Sample
  • The Dead Children's Playground

  • American Horrors, Book 1
  • By: James Kaine
  • Narrated by: Melinda Melendez
  • Length: 9 hrs and 20 mins
  • 4.9 out of 5 stars (17 ratings)

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The Dead Children's Playground

By: James Kaine
Narrated by: Melinda Melendez
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Publisher's summary

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.

Buy The Dead Children’s Playground to start a fatal game today!

©2024 James Kaine (P)2024 James Kaine

What listeners say about The Dead Children's Playground

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Kaine knows how to write

This book is a straight ghost story. The stakes are real. Kaine continues to connect with the reader, and draw you into his worlds. This is much more tame than his other works, but being the masterful story teller he is, he pivots without missing a beat.

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One of the best ghost stories I’ve ever read

James Kaine I have a bone to pick with you.

How could you do this to me? My heart is shredded.

Seriously though, if you haven’t read this you are missing out. This book was so damn good. It had me hooked from start to finish and never let me go.

This one was a lot lighter on the gore compared to James’ other books but damn… it packed some emotional punches.

I loved it.

An easy 5 stars!

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What an ending!

Awesome ghost story that really sucks you in. It's not crazy violent or gross, which I really liked. The ending is really impactful and it's cool that it's based on a real place.

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Just Wow

I loved this book from beginning to end! I literally could not…did not want to sleep so I could see what happened next!! Scary, thrilling, heartbreaking, all of it!! I cannot wait until the next installment in this series!!

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Urban Legend Expanded into a modern classic

The author takes a well known place in Huntsville Alabama known as the Dead Children's Playground and built a great story from the inspiration of the urban legend. Having been to that playround myself and taken videos of the swings moving on their own with the requisite sounds and groaning of the chains as if weight was on them, I was excited to delve into this. I highly recommend this to anyone interested in both urban legends and modern horror.

The narration was pretty good. I think the narrator captured moods and tones properly for conversation. It might have been better if a male narrator was added for the male speaking parts. But for a woman doing all the characters, it was very well done.

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Amazing!

As someone who lives near the playground, this was a phenomenal story. Very well done. I enjoyed every minute of it! And omg, that epilogue!!!!

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Narrator delivers on this chilling ghost story

I just saw a TikTok about audiobook narrators who give voice to an entire cast of characters....and amazingly, pull it off. Melinda Melendez did just that in The Dead Children's Playground. She made each voice distinct. What she did with the mom's voice was subtle, but worked to great effect. Kaine delivers a terrific, high-stakes story about a haunting with historical roots and family drama that ratcheted up the stakes. And oof, that ending! This was my first book by Kaine and I'm excited to see what follows in the American Horrors series.

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Great ghost story!

This was a great and spooky ghost story! The characters were believable and the story was fantastic. I love that the author gave history in the afterword, and cannot wait for more of the series!

P.S. I am mad about the epilogue!

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A MUST read!

A little bit of history blended with a creepy ghost story with an ending you will not see coming! This was the first book of read/listened to by this author and it will not be my last!

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This was amazing!

Wow! I can write this now that I stopped crying! The story is fantastic and the narrator did a great job. I am going to buy the physical book
For me and my step daughter

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