Games Untold

In the collection’s final stories, the author depicts the primary cast of characters engaging in lively bonding activities that reiterate their transformative familial connections. In “$3CR3T $@NT@,” Libby, Avery, Jameson, Grayson, Xander, and Nash celebrate the Christmas holiday by staging their own version of Secret Santa. The game is defined by fun-loving antics, which the brothers and their girlfriends embrace to express their love for one another. Because the “Hawthorne Secret Santa [is] part Assassins, part Capture the Flag, and wholly competitive” (378), it captures the family’s unique dynamic and culture, illustrating how they have transformed the Hawthorne family. By setting this scene in a traditional family holiday, Barnes emphasizes how the Hawthorne family has taken on a new shape and how they subvert tradition, building their own legacy.

This Christmas tradition also conveys how Finding and Accepting Love has transformed Avery, Libby, and the four Hawthorne boys. Just a year prior, Avery was “still recovering from the coma” and no one “played Secret Santa” (392). In the narrative present, the characters are celebrating the tragedies they’ve survived and the obstacles they’ve overcome together. Their unique Secret Santa game also proves that the characters will not let their wealth or legacy dictate how they relate to each other, showing how they control the Impact of Wealth and Legacy on Identity. Although they’re all residing at a palatial estate, the characters don’t behave in a stuffy or refined manner. Instead, they redefine the Hawthorne legacy, converting Tobias’s love of puzzles and games to their own, updated version. 

Their raucous Christmas celebration captures their desire to overcome the Complexity of Family Dynamics and maintain their individuality, and Barnes furthers these explorations in “What Happens in the Tree House,” within the context of Nash’s bachelor party. This narrative similarly features the Hawthorne brothers’ antics, games, sports, and feats—activities they have engaged in to maintain their brotherly bond since they were young. At this turning point in Nash’s life, the brothers don’t abandon their traditions and try to be different people. Rather, they continue their rituals to prove that their bond will outlast life’s changes. This is particularly clear in Nash’s character arc. When he answers his brothers’ difficult would-you-rather question about Tobias, he asserts that he won’t let Tobias cloud his relationship, his future, or his identity. Because he’s “livin’ [his] life on [his] own terms […] [g]etting married to a girl of [his] choosing, […] [h]elping people, when and where [he] want[s] to” (411), Nash tells his brothers that he’d grant Tobias access to his life. Nash’s answer is reflective of his character growth—he is refusing to allow his wealth and legacy to dictate his identity and asserting that his relationships with his brothers and fiancé are more important than his complex dynamic with Tobias. The same is true of the subsequent scene where the boys toast Nash and promise to maintain their relationship. Barnes uses these intimate scenes of dialogue between the brothers to capture their growth and the transformative nature of their relationship.

The final story, “Pain at the Right Gun,” illustrates the cyclical narrative structure of the overarching collection, returning to the beginning of the collection to resolve Jameson and Avery’s narrative. The story is set on the night that Jameson disappears in Prague, returning to the setting of the collection’s opening story “That Night in Prague.” By returning to this narrative moment from the collection’s start, the author creates a subtextual commentary on the passage of time and the interconnection between lives, events, mysteries, and people. In the story’s final scene, Jameson himself highlights this idea when his conversation with Alice makes him realize the “benefits to physical reminders of the past. To remind of costs and risks, stories told and untold” (428). Alice’s character is symbolic of the past, raising the specter of Jameson’s unresolved relationship with Tobias. She compels Jameson to reconcile with his grandfather’s legacy and make a choice about his future. Instead of staying with Alice, Jameson chooses to return to Avery and his brothers, making both a literal and metaphorical decision to leave the past behind. This decision conveys Jameson’s love for his family and his desire to outlive Tobias’s legacy.