The Forbidden Game Book 1 - The Hunter
The Forbidden Game Book 2 - The Chase
I'll be honest, I didn't fully read this book. I skimmed through it. It's so much better than The Chase was, but either that book killed any desire I had to finish reading the trilogy again or I don't love these books as much as I used to. Or both. Either way, I really wanted to get it over with so I could move onto other things. I don't like having that attitude, but it's how I felt.
The Kill begins with out favorite, bland group of friends on a plane to Pittsburgh, to Jenny's grandfather's house, in search of clues that will help them find Tom and Zach. (I personally don't think those two are worth the trouble, but what do I know?) Jenny left a note for her parents to tell them she hoped she would return and, oh, by the way, she stole $600 from them. So in addition to being a runaway, she's also a thief.
While Jenny naps on the plane, she has a strange dream about Joyland Park, an amusement park she remembers from her childhood. This becomes her first clue in her quest to find her missing boyfriend and cousin. Michael also has a dream about Summer, the friend they lost in the first book, but Audrey and Jenny silence him before he can further explain it since he probably has nothing of value to say anyway.
Eventually they arrive at Jenny's grandfather's house, which has been empty for ten years, apparently. How convenient. Now it's time to break in! Good thing they were able to smuggle a crowbar, hammer and screwdriver onto the plane with them! (I know this was written when airport security was more lax, but seriously?) Unfortunately, they notice a warning that the house is protected by a security alarm, so Jenny comes up with the idea to call her grandfather's old housekeeper, who STILL just happens to be taking care of the place (but she won't be home for 9 hours). I don't understand 1. Why this house hasn't been sold yet and 2. Why someone is still taking care of it. No one has lived there for TEN YEARS. I realize I'm being nitpicky, but I can't get past this.
As Michael is whining that he wants ice cream, Jenny notices a bus with an advertisement for Joyland Park on it and she decides that's where they'll go to kill time until the housekeeper returns home, since she had a dream about it and maybe it's a clue. It turns out Jenny was right, as she notices various things about the amusement park's attractions seem "off." As Jenny plays a fishing game, she catches Julian's gold ring on her line and decides it's time to leave. Seems like the opposite of what she should be doing after getting a huge lead like that, but okay, sure.
Jenny cons the housekeeper into giving her the key to her grandfather's house and the code to disable the security alarm. Once inside, the group goes down into the basement, where Jenny searches for her grandfather's journal. She finds an entry discussing runes and tells everyone they need to carve them on a door, stain them and then say their names. Afterwards, they can open the door to another realm. Sounds like a good time. Or not. Either way, they go through with it and when they step through the door, they find themselves back in Joyland Park - or rather, a twisted, nightmare version of it.
Jenny, Dee, Audrey and Michael decide to head to the mine ride to get picks to use as weapons, in case they need to defend themselves. Now fully armed, they attempt to backtrack out of the mine, only...It's changed. The way they came in is not the same as the way they're heading out. No one ever would have guessed that something like this would happen. They are now lost in a real mine shaft and Jenny, genius that she is, falls into a gap in the floor and into another cavern. All alone. Until she hears Julian's voice.
Julian agrees to give Jenny a hint about the new game, if she "pays the price." Here we go again. So she kisses him and he passes a gold coin to her. Jenny remembers something she saw at the real Joyland Park. "Collect three gold doubloons, and be the first to set foot on...Treasure Island." I suppose, at this point, it's worth noting that Julian leaves Jenny trapped in the cave, the other Shadow Men attempt to kill her and Julian rescues her and nurses her back to health, visibly shaken. It shows his humanity, for once. They have a nice chat, where Julian explains how Shadow Men come into existence. Their names are carved onto a runestave. If you destroy the carving, they'll disappear. The moment between them passes almost as quickly as it began and Julian releases Jenny so she can continue playing his game. At least he's fair.
Once outside and reunited with her friends, Jenny heads to the arcade in search of a gold doubloon. She decides to try her luck with a fortune telling machine and she recognizes the animatronic wizard inside as...Her grandfather. So that's where he disappeared to when the Shadow Men took him ten years ago. Julian did tell her the shadow version of Joyland Park was created back then. Now we know why. A fortune comes out directing everyone to the Fun House.
The only thing worth mentioning about the Fun House is that the friends find Summer, alive, inside. She didn't die during the game in the first book, which means Julian isn't quite the monster he pretends to be. Don't get me wrong, he's still horrible. But he's slightly less horrible and at least he's better than Tom.
When they finally receive the third coin, Jenny admits to herself that, in a way, she loves Julian. With all three coins in their possession, the group crosses the bridge that leads to Treasure Island. Inside the lighthouse at the end of the bridge, as promised, are Tom and Zach. Julian appears and in a scene straight out of Phantom of the Opera's Final Lair sequence, he grants Jenny and her friends their freedom and demands Tom get her out of there before he changes his mind. Just one problem though...
The other Shadow Men are there now and they still want Jenny after all these years. Julian screams at the Shadow Men to stop and they tell him the only way they can let her go is if someone else takes her place. Tom, Dee, Zach, Audrey and Michael all volunteer as tribute, because apparently, Jenny is "worth more" than any of them and to be honest, I really don't get it because she's the most boring protagonist in any book I've ever read. Summer attempts to offer her life in exchange for Jenny's, but she faints before she has a chance and she probably should have really been killed off in the first book because she adds nothing to this story.
Jenny, obviously, doesn't allow her friends to sacrifice themselves for her and agrees to go with the Shadow Men. Until Julian punches one of them in the mouth. He yells at her to run through the door, back to her own world. Jenny catches a glimpse of a runestave in one of the creature's hands and then, a knife pierces the name on it. Julian's name. She runs to Julian and her friends help her drag him through the door back into her grandfather's house. Then Julian dies. Jenny chooses to wear his ring. It's corny. I wish it had been Tom who died instead. The book ends with the possibility of Julian's name being written onto the runestave again one day...
So here's the thing. L.J. Smith said she plans on writing a followup to the original trilogy and I hope she is actually the one writing it because the followup to The Secret Circle trilogy was ghostwritten and it ruined everything I loved about those books. However, I hope if she does write another book, it doesn't follow the plot she already teased where Jenny is marrying Tom in a week (WHY?) and Julian comes back to play another game that involves brainwashing her and all her friends. I think that's the most frustrating part for me. After everything they've been through, after Jenny has beaten Julian at his own games three times, he still comes back to try to force his way into her life? I thought at the end of The Kill, things wrapped up nicely for them. If he comes back and starts screwing with her life again, it erases any progress he made towards being a decent man. I'm all for bringing Julian back, but do it in a way where Jenny chooses to be with him because she wants to.
No comments:
Post a Comment