The horror aspects in the first book were a bit cheesy, but still decent. It was a bit much, but I suppose it fit with the "Persephone and Hades" vibe that the story was going for. Smith trilogy" sort of character: the gorgeous blonde girl who was loved by everyone and viewed by everyone as being very good and kind. Smith's writing was as compulsively readable as I remembered it being, although it felt a bit dated, especially during the first book, and the computer scenes in the second book made me laugh a bit. Even though I'd adjusted my expectations for this reread, the trilogy's ending was still a bit disappointing. In reality, it's more like YA horror with romantic elements, or maybe a YA horror love story. I can tell you right now that the reason Teen Me was so disappointed was because I approached this trilogy as paranormal romance. I don't think I ever reread the Forbidden Game trilogy, though, and all I could remember about it was that it starred a hot evil guy and had a disappointing ending.
She was my go-to author for YA paranormal romance, and I loved several of her books enough to reread them multiple times. Smith was one of my top favorite authors when I was a teen, despite her book's frequently ugly covers (seriously, the original Night World covers were hideous, although they were at least more memorable than the current "face on a black background" omnibus covers). They end up in a deadly amusement park, and this time around Julian isn't the only threat they need to worry about. In the third book, Jenny and her friends must travel to the Shadow World for a rescue attempt. In the second book, everyone tries to adjust to the consequences of Book 1, and Julian's back for another game. The one putting them through all of this is Julian, an evil but handsome being who wants to make Jenny his. It seems like harmless fun, until the game becomes real, and Jenny, Tom, Zach, Dee, Audrey, Michael, and Summer are all trapped in the house and forced to face their fears if they want to survive. The game turns out to be a paper house, with paper figures you can draw on to look like the various players, and paper cards on which the players are expected to draw their worst fears. In the first book, Jenny is doing some last minute preparation for her boyfriend Tom's birthday party and stumbles across a mysterious game store, where she buys a game in a blank white box. This omnibus edition includes all three books in the trilogy. I thought the ending was predictable, it being the only logical way that I could see to resolve the love triangle, but it was still satisfying to read. Smith is great at creating a sense of horror, I didn't really feel the characters' pain, struggles and triumphs. Particularly in the first book, "The Hunter", I felt that the characters get over their nightmares too quickly and easily. The story is fast-paced and there are things happening in every chapter which kept my attention, but at the same time, it left little room for the author to delve deeper into her characters and flesh them out.
On the other hand, aside from Jenny and Julian, all the characters were boring stereotypes who only had the most shallow development at the end, and they were supposedly so important to Jenny but it was difficult to see why. On one hand, the concept is interesting and well-executed, the female lead is a strong character who undergoes a lot of growth through the book, and the story was simply compelling. I'm a little torn between giving this a 3 or 4.
0 kommentar(er)
