Author: L.J. Smith
Paperback, 750 pages
Published June 8th 2010 by Simon Pulse
(first published 1994)
Reading Genre: YA Paranormal Romance
I read this back in October, finishing it on Halloween. That's the right time of year to get into this book because certain events in it do take a bit of a macabre turn, which is not my usual cup of tea, considering my opinion of the horror genre. However, Smith is such a masterful, imaginative storyteller that the book kept me hooked all the way to the end. It takes a remarkable writer to be able to maintain a reader's interest even when that reader isn't quite comfortable with what's going on in the story.
This is actually an omnibus edition, containing three books previously published separately: The Hunter, The Chase, and The Kill. At the beginning of the first book, a group of high school friends get together one night, in order to celebrate the birthday of one of their number. Tom, Jenny Thornton's boyfriend, is a star athlete, and her childhood sweetheart. Jenny wants him to have a very special birthday party, so she goes shopping for a special game, one which will ensure everyone, including Tom, will have a good time.
She does purchase a game, packaged in a simple white box, from a mysterious, silver-haired boy named Julian, whom she meets after stepping through a door painted on a street mural. Once she brings this game to the house where the party is being celebrated, she and her friends realize it's much more than an ordinary party game. It's an actual portal into the Shadow World, where each of the friends will have to confront their most dreaded nightmares. This is where I nearly stopped reading, since, of course, the word "nightmare" is a red flag for me! But again, I couldn't stop. I suppose this was a case of morbid fascination, aided by Smith's writing skilsl.
Jenny, the main protagonist of all three books, turns out to be Julian's obsession. He is a Shadow Man, and has been observing her from his world ever since her birth. He's madly in love with her, staging the first game, as well as the subsequent ones, for the sole purpose of winning her love. Although this sounds very romantic, Julian's behavior actually becomes scary. He has all of the characteristics of a stalker, dangerously bent on attaining the one girl he knows he's not supposed to have, the girl he's drawn to like a moth to the flame...
At the end of the first book, Jenny manages to imprison Julian in a closet by shouting out a rune whose function is to contain whatever (or whoever) needs to be contained. She had learned this from her grandfather's papers, which were kept in the basement of the house she had lived in as a child.
Julian is not permanently gone, as we might suspect.
In the second book, all but one of the friends have emerged from the game, which has subsequently been stolen by two boys who had been following Jenny down a street, at the beginning of the first book. All of the friends are saddened by the loss of the one who didn't make it out of the game. No one believes their story related to the disappearance of the friend, either. No one, that is, except Aba, Dee's wise, artistic grandmother, who loves to tell African fables.
Julian reappears, giving the group new riddles; this he had also done in the first game. Things are different here -- he spirits each of the friends away to his world, one by one, even as those who are left behind fruitlessly try to stop him. In this book as well as the third, they are drawn into a new game -- a "treasure hunt", as Julian euphemistically refers to it. The prize is double -- Tom and Zach, Jenny's cousin, whom Julian has imprisoned in an amusement park in the Shadow World. Jenny must find her way to them, with the help of those of her friends who were rescued in the second book.
As is evident from what I've written thus far, this is a fascinatingly complex story, full of very unexpected twists and turns, scary suspense, and some very touching moments. The end, too, is totally unexpected, since a main character must engage in the ultimate sacrifice in order to save a life. I was saddened and surprised by this event, but realized that it was a totally fitting one, nevertheless.
The story has strongly drawn characters. I especially like Jenny. Her strength comes from what she is -- a truly innocent soul. She therefore possesses the power of Good, although she's not aware of this. She is very loyal to her boyfriend, Tom, in spite of the fact that she initially feels a very powerful attraction to Julian. She is also the stabilizing center of her group of friends, the natural leader, even though no one has appointed her to this role. She simply grows into it through her actions, which are geared to keeping her friends safe. She feels responsible for them, knowing that, if it weren't for Julian's obsession with her, they wouldn't have been dragged into these strange, spooky adventures.
Dee is another of my favorite characters. She too, is a strong heroine, but in the physical sense, as Jenny is in the spiritual sense. Dee is totally fearless, confronting evil head-on. She has an intellectual side to her, however, which she downplays because she mistakenly believes she's inferior in this area.
Then there's Julian. He seems to be the quintessentially evil villain, at least, at first. But his love for Jenny changes him in ways he's not willing to accept, so that, at the end of the book, the reader is almost ready to forgive him for all his nefarious deeds, and he has become more of a dark, tragic hero. Highly compelling stuff, this! You want to hate him, but somehow, you can't, not completely. He reminds me a bit of Damon in The Vampire Diaries, although I would say that Julian is much more attractive.
L.J. Smith has once again entertained and enthralled me with her characters, her incredibly rich powers of invention, and the flow of her stories, which, even when they're a bit too much on the scary side, manage to capture my attention until the very last word has been read. I don't think I'll ever want to re-read this collection, but I will certainly never forget it!
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