Why a Booktrail?
2000s: One game, Six students, Five survivors.
Black Chalk
What you need to know before your trail
A game amongst students which starts off harmlessly enough but which escalates to something that no-one could have ever imagined.
Their game starts off with childish dares and humiliations similar to those of any fresher club initiation style pranks, but with the various personalities of those taking part in the game clashing and exploding with tragic and chilling consequences.
To up the stakes, the game is being led and financed by Game Soc – a society which consists of a group of older students. Initially thought of as just the money and weirdness behind the game, it soon becomes clear that theirs is not so much of a backseat role as they would have you believe.
As the stakes rise and the dares become more dangerous and extreme, the student’s personalities change with them. As psychological warfare looms, those involved become sadistic and ruthless as they exploit their growing knowledge of each other via the game and want to do everything to attack the other’s defences.
Locations
ResetTravel Guide
The settings of Oxford and New York is neatly done as the game takes place in the university and scenes here are often fast and furious and chilling to the extreme. Contrast that with modern day New York where one of the ‘players’ is now living an OCD existence, holed up in an appartment, revealing the true scale of the mind games and mental trauma he has undoubtedly suffered.
Oxford
Oxford is particularly well described and the descriptions of the university architecture and lifestyle is portrayed as if you were there. There is one particularly accurate literary description of the whole place –
“Living in Oxford was like living submerged in an ocean of Oscar Wildes”.
There is not much more I can say without giving away any of the plot and I would have hated to have known anymore than this before I began reading. The academic setting, the memories of fresher’s week and the dual backdrops prove to be an explosive mix. Pitt College, Oxford was built in 1620 and is a splendour of Gothic architecture.
Something that one of the characters says could be both about the game as well as the novel itself –
‘……the longer you stay in, the more dangerous things become.’
New York
The parallel narrative skips neatly between Oxford and modern day New York where Jolyon is now living as a hermit, holed up in his apartment. He is a changed character, has OCD and appears to be on a downward spiral as he is a lot worse than what he was like at university. The game has been very dangerous and it’s New York that is the final scene of it all – how things have turned out. A phone call leads him to abandon his hermit lifestyle, or at least attemtpt to and suggests that the Game is still being played. This New York life is lonely and creepy. He lives in an apartment, hidden away from everything and everyone.
His apartment in the East Village:
“…what a city of light and shadows New York becomes when the sun beats down and the tall buildings toss out their cool grey capes”.
Booktrailer Review
Susan: @thebooktrailer
There is not much I can say without giving away any of the plot and I would have hated to have known anymore than this before I began reading. The academic setting, the memories of fresher’s week and the dual backdrops prove to be an explosive mix.
Something that one of the characters says could be both about the game as well as the novel itself –
‘……the longer you stay in, the more dangerous things become.’
This was a clever novel in many ways however as during the game, you get a sense of just what it involves and how it has made these friends act the way they do. It will more than likely be compared to Donna Tartt’s The Secret History but this is quite something else – the structure for one is very different and it reads like a clock ticking down to the final conclusion -The book is separated in to Roman Numerals, which count down….like a ticking time bomb towards D (500), a number which will prove to be significant for at least one of the group.
The book is disturbing on many levels. It’s all about control and the game of control – a kind of puppet show being played out in the halls of academia here but when you look at it, it’s like a game of chess – the tactics, the polker face, the strategy involved…all plays out and the game gets very dark indeed.
It’s very disturbing and you really will question things once you’ve finished.
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