The Forbidden Game
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Forbidden Game trilogy is a series of books by L.J. Smith (Lisa Jane) about a girl named Jenny who has been watched for years by a shadow man named Julian. Julian had fallen in love with Jenny when she was the tender age of five when she accidentally opened a closet that was holding all of the Shadow Men in.
[edit] Plot summary
*Major Spoilers in plot ahead*In the first book, The Hunter, Julian has finally decided to claim Jenny as his own, but to do this a game must be played first. Jenny buys the game for a party thinking that it's just a game, but it ends up that once everything is set up, the game becomes real. Jenny and her friends each have to defeat their own nightmares, but if they lose then their souls belong to Julian. Dee, Audrey, Mike, Zach, Jenny, and Tom, Jenny's boyfriend, make it through their nightmares, but Summer failed to suvive through hers. To rescue everyone else Jenny promises herself to Julian before locking him back into the closet. Everyone but Summer makes it out, but the ring Julian gave her is still there. The group wants to burn the box which holds the game in it in the end but before they can come to a decision two men break in and steal the box, which holds both the game and Jenny's ring, and quickly leave.
In the second book of the trilogy, The Chase, the group of friends has to explain about the disappearance of Summer, while trying to find the box that contains the game. Julian was still trapped in the closet, but there was a chance that the two boys that stole the game might let Julian out. All of the friends begin to have nightmares, and unnatural weird occurrences at school are happening in the daytime. Finally, when Jenny is at the senior prom, Julian appears. Julian gives Jenny a chance to break free, but the stakes were the same as the last game. This time the game is "Goats and Tigers", where Julian is the tiger, and the friends are the goats trying to hide from him; for the goats to win, they have to find the Tiger's base. One by one Jenny's friends start disappearing, and Jenny is the only one left. She manages to find the base by tricking Julian. She finds her friends, but to get out they have to pass through a wall of flames. Everyone makes it but Tom and Zach, and to get them back again, along with Summer, Mike, Dee, Audrey, and Jenny have to find a way into the Shadow World.
In the last of the three, The Kill, the remaining four run away to Monessen, the place where Jenny's grandfather had lived before being taken away by the Shadow Men. They believed that there was a portal to the Shadow World there, and there was. When the four enter the Shadow World, they find themselves in a closed amusement park. After looking and experiencing some of the attractions, which are made to be like nightmares, Julian appears, and he tells them that if they find three Spanish doubloons in the amusement park, everyone will get to go free. The four friends search through the amusement park and find Summer, who is still alive. They also find three other souls being kept by the Shadow Men, the two boys who stole the game, and Jenny's grandfather who had been taken when Jenny opened the closet door. They set the three free without knowing the consequences, and they find the three doubloon coins to save Zach and Tom. Right as they all are leaving, the Shadow Men appear and say that the group has taken the souls, which were theirs. The older Shadow Men want to take Jenny's soul, but Julian says that he will take her place. The seven leave with some despair on Jenny's part, and get back home. When questioned what would happen if the Shadow Men brought Julian back to life, Jenny wished him well.
[edit] Characters
Julian: The youngest of the Shadow Men, an ancient race that lived in darkness. He fell in love with Jenny when she opened the closet, which the Shadow Men had been captured in by her grandfather, and watched Jenny for countless years making sure that nothing bad ever happened to her.
Jenny: The "Light to his darkness". She has a natural goodness around her and fought her way through challenges to save both herself and her friends. Julian offered her is love which she refused until the end because of her love for her boyfriend, Tom.
Tom: The boyfriend. He is best described as an athletic Jock. He has been dating Jenny since the second grade and will do practically anything to keep her safe.
Zach: Zach is Jenny's cousin who is into photography. He has problems with his father because Zach represents all that is new and modern while his father stays with tradition.
Mike: He is described as the lovable one in the bunch and is going out with Audrey. His father is a Science fiction novelist, which makes Mike know about a lot of things that are happening.
Audrey: Audrey is the newest one in the group because her father being an ambassador moved them around different countries for many years. She knows many things about other places and myths, but she still has a conflicting nature with Dee.
Dee: Dee holds the confidence and strength in the group and is described as an Egyptian princess. Dee tries to stick with traditions and athletics while trying to avoid new high technology things because those are the only things that she thinks can defeat her.
Summer: She is the caring loving one in the group, but not much is told about her because of her disappearance in the first book, but throughout she has almost an entire town trying to find out what really happened to her.
