked up to Alex., worshipped him. Why, it even seemed they were beginning to act like Alex -- right down to the icy sarcasm, the terrifying smile, the evil gleam in their eyes when they looked at her.

Oh yes, they'd do anything to please Alex. Anything at all...

Genres: Horror, Thriller, Fiction, Novels

302 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1985

About the author

Andrew Neiderman is the author of over 44 thrillers, including six of which have been translated onto film, including the big hit, 'The Devil's Advocate', a story in which he also wrote a libretto for the music-stage adaptation. One of his novels, Tender Loving Care, has been adapted into a CD-Rom interactive movie.

Andrew Neiderman became the ghostwriter for V.C. Andrews following her death in 1986. He was the screenwriter for Rain, a film based on a series of books under Andrews name. Between the novels written under her name and his own, he has published over 100 novels.

Reviews

[Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Creepy Kids!

Small backstory:

Alex and Sharon Gold decide to take in four foster children that are troubled with different family backgrounds with age ranges from teenagers to young children. When all the children get settled into their new home, Alex starts teaching them the ways of what he grew up learning from his father.

Eventually the children become so well behaved that they are almost like soldiers as they listen to everything that Alex says and does whereas with Sharon they seem to blatantly ignore anything she tries to do for them. Though by the time that Sharon realizes what is really going on it is almost too late as Alex has taught the children more than just the normal ways of their lives he has turned the kids into some sort of sadistic cult and he will do anything for his "children" whether Sharon likes it or not!

That is about all I can give on a small backstory without giving away spoilers so if you are intrigued then go read this book!

Thoughts:

This was my first time reading this author and I have owned this book since 2016 but just never did step into it till now.

I loved the writing style of the author and I was pulled right away into the storyline though it took a little time for the suspense to build up as there was a quite a bit of a backstory for each of the children so it took the author some time to get to the main gist of the story.

Once the story started churning along with things that were happening then the story broke wide open and there was quite a bit of psychological horror weaved in throughout the book. I felt bad for the character Sharon as she had to endure what her husband was turning the kids into so I was in a state of anxiety through some of the book as I didn't know how it was all going to come together but I just kept reading as I wanted to see what was going to happen next.

All in all I loved the story as it kept my insomnia fueled for the last few days as once I hit the half way point of the book then it just took off quick and I had a hard time putting it down after the 50% mark. Looking forward to reading more by this author at some point as he has quite a few books out there to read. Giving this book five "Twisted Terror" stars!

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very tight and eerie book on the conditioning of kids. Page turner!

[William Malmborg · Rating 2 out of 5]

Have you ever set your eyes upon a book that you just knew you had to own, one where genre and storyline didn’t really matter all that much because you simply wanted the cover art sitting upon your shelf? I have done this a few times over the years, the most recent example being with the 1985 book Child’s Play by Andrew Neiderman. Seeing the cover posted here I’m sure I don’t have to explain what led me to wanting this book after viewing it on the Too Much Horror Fiction site. Just the title alone would have been enough since I love finding unknown works that bear the same name as works that became incredibly popular years later, but then to have a Chucky-like doll on the cover as well, that instantly sealed the deal. Even better, the book description, which I curiously read after already deciding to buy the book, made it sound like the story featured some evil children, and that my friends is something I can never pass up.

Child’s Play is the story of Alex and Sharon Gold, a well off couple who live in an old lakeside resort that Alex’s family owned while he was growing up. The two live a normal life, though one that doesn’t seem to be really filled with happiness. They aren’t unhappy either. It’s more like they are just in a static state, one guided by routine. All that changes when the two decide to bring a foster child into their home. Like most decision in the household it was really Alex’s to make, but one that Sharon is mistakenly led to believe she had a say in. As time progresses three more foster children end up living with them, Alex having ‘persuaded’ Sharon that each addition was necessary, not only as a way of completing their family but because it also saves the child in question. As it turns out Alex may be right because despite the trauma and delinquency the children bring with them, each one quickly becomes the perfect kid, one who will do anything to please Alex. In fact their bond with Alex is so strong that Sharon soon starts to feel as if she is no longer needed. Such feelings turn to concern when she begins to notice the foster daughter taking over her role in the household, almost as if she is slowly being replaced. Then someone kills the family dog. After that a teacher who the foster daughter started having sexual thoughts about is murdered while driving home, coincidently on the same road the children would have taken home from school. Are the children to blame, or is it Alex? Better yet, are the five of them all in it together? If so what is going on with them, especially when engaged in their secret meetings that take place in a small room near the lake, one which holds the bones of Alex’s dead abusive father? Furthermore what will happen to Sharon if she continues to question Alex and the children about such things?

I hate to say it but my initial excitement about this book quickly turned to one of continued boredom as I read it. The story just never really took off, its pace almost too slow and, like the family situation noted above, too static to provide enjoyment. I also didn’t buy the inner thoughts of the children whenever they were the focus of the story because they seemed way too formal, almost textbook like in their delivery, which just didn’t work for me. I also hated the Sharon character because she seemed a ready made victim, one who never fully broke out of her shell. Now I know people like this exist in the real world, but within these pages it just didn’t seem real, almost as if her character was forced to stay within this shell by the writer rather then just being that way because it was who she was (does that make sense?). The worst part of all, however, was that it seemed the book had several opportunities to be a great horror novel, and missed them all. So many incredible situations presented themselves, ones which could have been easily explored and built upon by the author, but instead were allowed to just fade away as the story continued moving forward with a molasses-like pace. It was sad. Child's Play is a book I can’t recommend to horror fans, not unless you simply want the cover in your collection as an interesting conversation piece.

[Addy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was pretty good as it kept my attention. There could have been a better description as to what really goes on in Pa’s secret room. Also, more background story about Pa in general. However, I enjoyed reading about Sharon and found her character relatable but also a little too naive. Overall, I’m really enjoying Neidermans books.

[Wayne · Rating 5 out of 5]

A couple who can't have children decide to foster a child. It's more of the man's idea, but the wife goes along with it. The teenager who they get is a troubled youth, but starts to come around. He's pleasent and helpful. The husband decides to Foster another. Then two more. They are the picture of obedient, respectful children, until you anger them or the husband. The wife sees the evil that they do, but can do little to fight it.

Another 80's Zebra horror book that not only has a nice creepy cover, it also carries a creepy story to boot. Nice little book.

[Karrie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A true nailbiter!

I was completely mesmerized by this tale! Beginning to end. This was one of the rare books that left me unsure of how it was going to end. I was never totally sure who was mentally off. Therefore the ending was going to be a surprise no matter what! A real gem. I am a instant fan!

[Shelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a big fan of '80's horror, and while it is debatable, I think part of being an '80's media fan is that you have to forgive certain things in a story that are a product of their time. That's certainly true in the case of this novel.

Let me start by saying this book and its characters grip you. I stayed up to 4AM to finish the last 150 pages because I just had to see where it was going. The protagonist, Sharon, is put into a creepy and increasingly dangerous situation, where you know she won't leave. (Based on her background and her established personality, she is very dependent on her husband: financially, emotionally, etc. Often as I was reading I kept thinking to myself: "She needs to leave. But if she left, where would she go?") So you're immediately invested to find out what will happen to this poor woman stuck between a rock and a hard place.

The horror elements are slow to come but they present a creeping sort of horror, like the slow spread of decay taking over a body. Like a lot of 80's media, the pacing is very slow. That is just a change between media presented today and media from thirty+ years ago, which we have to acknowledge while consuming the media. Older stories are going to be slower paced.

My biggest issue is the ending. I really wanted Sharon to develop more agency. (This is, again, I think partly at fault because of the era in which it was written, but I think we could have gotten more than what we were given.) While in the end, she is the catalyst that stops the evil in her family--by setting the house on fire--it's presented in a way where she isn't really in control of herself. She's more a vessel for the ending climax to occur, and the author presses upon us how she's in a daze and mesmerized by the (real or imagined?) spirit of her father-in-law. And once she sets the climax in motion, she almost immediately falls unconscious (because yeah, it makes totally sense to return to your bed and collapse into sleep when you've just set a part of your house on fire? The house you're currently in? What?) which of course leads to her demise.

I think the point of the story is a kind of horrific tragedy. Rather than any true supernatural elements, the horror comes from the fact that people are trapped in a cycle of familial abuse of which they cannot escape. Even with the deaths of the two adult characters, one of whom introduced fanaticism and socialpathy to the family, the survival of all four children at the end ensures that the abuse will continue as they grow up and presumably have families of their own. There is no escape from this sort of horror.

I don't have an issue with that point from the author. The issue I have with the ending is that it just felt so anticlimactic to me. It felt like everything was taken out of the protagonist's hands. I would have been a lot happier with the ending if we got some agency from Sharon and she was able to strike back against her antagonists in a purposeful way. If she made the decision to kill the children and her husband and was fully in control of her own facilities when she did so.

In fact, I think it would have gone great if the ending had included Sharon waking up and attacking the children as they were trying to kill her in revenge for Alex's death, as the house is catching fire around them. And perhaps she is forced to kill one of them in self-defense (probably Richard, the oldest, which leaves room for one of the other children to have to step up into the roll of leader at the end) but then the other children are able to kill her. That would leave the ending the same but would have given her some moment of triumph against these people who have manipulated and terrorized her the entire length of the novel, and would have been a much more satisfying ending.

[Michael T Bradley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, this was a frustrating book. It's a fairly quick read, and I read the whole thing, and enjoyed the writing style and allllll the buildup, and then ... it just ends. With like barely anything happening in it. It worked GREAT as buildup, but there was no payoff. What was the big plan? Was there anything supernatural going on? Who knows. Doesn't matter. It's all atmosphere and no real story. Gahhh.

[❤ArtfullySinful❤ · Rating 4 out of 5]

In his mind’s eye he saw the kind of night creature his father had often described to him—their eyes were always filled with fire, their lips thin and wormy, their teeth sharp, and their appetites ravenous; only their appetites involved the consumption of the soul. They fed on what was good. Parasitical, they sucked out your moral strength and left you naked and alone to face the cold, black evil that loomed above and about, anxious to seize you and take you forever into the flames of hell.“Sometimes,” his father had told him, “you can hear the screams of the dead.”

Alex Gold loved a life filled with nightmares or horrors as he grew up beneath his father's obsession with hearing the Dead. Growing up to be holy, with no impure thoughts or sins lead him oftentimes locked in the cellar for ed to repent and hear the series and screams of the damned. A childless marriage where neither Sharon or Alex could produce offspring following the stillborn death of their first child fourteen years prior lead them down the path of adoption. Welcoming in four children, one after next; Richard Murden (14), Elizabeth Sera (13), Donald Martin (10) and Carl, to their beautiful resort converted house Echo Lake. Each child came from severe abuse and heavily broken homes, but in living with the Gold's found a stability and unity they never thought possible. Taking after Alex nearly immediately, they became his disciples as they morph from troubled youths to poster children. Improvements in classes, intelligent and ready to please and help with chores, nobody could believe their eyes at the transformations they underwent. Meanwhile, Sharon couldn't keep the resentment and fear from brewing in her chest as she watched her husband turn to a stranger and the children into carbon copies of himself. At the drop of a hat they go fek well mannered children to viscous, cold and calculating adults. As Alex continues to drug his wife with sleeping pills, the children emerge to do unspeakable acts. Harping on the sins, he took the children to his Pa's secret place where his bones as well as his deceased stillborn child rest under a shallow grave. When Elizabeth comes forward with thoughts of arousals and list towards her English teacher Me. knots, he knows the time has come to make the ultimate example. Using Elizabeth to lure him into a car ride home after missing the bus, she gets him to pull over to allow her three siblings into the vehicle. This is when he is strangled with a bag tied around his face and his body left in his car. With her suspicions rising, Sharon confides in close friend's mother Tillie Zorankin about the troubling behavior she is noting. As the children seem to be unable to do wrong in Alex's eyes, not even children's Services think something is wrong. Following the death of the family dog Dinky; hung and drown in the lake, she begins her suspicions the children aren't as innocent as they appear. After discovering the gossip, he send the children arms with knives to stab the Widow to death in her bed. Discovering the bloody knives in their bedrooms, she comes to a plan to set fire to the cellar door that houses so much Evil. As he husband becomes trapped inside, the children take the skeleton key and lock Sharon in her bedroom to be consumed by the flames she set. Acting distraught, the children find themselves without a family once more and only one another to lean against.

She had tasted the death of loneliness and she longed to drink from the cup.

Fear was a kind of teacher; from it we could learn. But fear by itself wasn’t enough; something had to come afterward. The lesson had to be learned.

“They will be formed from the good parts of us, and in the end they will teach us. We will be the children again.”

[Red · Rating 4 out of 5]

You're looking at the Chucky doll in the arms of the child on this cover. You're looking at the title. You're thinking those two things cannot be there without both being one in the same. I'll have you know there's not really an evil doll in this. I had to find that out myself but I kind of expected it.

So where do I start? First off Sharon is really a limp dish rag of a person. She trust her husband so much that even though he is making terrible decisions, she thinks oh yeah he says it's a good decision. But at the same time she can't escape him. If she broke up with him where would she go?

Within the first six pages we find out that she's basically dependent on him and he is the breadwinner who can choose who lives and who dies. It's a horrifying life to be so dependent you have no way out and the only way out might ruin your reputation and take you down to homelessness. That's horrifying. He has her by the purse strings. So from the get-go you know that Alex has all of the power in this relationship. They don't even want kids but Alex suddenly decides he needs kids and he just starts plucking them out of the foster care system and raising them. It's almost like he needs to make an army and I don't doubt that he would have picked up a fifth or sixth kid down the road.

It seems like Alex's father is a oddly abusive but good guy in this book and that threw me for a loop. I don't really write this book high. It's a complicated thing did I read this book really fast and enjoy all of it? Yes and no. I enjoyed reading the book but the characters really annoyed me.

It feels like we would have a little bit more investigation into these murders and deaths. I don't know, but usually they investigate the neighbors and the people who were last seen with them and all that stuff and none of that really happens. It's only Sharon who suspects but also is in denial so she's an unreliable investigator in this whole thing. She's also utterly limp and easily plied.

Weak willed woman in writing always seem to come off as they have no spine and no will until the very last moment of the very last scene and then suddenly they are possessed or they are snap to attentiveness and know what needs to be done. This book is no different. I wish she had a bigger spine earlier on and had just started standing up to him but he had done it anyway, because then it would have made her rebellion at the end very obviously about to happen but also totally not just a spur of the moment random spine growth.

I am constantly torn between saying I hate her and that I have met characters and people actually like her in real life and I hated that. I hate that she's an actual character that I have met in a real person. I hate that this kind of person exists. And reading about them always works me up because I don't like to imagine these people existing and just doing stuff like this. Being in these kind of relationships. But it happens. It's awful.

At the end of the day I ended up here because the cover of the book that I got looked like it was a Chucky knock off or a pre-existing Chucky book. And Chucky was never based off of Robert the haunted doll so I wanted to see if this was where he came from. It was likely not in anything but the cover, but it was an interesting journey and I did not fully hate the book I just found it terrifying in a way of I've seen too many lifetime movies and true stories go this way and I did not like how this went. Gave me a little bit of a Children Of The Corn Energy. Very eerie.

3.8 stars.

[Jane Weinermoate · Rating 3 out of 5]

You know when you're watching a horror movie and the main character is doing the dumbest stuff, and you're screaming at the tv, "Don't go into the house!!" That's what I was screaming at Sharon for this whole book. She was just too stupid, too slow to see problems, too willing to accept things as they were. And then when she finally started to get some clarity, it was in the wrong damn direction!
The story is super creepy and uncomfortable (in the right kind of horror novella ways). And it's from the 80s, so you have to forgive the types of plot points like a husband having conversations with a wife's doctor over the phone that somehow give him the authority to administer medicine in whatever doses he likes as a product of their time. Thankfully we no longer live in such a time.
I think it might have been more effective if there had been some resistance to the transformation of the children. If they hadn't been normal kids, then *a week went by* and suddenly they've transformed into spooky little cult children before Sharon's very eyes. Maybe if she had developed an actual connection with one or two initially, you could feel for her being stuck in this bonkers situation. But as it stood, her husband and four foster children seemed to barely tolerate her existence from the jump, so why didn't she just... Leave?

It had enough scary and creepy moments to keep me interested, but the writing was a bit dry at times. And I just wanted Sharon to Do! Something! instead of remaining bewildered and mildly sad about everything around her.

[Jennifer Ramsey · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author gives away a little too much for it to be really scary. For example, the author says that Alex was carrying something that was wrapped in the kind of shroud they had just buried his father in. So, we now know he has pulled his father's body out of the grave. It could have just mentioned that his wife saw him carrying something large, and the reader would have been left in more suspense.

However, his character development was strong, so it moves back into "I liked it" territory. But, no, I wouldn't recommend it if you are looking for a psychological thriller.

[Robin Burton · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars.

Initially, I thought this book originated from the Child’s Play “Chucky the Good Guy Doll” franchise, but it doesn’t. In fact, the title and the book cover are both VERY misleading to what this book is actually about.

This was decent enough, but mostly an irritating read since some of the characters are so dense and oblivious that you don’t even feel badly for their demises.

I think I was more annoyed by the ending rather than at the ending.

[Shell · Rating 3 out of 5]

First off, the cover pictured has absolutely nothing to do with the story. The story itself was pretty creepy and weird for the first half, but when things started heating up it kind of fell flat. The second half wasn’t interesting enough to match the feel of the first half, and I never felt like the reasoning/back story was explained well enough.

[Scott Oliver · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m giving this four stars but it is as more of a three and a half really.

Alex is a obsessed with his father’s religious philosophy and a control freak who trains his four adopted children to see evil every where and deal with it accordingly while his wife, Sharon is your basic tranquillised neurotic wife who suspects the rest of murder

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perfect children....perfectly creepy.

[Shell · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was intriguing at first, but never really went far enough for me. Some sort of explanation as to why he was grooming the children or what exactly he was doing would have helped.

[Jeanine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eerie, weird story.

[Sarah Hoov · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really weird

[Abbi · Rating 2 out of 5]

A weirdly religious dude brain washing his foster kids and then gaslighting his wife.

[Beverley Bacinski-Jenkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Good, Solid Effort

A work of uncompromising quality and storytelling, it was a pleasure to read. Excellent characterization although with a slightly weak ending.

[Kristen Ginn]

DNF.

[Victoria Diaz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is probably my favorite book by Andrew Neiderman. I have yet to read some of his more notable works though.

Alex and Sharon take on a challenging role as foster parents for four troubled children. What should be a challenge getting the kids to do their schoolwork and contribute around the house isn't much of an issue because Alex has such a hold on them. Sharon really starts to feel left out as Alex dedicates his time to mentoring the children and showing them the ways that his father taught him. However, this feeds back into using their trauma as their strength, which shouldn't be a bad thing, but as they unite in an "us against them" mentality, there is terror that is brought upon not only within their household, but also the town they live in. It's a great read for any horror fan and would highly recommend.

[Cindy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can't help it, I have a weird love of cheesy 70's and 80's horror novels.

[Lara · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is kinda sick and frightening and annoying and repelling. But also quite interesting or even fascinating. And I couldn't stop till the inevitable ending.

[Paper Ghost ☾ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Andrew Neiderman has a way to get you hooked into his writing and although the story did dragged a little bit towards the middle, I enjoyed it. Was it horrific? No but it was mildly creepy.

[Thourya · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is about a married couple Alex and Sharon. Alex convinced his wife that they go to the foster protection to save a child from there and adopt him. She wasn't that happy with the idea but she just couldn't say no to him. He was her husband. She trusted him, she believed him but looks like he was not that good. They adopted The first child and the second and a girl who was raped. He could convince her with anything. All that was somehow normal. It was a good story but where's the horror. In the end of the book were a lot of blood and a lot of killing. It made me sad. The end of the book was devastating.
The book was not that good.

[Kivalina Mauck · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good

Was strange but not too bad. I liked it. I felt bad for Sharon. Poor girl she never did catch a break. I wish they would have left her alive. How sad she died. I was not happy with Alex and what he did. .