By: Catherine Steadman
“Games take us as close as is acceptable to the strategies we use in life. Games reveal our most base instinct: the instinct to survive. Under the mask of enjoyment, we reveal ourselves, we reveal how we play at life, our methods, how we navigate others’ strengths and weaknesses.”
The Family Game
*This post contains spoilers for The Family Game
Overview:
Harry is a novelist on the brink of stardom; Edward, her husband-to-be, is seemingly perfect. In love and freshly engaged, their bliss is interrupted by the reemergence of the Holbecks, Edward’s eminent family and the embodiment of American old money. For years, they’ve dominated headlines and pulled society’s strings, and Edward left them all behind to forge his own path. But there are eyes and ears everywhere. It was only a matter of time before they were pulled back in . . .
The Family Game
After all, even though he’s long severed ties with his family, Edward is set to inherit it all. Harriet is drawn to the glamour and sophistication of the Holbecks, who seem to welcome her with open arms, but everything changes when she meets Robert, the inescapably magnetic head of the family. At their first meeting, Robert slips Harry a cassette tape, revealing a shocking confession which sets the inevitable game in motion.
What is it about Harry that made him give her that tape? A thing that has the power to destroy everything? As she ramps up her quest for the truth, she must endure the Holbecks’ savage Christmas traditions all the while knowing that losing this game could be deadly.
The Games
Krampusnacht
If you are familiar with Krampus, he finds children that are bad and punishes them. He is a counterbalance to Saint Nicholas. In this game, the children of the family hide from Krampus in a dark house, searching for the evergreen twig which ends the game. After the game is over, all of the participants get presents left for them in their shoes.
I found myself getting mad at Harriet for her reaction to Krampusnacht. As someone who’s family has this culture background, I took offense. Harriet acts like this is something only crazy people would do when a large population of Europeans know about Krampus and do some sort of celebration. Don’t get me wrong, this family took it pretty far but she was super judgy even before she saw what the game was.
The game wouldn’t have been such a big deal if Edward had explained it to Harriet ahead of time. However, that is part of the family’s initiation to have the new person not know what to expect. Yes, it is mean and a form of hazing but I know family’s who do similar things to newbies.
The Krampusnacht tradition while scary seems like a really fun thing to do. I would definitely just hide the entire time though and wait for someone else to find the evergreen. It would be much more fun to be a nonparticipating adult then the children being chased.
Christmas Eve
On Christmas Eve the Hobeck family plays a scavenger hunt for their presents. Seems straight forward enough. However, Harriet finds out that only one person gets their present. The presents are something that they desperately need or want. The winner also gets to know what everyone else’s present is, thus having power and knowledge over the rest of the family for the year.
Imagine growing up in a household where each year your biggest secrets are revealed to your siblings and used against you? That is awful parenting and leads to your children being terrible adults.
This year is the last year that the game is played due to Edward’s actions. So, the family does learn a hard lesson after seeing what Edward has become.
Robert’s Game
Throughout the story, Robert is playing his own game with Harriet. Robert learns of Harriet’s past, revealing on tape that he knows she killed the driver that killed her parents when she was young. He also takes credit for the many murders that Edward committed over the past twenty years.
He wants Harriet to be the one to kill Edward. He knows that Harriet is a killer and hopes that she will see that for the good of everyone, Edward needs to be eliminated. In the end she does it for the sake of her unborn child. She is also able to save some of his family who, while bad people, are not murderers…just rich jerks.
Overall,
I really enjoyed this book. Rich people behaving badly is always a trope that I will get behind. Add in the Christmas setting and odd family traditions and I am in 100%.
I would love to give this book 5 stars but I don’t think that I can if I don’t want to read the book again. One time is enough to enjoy the story. Everyone rates differently and unfortunately that is my threshold to give a book a perfect star rating.
Rating: 4.5/5 stars
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