A Suit of Armor
The series The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes starts by introducing a teenage girl in poverty who suddenly is thrust into a "new world" when a mysterious, well-dressed, aristocrat summons the girl, Avery, to the willreading of a multi-billionaire. Although Avery originally thought it was some sort of joke, she soon realized that the man, Grayson Hawthorne, wasn't joking as the late Tobias Hawthorne left Avery most of his fortune of over 40 billion dollars. After a series of challenges in the first four books, Avery officially inherits the life-changing sum of money and, albeit difficultly, becomes part of the protective Hawthorne family, more specifically the four brothers, Jameson, Grayson, Xander, and Nash. Using the experience she has of living in poverty and sensing the power she controls, Avery decides to give away over 38 billion dollars by simply donating it and by creating an exclusive game called The Grandest Game.
Throughout the series, readers learn of Grayson Hawthorne's cold, protective, no-nonsense, and control-freak personality. However, in the sixth book, The Grandest Game, and at the end of the fourth, Grayson has a major character development arc. One of the main changes he undergoes is the change from his no-nonsense and never-wrong characteristics to being okay with making mistakes. When solving a portion of the "grandest game", Grayson reveals to another character, "'Growing up'... 'I was not allowed to make mistakes the way my brothers were. I was supposed to be the heir. I was held to a higher standard'... 'And now'...' I practice being wrong'" (Barnes 151). This change was something that, to most people, would seem like a ridiculous action, but to Grayson, it was just as difficult as any other substantial change of self. Even in admitting this Grayson had difficulty, as it was an extreme divergence of how his personality was when he was first introduced to the readers with his boxed-up demeanor.
The Grandest Game also develops Grayson Hawthorne's change from a cold, control freak to a much more understanding and caring figure even to his "opponents" in The Grandest Game. Although Grayson participates in the game he is not a true player as he is simply put into the challenge (an escape room) as a "piece of the puzzle". In the first book of the series, Avery meets Grayson and describes him by saying "What kind of person has the self-assurance that absolute?... Power was as much of a fact of life for this guy as gravity. The world bent to the will of Grayson Hawthorne" (Barnes 14). While this disposition can be clearly seen in scenes throughout the book, there are also multiple areas where Grayson is portrayed as a kind and sympathetic character. One of these is when Lyra, another player in the game, has a flashback of her father's death, "' Come back to me. Now. Look at me, Lyra... I've got you, Lyra.'...' I'm fine,' Lyra choked out. 'You don't have to be fine right now'" (Barnes 210). Grayson's actions in this scene show not only that he's grown from his original, closed, self but also that his protective nature prevailed despite the drastic development of his identity in this book.
Although The Grandest Game may not have been the most entertaining of the six books, it was most definitely the best book for character development. In this blog post, I have focused on the character development of Grayson Hawthorne, and although his story was fascinating, it was a minor part of the series. The majority of the series is spent developing the relationships between Avery and the Hawthorne family and of course, the puzzle, riddle, and history solving games that make up the plot of the novel. If you have yet to read this series then I would hope that this blog post tipped you in the right direction to start and move into the amazing world that Jennifer Barnes created and by the time you finish all six books, she may have published the seventh.
Work Cited
Barnes, Jennifer Lynn. The Grandest Game. First edition. New York, Little, Brown and Company, 2024
Comments
Post a Comment