Games Untold

Hawthorne House is symbolic of family and legacy. This “grand mansion” is the wealthy Hawthorne family’s primary home. In “The Cowboy and the Goth,” Libby describes the house as “a forty-thousand-square-foot Wonderland with a basketball court and a bowling alley and two theaters and a spa” (288). When Libby first visits the estate, she’s convinced that she’s “going to get lost or break something or sneeze on some priceless artifact that’s just lying around” (288). However, she soon discovers that the house is a proverbial playground for the Hawthorne boys. The brothers—Jameson Hawthorne, Nash Hawthorne, Xander Hawthorne, and Grayson Hawthorne—use the space to stage games, competitions, and other themed, raucous activities. The house is the primary backdrop for the story “$3CR3T $@NT@,” which features the characters’ fun-loving game of Secret Santa in the weeks leading up to Christmas. Throughout December, the Hawthorne boys, Avery Grambs, and Libby Grambs race around the mansion, building forts, chasing each other with water guns and tinsel bombs, and giving each other gifts.

In these ways, the house embodies the Hawthornes’ unique expression of love and family. They subvert expectations by treating their home not as a museum but as an amusement park, reshaping its place in the family.