The Forbidden Game series is written by L.J. Smith and is comprised of three books: The Hunter, The Chase and The Kill. And if you're anything like me, it's one of the best things to ever happen to young adult fiction because it's about a group of friends who play a board game that preys on their greatest fears. (Remember that game Nightmare that came with a VHS tape? It's even worse.) I love board games and I love being scared, throw the two of those things together and you've got my approval, no matter what else happens on those pages.
About what happens on those pages though...Before I started reading Ready Player One, someone gave me the disclaimer (multiple times) that it "doesn't have the best writing." "It isn't Shakespeare," he said. I don't even think he likes Shakespeare. Anyway. To me, "good writing" isn't about browsing through a thesaurus to find new descriptive words to replace everything with. It's not about writing something that sounds like a thesis. It's about having the right tone for the characters you're writing for. In that respect, I thought Ready Player One was very well written. The characters spoke exactly the way I would expect them to, and I really enjoyed the writing style. It was like listening to people I would want to be friends with, and because of that it held my attention. Again, not the point, but I wanted to explain my point of view on this subject before saying this next bit...The Forbidden Game series does not have good writing. Even The Secret Circle series (also by L.J. Smith) did not have good writing. Teenagers don't exclaim, "Oh, Tom!" every time they're exasperated, like a 1950's TV housewife. To be honest though, I don't really care about the writing at all because The Forbidden Game and The Secret Circle series are some of my favorite books from when I was younger and I still love them now, I still go back and reread them every few years.
This will have to be a three part series. I want to talk about everything because let me tell you, The Forbidden Game is a roller coaster ride.
The Hunter starts off with our protagonist, Jenny, trying to find an interesting board game to play during the birthday party she's throwing for her undeserving boyfriend, Tom. She just happens to randomly stumble into a game shop she's never noticed before (no big deal), the kind that carries games like Jumanji. Weird, one of a kind games that you probably shouldn't ever play, considering the plot of this entire book. I wish it existed in real life. Here, Jenny meets an employee so beautiful, she literally forgets her boyfriend's existence. Seriously, the book says, "She forgot Tom's existence." So you know that relationship is rock solid. (In Jenny's defense, Tom is a dick.) The extremely beautiful man offers Jenny The Game. "Mystery. Danger. Seduction. Fear. Secrets revealed. Desires unveiled. Temptation." (Whoa, calm down there, this is a party for HIGH SCHOOLERS.) He hands her...A plain white box, the size of Monopoly. Maybe Jenny should just cancel the party. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ But no, she decided to take her chances with the box that gives no clue as to what's inside. Is it empty? Is it actually Monopoly? Are there spiders inside? Is Tom even worth all this trouble? (No, he is not.) Jenny pays $20 for The Game and heads home. (Imagine paying $20 for a game. I paid around $100 for the Dark Souls board game.)
We're introduced to Jenny's friends at this point, but who cares? None of them are that fascinating and the dialogue is mediocre at best, so they're not worth elaborating on. Instead, let's focus on the fact that Tom gave Jenny a stuffed rabbit with the words "I love you" on it, but he won't tell her he loves her in public. "The fact that he wouldn't say the words in public just made this secret confession all the sweeter." Jenny, you idiot. And let's also focus on the fact that Jenny feels the need to wear a long skirt and pull her hair back, like she's living on the damn prairie, because that's what her boyfriend likes. It's important to acknowledge this because it's the only reason she changes her previous outfit and the way her hair was already styled. Tom tells her how to dress and how to wear her hair because he's controlling and wow do I hate this guy (for many reasons, including the fact that he calls Jenny stupid and never considers her feelings, instead worrying about his own). Maybe if he weren't so self-involved, Jenny wouldn't have felt the need to play The Game and the entire thing could have been avoided.
Tom decides to open the box and check The Game out. Inside, the contents are rather surprising. There are pieces to a 3-foot-tall Victorian paper house, furniture, blank paper dolls (that should be drawn to represent each individual player) and also paper dolls of the Shadow Man (who looks exactly like the employee from the game store) and his friends the Creeper (a snake) and the Lurker (a wolf), cards to tell them what actions to take and instructions which state you'll run into a different nightmare in each room as you attempt to reach the top floor, all while avoiding the Shadow Man. If you run into him, "he'll bring to life your darkest fantasies and make you confess your most secret fears." Each player has to draw their nightmare on a piece of paper, then they're shuffled and placed face down in each room, to be looked at upon entering. The final part of setup requires dimming the lights and reciting an oath, swearing that they're playing of their own free will and the game is real.
...Anddd because they're all stupid enough to follow through on that last step, they're sucked into the paper house. Here, they meet Julian, whom Jenny recognizes as the employee from the game store. He informs the friends that they are playing against him and if he wins, his prize is Jenny. The friends vanish to separate areas of the house and Jenny is left alone in the parlor with Julian. (I acknowledge that Julian is probably a psychopath, but if forced to choose, I would rather be stuck with him than Tom. At least he's interesting.) Julian explains that the door back to the real world is on the top floor of the house and if Jenny makes it there, she can leave, along with any friends she finds along the way. He also warns her that if you die in the game, you die for real. And with that, the game begins!
Spoilers after the jump.
As Jenny makes her way through this hellish, nightmare house collecting her friends, she encounters aliens on a UFO, dark elves in the Black Forest, people turning into plants, a messy bedroom, a "cyber hunter," and she kisses her cousin, who actually turns out to be Julian pretending to be her cousin, which somehow disgusts her even more than kissing her actual cousin. (This was unnecessary.) The only way to escape these nightmares is by finding a door that leads out of them. The only major spoiler I want to mention is that one of Jenny's friends doesn't survive their nightmare. This plot point carries over into the second book and it affected my opinion of Julian.
After living through everyone but Tom's nightmares, we get to Jenny's, something that occurred in her grandfather's basement. And that's the reason behind everything that's happened to her and her friends during The Game. Somehow, five-year-old Jenny let herself into her grandfather's house and decided to go into the basement to look for him. But you know how kids are, they have to touch everything, except, it seems, the items of protection scattered all over the place. Of course those were all left alone and Jenny touched the most dangerous thing in there, a door with the rune "Nauthiz"carved into it, for containment. Through the door was a world of ice, filled with eyes staring back at her. This part is very Lovecraftian and thus beyond description, so I'll get to the point. Julian was one of the things on the other side of that door and when Jenny opened it as a child, he saw her and fell in love with her. And then stalked her for years until this opportunity presented itself. I guess. In a desperate attempt to save Jenny from the Shadow Men, her grandfather sacrificed himself in her place. He should have just let them have her if Julian was going to cause all this trouble anyway.
Once that nightmare is over, Jenny and her friends make it to the top of the house, where her boyfriend has been waiting, only to find a giant snake and wolf guarding their way out. Jenny tells Julian she'll give him what he wants if he lets her friends go. She'll "willingly" be with him. He produces a ring out of thin air that says "All I refuse & Thee I chuse" (yes, that's how it is spelled in the book, I didn't write the damn thing) and explains that once she puts that ring on, there's no way to back out of the promise she's making to him. Jenny accepts the ring and Julian tells her friends they're free to go, the two of them going back to the room resembling Jenny's grandfather's basement. And with that, she tricks Julian and locks him in the closet her grandfather had kept him in all those years ago.
Everyone (those left alive, anyway) escapes and ends up back in Jenny's house, where Tom tells Jenny that his biggest nightmare was losing her. Maybe he should have treated her better then? And of course at this point, while everyone is distracted, two guys break into Jenny's house and steal The Game, leaving the possibility open for them to set Julian free so the series can continue on.
I mean it when I say I genuinely like the idea of this book. Does it have the best writing? Not even close. But it's a quick read and it's entertaining and it's the perfect combination of some of the things I love the most, horror and board games.
L.J. Smith has said she'll return to this series eventually, but if the newer Secret Circle books are any indication of what we can expect, I really hope she doesn't. I'm pretty sure those were ghostwritten, but who is to say that this won't be, too?
Writing: 3/5
Plot: 4/5
Originality 5/5
Dumbest line in the book: "Her cool porcelain beauty contrasted with her flirtatious lashes." What does this even mean?
Runner up: "They were about the most strapping youths she'd ever seen..." Teenagers DO NOT TALK LIKE THIS. Even in 1994 when this book was released, they didn't talk like this. Can you imagine Kelly from 90210 calling Dylan (or Brandon, depending on the day) strapping? Or let's even jump ahead a few years to Buffy. Would she have said that about Angel? (Or Spike. Let's go with Spike. I hated Angel.) No. You know why? Because no one says that except my mom.
"Oh, ____!" count - I gave up counting once it hit 20.
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