[ at nine ] a fanlisting and extensive forbidden game shrine

front & back cover blurbs

The Hunter

Front :: United Kingdom cover 1995; Scholastic - This game's for real; North American cover 1994; Archway PB - If he wins, she's his forevermore....
Inside :: United Kingdom cover 1995; Scholastic - It says that we each have to swear that we're playing this game of our own free will, and that the game is real." Tom turned the lid of the box around for them to se. On the inside cover, above the printed instructions, was a large symbol. It was like a squared off and inverted U, the two uneven horns of the letter pointing downward. It was deeply impressed in the cover and colored - as well as Jenny could tell in the dim light - rusty red.
Tom was reading from the instructions: "'There is a Shadow World, like our own but different, existing alongside ours but never touching. Some people call it the world of dreams, but it is as real as anything else'... and then it says that entering the Shadow World can be dangerous, so you play at your own risk... It says that the game can be hazardous to your life. You have to swear you understand that...; North American cover 1994; Archway PB - "Can I help you?" The voice spoek from righ tbehind her. Jenny turned - and lost her breath.
eyes. Blue eyes. Except that they weren't just blue, they were a shade Jenny couldn't describe. The only tme she's seen a blue like that was when she once happened to wake up at the precise instant of dawn and she's glimpsed an unbelievable, luminous color hat had lasted only a second before fading to the ordinaly blue of the sky.
No boy should have eyes as blue as that, and especially not surrounded by lashed so sheavy they seemed to weaigh his eyelids down. This boy had the most starling coloring she'd ever seen. His eyelashes were black, but his hair was white-true white, the color of frost, of tendrils of mist. He was... well, beautiful. But in the most exotic, unbanny way imaginable, as if he'd just stepped from another world. Jenny's reaction was instant, total, and absolutely terrifying. She forgot Tom's existence.
Back :: United Kingdom cover 1995; Scholastic - Play at your own risk...
When Jenny buys The Game from Julian, the gorgeous stranger with the dangerous blue eyes, she little realizes the stakes involved. Because this ia a game like no other, and soon she and her friends are playing for their lives...
Trapped in a house of horrors, running from the Shadow Man; this game is for real. The rules are Julian's, and Jenny is the prize. And if he wins, she's his for ever...; North American cover 1994; Archway PB - Play at your own risk.
He sold her the Game, and Jenny Thornton walked out mesmerized by Julian, the gorgeous cyber-punk with electric blue eyes and frost-white hair. When she and her friends open the plain white box at her boyfriend Tom's birthday party, she chills to te warning: "Entering the Shadow World can be deadly. Do so at your own risk." Spellbound, the piece together the cardboard Victorian house and decorate the rooms with their darkest nightmares. Suddenly the game is real! They're in the house of horrors running from The Shadow Man-Julian himself, who forces them to confront their worst nightmares or be lost in a private hell. It's Julian's game, and Jenny is the prize he's stalked for years. He'll do anything to win her as she bargains desperately for her body-and soul...

The Chase

Front :: He's come to claim what's his...
Inside :: She wanted to speak but she couldn't. She could only clutch the phone and listen.
"A isht..."
Damaged? No, that was even farther off. A-isht. Am-ish. Amished
Oh my God. Oh God oh God oh God...
Sheer black terror swept through her, and every hair on her body erected. She felt her eyes go wide and tears spring to them. In that instant she heard, really heard what the voice was saying. She knew.
Not vanished. It sounded like vanished, but it wasn't. It was something much worse. The whispery, distorted voice with the odd cadence was saying famished.
Famished.
Jenny threw the phone as hard as she could across the room. She was on her feet, her skin crawling, body washed with adrenaline. Famished. Famished. They eyes in the closet. The Shadow Men.
Those evil, ravenous eyes...
The better to eat you with, my dear.
Back :: If you run, the chase you...
When Jenny and her friends trapped the dangerous Shadow Man in his own paper house, they thought the Game was over. But now Julian's back, stalking his prey, and he's angry...
He wants to play another game. This time it's Lambs and Monsters - and the lambs don't stand a chance. One by one, Jenny's friends are vanishing... into the Shadow World. Jenny must bring them back, or pay a high price for her failure...

The Kill

Front :: Welcome to the pleasure dome...
Inside :: Then the whispering began. It started so softly that at first she thought it might be the blood rushing in her ears. But it was real. The voices were distant and musical - and menacing. What they were saying was too indistinct to be made out.
Shoulders hunched, Jenny turned her head slowly, trying to locate the sound. And there, in the darkness, she saw eyes.
They glowed with their own light, like firefox. They were cold, ravenous. She recognized them from her grandfather's closet.
The Shadow Men.
Back :: If you lose, there's the devil to pay...
The final challenge. Jenny and her friends must enter the Shadow Man's playground and defeat him on his own terms. And there are so few clues... and so much fear.
How can they overcome the horrors that await them: the walking dead, the doll that's somehow real... and the twisted Shadow Men themselves? There are no easy rides in the amusement park from hell, but if they don't win, they die...

Collector's Edition - North American cover 1997; Archway PB

Front :: If he wins, she's his forevermore....
Inside :: It All Started with a Board Game...
A simple white box with a magical glow. But when Jenny and her friends try to play it, the Game comes to life. Suddenly theye are in the dark world where Julian rules as Prince of Shadows. The Game is real, and they have to play it through. But the only way to win is the face their most secret fears.
Julian is in charge here, making their darkest nightmares reality. He will do anything to claim Jenny as his prize. Before the first Game is over, one of Jenny's friends will be killed in a way beyond imagination.
And that's just the beginning....
Once You Play, You Will Never Be the Same.
Back :: Prince of Shadows
He's watched Jenny Thornton for years. His name is Julian and he lives in the shadows, the youngest of an ancient race. From his own dark world he has seen Jenny's brightness and beauty, and for the first time felt a new emotion... love.
But Jenny has her own life: her friends, her boyfriend Tom. To capture her, Julian must trap them all. So he drawns them into the most forbidden of games-the contest for a human soul. The prize: Jenny's freedom. The stakes: all their lives. Jenny's friends are determined to herlp her win. But Julian is a master of the Game. Jenny's most despereate fight will be with him, this eerily handsome boy with electric blue eyes. He knows her deepest secrets, her darkest fears. He was almost infinite power. And the only thing he wants is for Jenny to surrender to him... body and soul....

Omnibus - North American, 2010, Simon Pulse

Front :: He's playing with her heart... and her life.
Back :: 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...

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