If you were JLB, how would you have written the tgg trilogy?"
If I wrote tgg trilogy, okay... this is what's going to happen:
Book one -> would be about the grandest game itself and the OG characters. The POVs would be Rohan and Gigi.
- For Rohan, I'd focus on him actually winning the game, his ambition, his methodical nature, his strategic mind and give us glimpses of his past to show why winning matters so much to him.
- For Gigi, I'd focus much more on the shaky, explosive sister dynamic between her and Savannah because I genuinely think that's one of the most interesting relationships in the trilogy. I'd also have the characters play a much bigger role, especially Grayson, because their presence should actually matter.
Everyone would eventually be honest with Savannah after she starts threatening them, they'd tell her the truth, but that still wouldn't stop her because sometimes knowing the truth doesn't fix years of hurt.
The book would still end with Rohan winning the grandest game......except nobody would have time to celebrate.
Because while everyone was busy focusing on the game, the cult took advantage of the distraction and exposed every Hawthorne secret to the world, the family's reputation is destroyed, trust is shattered and chaos erupts everywhere. At first everyone believes Savannah and Eve are responsible, which only creates even more conflict and suspicion within the family and that's how the book ends: with the introduction of the cult and the terrifying realization that they're capable of ruining people's lives without anyone even realizing it was them.
Book two -> his book would belong entirely to Lyra.
Instead of randomly investigating her father's death, she'd accidentally discover something connected to it a hidden file, a secret room, maybe an underground archive filled with evidence, that discovery would push her into an investigation she never planned to begin.
Her search will lead her to Eve and Mattias, who already possess an incredibly detailed file about her father, through them, both Lyra and the readers will slowly uncover the truth behind her father's death and in the process discover the existence of the cult.
And this is where I'd fully develop the antagonists.
- what do they actually want?
- how long have they been operating?
I'd also introduce Odette here as an important character connected to that larger mystery.
Halfway through the novel, the story would become psychological horror.
The cult kidnaps Lyra because of her father. Later Eve and Mattias are captured too (Eve because of her grandfather and Mattias because of his father), inside the cult's underground compound, they're locked inside an abandoned mental institution, there they meet two other victims, two new characters I'd introduce to expand the cult's story and reveal more about its history, these two victims have been imprisoned and slowly poisoned for years.
The five of them have no choice but to work together if they want to survive and escape, I'd make these chapters genuinely terrifying not just suspenseful but full on psychological horror, constant tension, impossible choices, disturbing mind games, paranoia and the feeling that nowhere is safe, every hallway, every room and every person could be another trap, keeping both the characters and the readers on edge until the very end.
They might see stuff like this
Eventually they escape......or at least they think they do.
The book ends with them crawling through underground tunnels only to realize they're underneath Hawthorne House.
Then comes the creepy part -> the tunnels don't just lead to Hawthorne house, they also connect to Eve's house and several other houses, the cult has secretly had access to these places for years, watching everything from the shadows.
The final scene is Lyra calling Grayson after a year saying one thing '' beneath your feet.......... I'm beneath your feet''.
Book three -> the third book would have multiple POVs because now everyone's story comes together.
Everyone finally realizes that the grandest game was never actually THE grandest game.
The competition was only the beginning or maybe it was never the point at all, it was the perfect cover up, the perfect distraction while the cult moved unnoticed in the shadows, without even realizing it, Avery and the Hawthornes helped the cult simply by keeping everyone's attention fixed on the game, the cult had been playing the real grandest game all along, not for money, not for inheritance but for power. They manipulated powerful families, treated people like pieces on a chessboard and turned every secret into a weapon.
The trilogy would begin as a competition, evolve into a mystery, descend into psychological horror and end as a conspiracy thriller.
Because the real grandest game was never the competition, it was the cult.
The ending wouldn't be a "we won" ending. It would be unsettling. The kind of ending that leaves both the characters and the readers realizing that money isn't real power and that the game of power is far bigger, darker and more complicated than they ever imagined.
The final scene would take place in Hawthorne house, the cult leader sits in front of a chessboard, the last line will be ''such a shame... All of you spent years believing you were players but never stopped to wonder who was moving the pieces''
Because in the end, it was never about winning a game. It was about learning how to turn people into chess pieces.
So... if I were JLB, this is exactly how I'd write the grandest game trilogy ππππ don't come for me oki π‘π‘π‘π‘π‘ this is just my version
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