When Jenny buys a game for her boyfriend, Tom, she finds herself inexplicably drawn to the guy behind the counter. There is something mysteriously alluring about Julian’s pale eyes and bleached-blond hair. And when he places the Game into her hands, she knows their connection is something deeper.
But as Jenny and her six friends begin to play the Game at Tom’s birthday celebration, a night of friends and fun quickly turns into a night of terror and obsessive love. Because the Game isn’t just a game – it’s the seven friends’ new reality, where Julian reigns as the Prince of the Shadows. One by one the friends must confront their phobias to win the Game. To lose the Game is to lose their lives. And that is only the beginning…
Warnings: Violence, Some body horror, Toxic relationships, Dubcon dynamics
Category: M/F
The Forbidden Game is a trilogy that I’ve been waiting for Halloween to review, and may be one of my favourite books I read this year. By the same author that brought us The Vampire Diaries is a YA supernatural horror romance adventure dripping with sensuality and seduction games, and I could not devour it fast enough. If you want a real sexy thriller for spooky season, this is the perfect pick!
WRITING
The Forbidden Game follows lead character Jenny and her friends as they are all kidnapped and whisked away in a supernatural world of nightmares, all for the purpose of Julian making Jenny his bride. Jenny and co are, naturally, not going to go down without a fight, and over the course of the trilogy engage in various ‘games’ with Julian as the game master, trying their best to survive what he throws at them and outsmart his tactics. What follows is an actually very effective horror story with all sorts of macabre twists and turns exploring a wide range of fears and phobias, all amidst Julian’s very compelling attempts to seduce Jenny into giving up and throwing in the towel to save herself and her friends. The combo of horror and sex is some of the best here that I have ever read despite the lack of any actual sexual content. Supernatural sexy dubcon at its absolute best. Now, this book does have its pitfalls- some of its treatment of its POC characters have not aged well, giving us a decidedly 90s approach to diversity that borders into fetishistic territory at times, so be aware of that going in.
EMOTIONAL ENGAGEMENT
While the side characters are a little lacking in the depth department, Jenny herself goes through a stunningly fascinating character arc, as her story is very much about coming into her own and finding her own personal agency. She is currently, at the start of the story, dating a guy named Tom- a typical highschool sweetheart story. But things with Tom are far from perfect and we get a lot of explorations of how her relationship with Tom veers into some toxic territory, with her prioritizing Tom’s wants and needs often over her own. By the end of the series, Jenny has stepped into her own agency and has decided to forge ahead on her own abilities and merits, and its a wonderful story of growth for her. That said, I never did feel like the story condemned Tom’s possessive and controlling behaviour quite enough- especially considering he is meant to be the ‘good boy’ to counter Julian’s role as ‘bad boy.’ The issues in their relationship are also unfortunately framed as a problem on Jenny’s end for not standing up for herself enough, rather than being a problem on Tom’s end- and Tom experiences precious little growth, certainly not enough for my satisfaction. On the other hand, Jenny’s relationship with Julian transforms in a variety of ways over the course of the story and was incredibly compelling, and the side characters while not explored nearly as much as Jenny do still get their own moments to display their personalities and their struggles.
WORLDBUILDING
The world of The Forbidden Game is a world of loosely Norse inspired mythology and sinister shadow beings. LJ Smith does a decent enough job pulling it all together into a coherent mythos of its own, even if I suspect it’s ties to any real mythology to be extremely vague at best. We have a shadow realm where creatures of shadow lurk and live, runic magic and practitioners, and rules by which the supernatural is governed. Since all of it is very fear themed it is a dark world that the kids visit, but it works well for a spooky atmosphere and an otherworldly villain that is written the way I frankly wish more authors wrote vampires- alluring, compelling, but sinister and evil. It’s also set, naturally, in the 90s and there’s a lot of very fun 90s aspects to the story and the horror elements such as ringing payphones and computer shenanigans that are extremely fun to read if you have 90s nostalgia like I do.
STEAMINESS
As this is a YA title, there are unfortunately no sex scenes in these books. Which is a crying shame because this series is dripping with so much more raw sexual energy than frankly most adult supernatural erotica. There are some steamy makeout scenes, but really its the cat and mouse nature of Julian and Jenny’s interactions that really sell this book. There is, every single time Julian is on the page, so much sexual tension that it feels like a erotica despite the lack of sex. Some of the chase down sequences might as well have ended in ravishment, and Julian is the perfect antiheroric sensual lead if you like a good noncon/dubcon dynamic. I could wax poetic about Julian for hours, and the way this book feeds my fear kink like none other. Seriously, adult erotica authors take note, because this is how you craft a compelling sexual narrative.
Seriously some of the best sexy horror out there, certainly the best of YA sexy horror. It’s a lot of fun, Julian is absolutely swoon worthy, and I cannot possibly recommend it enough. Spooky season is almost over so get your scary reading in now!
Have you read The Forbidden Game? Let me know what YOU thought by leaving me a comment!
Roses And Thorns 