Cover of The Grandest Game (The Grandest Game, #1)

The Grandest Game, #1

The Grandest Game

by Jennifer Lynn Barnes


Genre
Young Adult, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller
Year
2024
Pages
351
Contents

CHAPTER 38: GIGI

Overview

Gigi’s team enters another sealed chamber, this one built around a red phone booth and a riddle that must be solved before they can “make the call.” The puzzle heightens the existing tension between Brady and Knox, exposing Knox’s discomfort in small spaces and drawing attention back to Calla through the lily clue.

Gigi recognizes that Brady’s feelings for Calla may still be unresolved, but she chooses to suppress her own distraction and focus on winning. The chapter shifts the team’s challenge from escape-room mechanics to a more personal puzzle threaded with emotional history.

Summary

Gigi, Brady, and Knox stand inside a cramped, metal, sci-fi-like chamber where the walls have been shifting around them. An old-fashioned red phone booth dominates the small space, matching the earlier instruction that when the players are ready, they should make a call.

When the walls stop moving, a new riddle appears. Knox immediately identifies it as the next puzzle, while Gigi connects solving it to using the phone booth. Brady, who still has the sword claimed in the previous room, comments on the small space and looks toward Knox, making the tension between Brady and Knox even more apparent.

The team begins working through the riddle. Knox and Brady suggest possible answers tied to the phrase “before fall,” including summer and pride, while Gigi considers how the clues might relate to flowers, horses, shadows, or familiar sayings like putting the cart before the horse. Knox’s strained reactions suggest he dislikes confined spaces.

The mention of lilies leads Gigi to realize that a calla is a kind of lily, connecting the puzzle to Calla and to the unresolved emotional history between Brady and Knox. Brady’s earlier statement that he loved Calla lingers in Gigi’s mind, especially because his feelings still seem present despite the past tense.

Gigi feels the pull of Brady and the mystery of Calla, but she deliberately pushes those distractions aside. Wanting to win the Grandest Game, prove herself, and “fly again,” she refocuses on the riddle and repeats its clues in her mind.

Who Appears

  • Gigi
    Puzzle-solver who notices emotional subtext but refocuses on winning the Grandest Game.
  • Brady
    Sword-carrying teammate whose unresolved love for Calla complicates his tension with Knox.
  • Knox
    Terse teammate solving the riddle while visibly strained by the cramped chamber.
  • Calla
    Absent figure evoked by the lily clue and Brady’s lingering feelings.
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