July Intermission: Endgame: The Calling - James Frey

Hi there!

Welcome to our July Intermission for James Frey's ENDGAME: The Calling. This book comes from us as highly recommended, you should absolutely go read it. Ceraya read this series in high-school, and this was her pick for her re-read month. Brieanna has never even heard of this series before, so it is totally new to her.

Trigger Warning: Violence, Explosives, Mental Illness, Self-Harm, Sex, Nudity, Gore, Firearms, Weapons

Overall

The premise of this series is very similar to The Hunger Games but is lesser known. The kids playing in our current read are much more highly skilled than the kids from the Districts in Panem, and the stakes in ENDGAME are much higher. We like it a lot. So far we had a small bit of combat, but most of the first half of this book has been relationship-building and exposition and codes for real-life readers to find the IRL Clues from the original ENDGAME Live-Action Treasure Hunt.

The Codes & The Calling

The 12 big-ass meteors that hit Earth all at the same time are insane. Brieanna was shocked. A lot of people died and the book skipped right over it. We think this has to do with the fact that these characters have been trained from birth to expect this happening during their lifetime, so it is less of a shock to them. They were literally born for this.

This book contains codes leading to different locations in our real world that led to a $500,000 cash prize in 2014 (The final location being Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas). The Ebook even includes hyperlinks to different code generators and coded online videos that lead to more clues that led to this prize. Even Morse code and image codes are hidden in the pages, leading readers to new pathways that reveal clues or more info about characters that was hidden.

The Calling at the beginning of the novel was interesting. Kepler-22B is a real planet in our real universe. This is the name of the Alien that initiates The Calling in this book. The players are wrapped up in cocoons that also have symbols on them for the characters and their Blood-Lines, all of which represent ancient civilizations from around the planet in our real world, and then they are brought to just outside the big white pyramid of Xian in China. This is the setting of our great race. To say that these main players are well-written is an understatement. Of course, because there are twelve Players, and then additional main characters, it is impossible to flesh everyone out in the first half of the book, especially if many of them will die in the coming sequels. But the main characters, including Sarah, Jago, Christopher, Chiyoko, and An, are spent more time on than other players of ENDGAME like Marcus, Baitsakhan, Maccabee, Alice, Aisling, Shari, Kala, and Hilal. And that's totally fine, because there are more books in the series to flesh these characters out. There is also a second half to this book that we haven't even read yet that could include more. These characters, minus Christopher (who is following Sarah to the end), enter a portal that takes them back to the Goose Pagoda where the skirmish begins and Christopher ends up following Kala out of the area, leaving his ex who he is still in love with, Sarah, behind by accident to begin her journey with Jago.

Sarah & Jago

Sarah is super cool. Noted. As the the Cahokian Player, she is the all-American Girl Next Door who is super talented in her brain and body. She is given a complex number code to break and teams up with Jago as an ally right at the time of The Calling. Jago - his nickname is "feo" or ugly en Español. Despite the nickname, he also very talented physically while fighting and mentally with codes, and immediately takes interest in Sarah romantically as well as an ally in the game. He steals the disc at The Calling (which garners them attention from Chiyoko), and begins to go on the run with Sarah.

They have a budding relationship right now, about halfway through the book, and both of them have admitted to themselves that they really like the other person and are comfortable around them, especially when checking for tracking devices and looking at each other's naked bodies out of necessity.

Christopher

So far we don't have much on him. He's deeply in love with Sarah, and he's super rich, so he chooses to chase Sarah around the world hoping he can save her from ENDGAME, while not even having an actual understanding what he's getting into. She told him not to follow her. He didn't listen to her and went anyways. Currently, he's chasing Kala in hopes he will find Sarah. Christopher leaves all of his shit in the hotels that he visits, including expensive tracking and camera equipment, which is ridiculous to us because we're poor, lol. He says he's so rich that he can just get more stuff later. Wow. Amazing. Brieanna can't help but think this is careless of him and that he is only here to die in Sarah's arms and to make her feel conflicted about Jago. We shall see.

Chiyoko & An

These two are really interesting together. An is a psychopathic player who focuses on electronics and explosives. He wants ENDGAME to happen so that the world can just burn, as revenge for his suffering at the hands of his family to prepare him for ENDGAME. Chiyoko wants to win, so she can restore honor to her Blood-Line and come out on top. When they are together, An experiences a kind of peace with her, even going so far as to reduce the amount and severity of his compulsive tics. Her chi brings him into balance, words from his mouth. Brieanna is looking forward to seeing their relationship grow somehow- even if they become significant allies or enemies in the second half of the book.

The Other Players

Baitsakhan tortures Shari and then Alice saves her with the boomerang, which was cool. Aisling is with her grandpa, who reveals that he killed her dad with the family rifle. We don't know much about Kala, but she is on a plane and about to get arrested by an air marshal with Christopher looking on. Maccabee killed the Polish man on a plane full of people at the beginning of the novel, and then we don't know much else. Hilal wanted everyone to work together to stop ENDGAME, and for no killing to happen. He pleaded with the group until everyone started splitting off and An blew up Marcus. RIP. Later on, Hilal, attempts to gain shelter in a nearby Chinese Village and gets attacked. So that's everyone else, and Brieanna is expecting more to die in the second half of this book, and then a few key players to make it into the rest of the series.

Where We Are Now

Everyone is headed in different directions right now. A few people went home, and other people went on their way to try to find the Sky Key, and even others are chasing each other. Sarah and Jago are headed to Iraq, some others are headed to Turkey, Aisling is going to Italy, and An is chasing Chiyoko who is chasing Jago with the Disc. Christopher is chasing Kala on their way to Turkey. Another surprise we just read about in the middle of the book is that An has tracked everyone down and put everyone else on the No-Fly List so they can't get to where they think the Sky-Key is. Wild! Brieanna expects this to be the turning point in the novel, because a lot more combat is going to happen to get the players and Christopher to the finale of the book.

Where We Go From Here

Brieanna believes that Sarah and Jago are going to face off with An or Chiyoko about the Disc and the Key. Otherwise, they will all come together and stop ENDGAME from happening again (that being said we know there are other novels in this series and this is unlikely). Another thought Brieanna had was that Christopher will likely be broken-hearted regarding Sarah and Jago, and then also die.

Ceraya has already read this series. So she has no predictions and cannot reveal anything to Brieanna, lol. It's a secret.

Conclusion

Brieanna is excited to read the second part of the novel and excited to find out more about our main characters, especially Sarah and Jago. She is also eager to see what happens to Christopher!

With love, see you soon!

Ceraya & Brieanna