L.J. Smith was the creator and first writer ofThe Vampire Diaries, a supernaturalyoung-adult book series adapted into a hit CWshowand its spin-off, Legacies. However, her best and most original work is not The Vampire Diariesor even The Secret Circle -- which WBTV also adapted for CW.
Smith's best work isThe Forbidden Game, a 1994 trilogy about board games, romance, Nordic mythology, haunted houses fueled by hidden fears and abandoned amusem*nt parks; it is Labyrinth meets Cabin in the Woods meets . The series is receiving a TV adaptation for Warner Brothers Television,so let's take a closer look at it.
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The Story
Thefirst book, The Hunter,starts with Jenny Thornton, a goody-to-shoes teenager, who is planning her long-term boyfriendTom's birthday. Running from a group of thugs, she hides in the mysterious shop More Games, where the owner coaxes her to buy a blank box. When Jenny's friends open it at the party, they find a cardboard haunted house and detailed instructions to play,which includes writing down their deepest fears, reciting the Oath of the Game and using cards to guide their movements.
Barely nine cards in, the group gets sucked into the haunted house. Julian, the owner of More Games, is waiting for them. He is a Shadow Man in love with Jennywho would like her to remain by his side for eternity,meaning that the group will be trapped until she accepts, they beat the game or they die. Then, for good measure, Julian imprisons Tom at the top of the house and gives Jenny a hard time limit.
As Jenny moves through the house, shefaces her fears (and her friends' nightmares), recontextualizing her own past, family and relationships. Jenny's thoughts shape the house, much like Cabin in the Woods or the maze in Labyrinth, and each chapter is a multi-layered magical nightmare. The following two books,The ChaseandThe Killing, take these themes deeper into the shadows.
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The Characters
Jenny Thornton is the "perfect" teenager harboring a secret so dark that she doesn't even know it's there. When The Hunter starts, the center of her universe is Tom Locke, her boyfriend, who takesher for granted and cannot quite see her as an independent person with her own desires. Julian, the antagonist, is the youngest of the Shadow Men, a malevolent race of otherwordly beings with a taste for humans. Shadow Men have a moral code ranging from non-existent to evil trickster Fey. However, Julian's interest in Jenny is so all-encompassing and excessive that it contrasts nicely with Tom's initial apathy.
Jenny's friends are Dee, her smart and blunt martial artist best friend; Audrey, the cultivated daughter of a diplomat; Michael, the perfect goofy geek; Summer, Jenny's naive childhood pal; and Zach, Jenny's introverted cousin. Each member of the group fits a D&D archetype, but they are also fully-fledged characters with realistic flaws, qualities, noble gestures and petty bickering rivalries.
Smith also tackles many controversialand underrepresented topics for the time. For instance, in The Hunter, Dee's dread of alien abductions is connected not only with her fear of disappointing her computer scientist mother, but also with her identity as the only African-American woman of the group and the history of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. On a different note, though it's never made explicit, Zach is implied to be on the autism spectrum, and his personal fear reflects his relationship with society and himself.
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The Structure
The Forbidden Game novels are structured like three different games. Jenny's escape from the haunted house in The Hunter is a co-op obstacle race against time,The Chase is a real-world, large-scale version of Fox & Flock, and The Kill is a treasure hunt set in an amusem*nt park between worlds.
Eachnovelsis also carefully crafted in a ring structure where theendingmirrors the beginning. The Hunter begins with Jenny being scared of two potential muggers and ends with her community being scared of Jenny and her friends. The Chase starts with a hunter becoming the prey and ends with Jenny turning into the hunter. The Kill's ending alsocloses the circle perfectly and deserves to be experienced without spoilers. This attention to craft and detail is astounding, and the series' simple language and target market belie an intricate plot chock-full of subtle foreshadowing and seamless planning.
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The Romance and the Myths
The Forbidden Game is a modern take on the myth of Hades and Persephone, in which the Greekgod of the Underworld fell in love with the maiden goddess of spring and took her underground, tricking her into becoming the Queen of the Underworld. Hades' good nature --compared to his brothers -- and Persephone's ascension to power makes it a popular myth among women. Julian, like Hades, is the perfect villain, trickster and antihero, and Jenny, who starts out as a bland and subdued Valley Girl, ends the trilogy as a complex and powerful woman.
The Forbidden Game also draws heavily also from Nordic mythology. Julian and the Shadow Men come from Niflheim, he has a pet wolf and snake, and he thinks of himself as "Loki." There are alsoUFO sightings, European folklore, surrealist art, romantic poetry, Elizabethan traditions and the Jungian school of thought, plus countless winks at urban legends and real-world horror, from school shooters to the childish fear of going to the toilet. Warner Brothers' plan to tackle The Forbidden Game trilogy is ambitious, as they will have to adapt Smith's YA masterpiece into a TV series. Still, the announcement of theshow will bring these books out of the long shadow cast byThe Vampire Diaries, something it has long deserved.
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