The Brothers Hawthorne

“Grayson’s hand found its way to his pocket, to the medallion inside. ‘When words are real enough, when they’re the exact right words, when what you’re saying matters, when it’s beautiful and perfect and true—it hurts.’”

The medallion Grayson carves with his haiku is a symbol of Grayson’s perfectionism as cultivated by his grandfather. In this quote, his grandfather connects beauty, truth, and pain. Grayson carries this narrative with him to adulthood, and it drives his belief that anything good in his life is bound to disappear if he makes a mistake.

“His. There was emphasis on that word, like the Factotum was as much larger-in-life to his errand boy as Tobias Hawthorne had been to his grandsons. If the Factotum demands that kind of response…exactly how powerful is the Proprietor?”

The author characterizes the Factotum through Jameson’s comparison to his grandfather, ultimately communicating the Proprietor’s power and foreshadowing the strategy Jameson will use to try to impress him. This characterization builds tension for the reader and leads to the reveal of the Devil’s Mercy and, in the end, the Proprietor himself.

“The stark-white stucco design was almost obsessively symmetrical, the terracotta tiles on the roof matched exactly to the clay-red bricks that lined the drive.”

Grayson’s perception of his father’s house symbolizes his father’s character in Grayson’s eyes; Grayson projects his fear of failure onto his father, and thus onto the house itself. Grayson’s use of the phrase ‘obsessively symmetrical’ to describe the roof tiles demonstrates how Sheffield Grayson expected his possessions—his children included—to conform to his will. Grayson notices the way the roof matches the bricks, subconsciously concerned with his status as an outsider at this house—the one who does not match.

“He needed this. He needed her. Kissing Avery always felt right. It felt like everything, like more, like there was a purpose to his hunger, and this was it. This was it. This was it.”

Jameson’s internal restlessness directly conflicts with his feelings about Avery. Throughout the first half of the book, Jameson fixates on his desire for more, his ambition for more complex problems and puzzles and feats; he wants his relationship with Avery to fill that void, but he continues to chase the Game. Only at the end of the Game, when he’s willing to sacrifice winning to act in line with the man Avery believes him to be, does he fully embrace Avery as his “more.” His decision leads to the creation of The Grandest Game, explored in the sequel by the same name.

“Betrayal tasted like failure still, bitter as a poisoned root, coppery like blood.”

The author uses two similes in this quote to describe Grayson’s feelings about Eve’s betrayal: ‘bitter as a poisoned root’ and ‘coppery like blood.’ Both images involve bodily harm—poison and blood—implying that Grayson’s hurt is a physical experience for him. The author uses taste in this quote to communicate the intimacy of Eve’s betrayal—Grayson compares his feelings to something he can taste in his mouth.

“‘Smart,’ Grayson said, and there was still a part of him—a fainter part now, like an echo or a memory or a shadow—that had to fight to keep from seeing Avery’s face when he said it.”

This quote references Grayson’s internal progress toward moving on from his feelings for Avery, a core component of the original trilogy. The simile ‘a fainter part—like an echo or a memory or a shadow’ demonstrates how Grayson is conflicted about his feelings; echo and memory are neutral or positive terms, while shadow is often negative. His feelings here, described in terms of ephemeral sensations, are much less visceral than the bitter taste he describes of Eve’s betrayal. The author foreshadows Grayson’s future romantic interest, a character that might be Eve, might be the mystery caller, or might be an unrevealed character.

“There is no what if I knew then what I know now. No regret. There can’t be. Because as much as I want a different life right now, I want to be their mom more.”

Acacia Grayson is a foil to both Sheffield Grayson and Ian Johnstone-Jameson; she chooses her children over her ambitions and comforts, even in her dreams. Sheffield held onto the memory of his nephew Colin in a way that distanced his living children, and Ian pursued his career and the Game at the expense of a relationship with his son. Though Grayson was raised by his grandfather, he doesn’t have lived experience of his grandfather putting Grayson and his brothers first, and he blames his grandfather for Grayson’s need to be perfect.

“Grayson Hawthorne was not often taken by surprise. This is what happens when you fail to look ten steps ahead. Tobias Hawthorne’s voice was as clear in his head as if the old man were right there. When you let your emotions get in the way. When you allow yourself to become distracted.”

The author provides the reader with flashback scenes of pivotal conversations between Grayson, Jameson, and their grandfather, but what Grayson quotes to himself in this passage doesn’t appear in a flashback. It’s possible his grandfather told him these exact words, but given other places in the text where Grayson and Jameson misinterpret their grandfather’s behavior or words, Grayson may be quoting a twisted representation of his grandfather’s words to himself at this moment. In either case, these lines, attributed to Tobias Hawthorne, summarize Grayson’s deeply held belief that he cannot love anyone without endangering them.

“He placed a quill next to the scroll. Inspecting the quill, Jameson realized it was made of metal, hair-thin but blade-sharp. That served as a reminder. What he was doing could be dangerous. It was a risk.”

The Proprietor uses platinum in his invitations, cane, and in this scene, his quill. The silver-white metal is a symbol both for the Proprietor himself and for understated political power. Platinum is more expensive than silver and gold, more durable, and often used in 21^st-century technology commodities. A quill is typically made from a feather, often associated with lightness, whereas the Proprietor’s quill is made of this expensive, durable metal. Jameson’s observation of the sharpness of the quill reminds both him and the reader of the risk associated with the Devil’s Mercy.

“Anyone reading those words would be bad. Avery reading them would open Pandora’s box.”

Jameson alludes to Pandora’s box, the object from the Greek myth describing how evil was released into the world through one woman’s choice to open a box out of curiosity. The phrase ‘Pandora’s box’ is often used to describe one small decision that creates a large-scale, catastrophic impact. The author creates tension through this allusion, inviting the reader to consider what secret would be especially catastrophic for Avery to know.

“That statement affected Acacia more than Savannah’s earlier barbs. She folded her daughter into her arms. To Grayson’s surprise, Savannah didn’t fight it. They both stood there for the longest time, their arms around each other, holding on for dear life and leaving Grayson with a feeling he barely recognized. Hawthornes weren’t supposed to long for things they could not have.”

In this passage, Grayson refers to himself by his last name, ‘Hawthorne,’ to represent his disconnection from the Grayson side of his family at this moment. Acacia comforts Savannah about her father’s disappointing favoritism, but no one comforts Grayson about his father’s refusal to acknowledge him. This moment occurs immediately after Acacia, the twins, and Grayson find the photos of Grayson in the safe-deposit box. Grayson’s face, through these pictures, reminds his sisters and Acacia about how his presence—as a child of the affair between Sheffield and Skye—caused their family to splinter. Grayson internalizes this guilt as yet another reason he cannot be involved with the twins.

“‘You’re a smiley one, aren’t you?’ Kim asked Gigi. ‘I try,’ Gigi replied, but the words didn’t come out quite as cheerful as Grayson would have expected. It occurred to him for the first time that maybe Gigi wasn’t just naturally sunny.”

Where Grayson immediately recognizes his and Savannah’s similar icy exterior as a way to project strength and cope with their responsibilities, he doesn’t realize Gigi does the same with her personality until this moment with Aunt Kim. Though Grayson characterizes Savannah as the protector, this interaction foreshadows how Gigi will suppress the truth to protect Savannah later in this novel.

“‘Remove your hand from my sister’s body,’ Savannah said. ‘Now.’ That now was impressive. It should have been effective. Coming from Grayson, it would have been.”

Grayson’s analysis of the FBI officer’s response to Savannah’s threat reflects how both Savannah’s gender and youth create a bias against authority figures. Grayson recognizes that as a wealthy, older, male, he can command respect that Savannah, despite her competence, cannot. This interaction, which occurs between Savannah and a male FBI officer, highlights how the officer’s gender bias infantilizes Savannah, refusing to acknowledge her or Gigi’s authority over their bodies.

“Grayson knew suddenly and with stunning clarity that if his father had acknowledged him, if he had spent any time at all here growing up, she would have been the one to bandage his knees. Grayson and his brothers had bandaged one another’s.”

This passage highlights how, despite the Hawthorne brother’s upbringing with their grandfather, they didn’t experience tender, intimate love as children from any parental figures. Notably, Grayson doesn’t compare Acacia with his parental figure, Tobias, but instead with his brothers, who were the ones to respond to his concerns and injuries as a child. This realization also builds Grayson’s longing for his family, which he fights against throughout the novel out of fear of rejection.

“Grayson ate the cookie in silence, and then—and only then—did he speak. ‘I’m slipping […] Getting too emotionally involved.’ ‘That’s not slipping, Gray.’ Nash had a way of going quiet just when the things he was saying mattered most. ‘That’s living.’”

Nash explicitly contradicts the false narrative driving Grayson throughout the novel: that emotional involvement creates dangerous mistakes. This moment in the novel, Grayson’s low point, is the moment where he decides to abandon the false narrative and embrace the story point, represented by Nash’s assertion that living requires emotional attachment. This turning point leads Grayson to pursue closure with Avery and return to his family in Phoenix to save them from Trowbridge.

“Well done, my boy. Jameson didn’t just hear Ian say that; he felt the words. Physically. Like he’d been holding a breath too long, finally gasped in air, and discovered that breathing hurt.”

The author uses the simile, ‘like he’d been holding a breath too long’ to demonstrate Jameson’s conflicting feelings about his father. Jameson has both longed for his father’s approval and explicitly denied wanting it, so when it arrives, the approval is both a fulfillment of a desire and a great disappointment. Jameson wishes that his absent father’s words didn’t mean so much to him, but he can’t fully deny seeking that approval. In the same way, a person must breathe to live, but in this image, the breath itself is painful.

“This woman, the one in this portrait, was every bit as related to him as Alice Hawthorne—and just as much of a stranger. You had three sons. Jameson addressed those words silently to the portrait. You raised them here, when you could. Vantage was her ancestral home—and that makes it mine.”

Jameson’s address to his paternal grandmother’s portrait is an example of apostrophe: addressing a person who isn’t present or has died. The author uses apostrophe to heighten Jameson’s connections to both his grandmothers and to allude to his secret that Alice Hawthorne is alive. In this passage, Jameson claims his biological family, not through his father, but through his grandmother, by symbolically claiming Vantage as his own.

“My fault, he thought. I killed Emily. That sentence rang in his mind: five syllables, so real and true they hurt.”

This passage refers to Grayson’s challenge for his ninth birthday: to compose a haiku. In the previous flashback, the author doesn’t reveal Grayson’s original haiku; therefore, Grayson’s rewritten lines here are more important and truthful for the reader. Grayson’s comparison between these lines and poetry reveals how his guilt over Emily becomes the driving truth in his life until the events of this novel.

“‘The world is kindest, of course,’ Zella continued, her voice steely now, ‘to rich white boys, regardless of whether or not they deserve to win.’”

Through Zella, a Black female duchess and player in the Proprietor’s game, the author provides commentary on race, class, and gender. Zella argues that Jameson’s wealth, whiteness, and gender make it easier for him to navigate the world, in comparison to someone like herself. Zella’s ultimate critique is that Jameson does not need to be extraordinary to garner attention, whereas she’s had to be exceptionally clever—stealing her way in the Mercy, winning herself an invitation to the Game, persuading the Proprietor to let her vie for a position as his heir.

“Euphoria exploded in Jameson like a speeding train crashing through wall after wall after wall. The world grew brighter, his hearing more acute, and he felt everything—every bruise, every wound, the rush of adrenaline, the taste of the seaside air, the breath in his lungs, the blood in his veins—all of it.”

The author uses repetition in this passage to build momentum, using the rhythm of Jameson’s description to mirror the sensation he feels after winning the Game. The series of images, ‘every bruise, every wound…’ pile one on top of the other in the structure of the sentences, demonstrating how overwhelming the sensation is to Jameson’s senses. All five senses are referenced in this passage, in combination with a simile, to create a fully immersive experience for the reader.

“‘Come and go as you will. She’s yours now.’ She as in this place, this slice of history, a family legacy that Jameson had been willing to fight for when he wasn’t even considered family.”

The author genders Vantage as female—both Branford and Jameson call the house ‘she’—creating a connection between Vantage and Jameson’s paternal grandmother. This connection is a foil to Jameson’s connection to his grandfather, who despite raising him, did not leave any physical evidence of their family relationship to Jameson when he died. The author also uses this moment in the novel to show a shift in this latter part of the series toward the grandmother figures and away from the paternal figures in the earlier installments.

“Grayson was clad once again in a suit. Jameson had made the symbolic decision to don one of his own—and he wasn’t the only one who'd done so. Four Hawthornes, four suits. Avery wore black.”

Grayson sets himself apart from his brothers and other people his age by regularly wearing suits; this clothing choice symbolizes his chosen role as protector, financial adviser, and paternal figure to his other brothers. In this scene, Grayson’s brothers wear suits to demonstrate both their unity with Grayson and their refusal to let him carry the burden of responsibility alone. Avery in black symbolizes not only her solidarity with the Hawthorne brothers but also her status as an outsider to their shared experience growing up under Tobias Hawthorne. Here, Avery is distinct from the brothers, but not distant or separate.

“Trowbridge was incensed now, bordering on apoplectic. ‘You arrogant, spoiled, cocksure—’ ‘Brother,’ Grayson finished. ‘The word you’re looking for is brother.’ Now, he looked back. ‘No one hurts my family.’”

Grayson explicitly embraces his role as Gigi and Savannah’s brother in this scene, a complete change from his unwillingness to treat them as his siblings at the beginning of the novel. When Grayson first arrived in Phoenix to bail Gigi out of jail, he did not openly admit to any connection with the family, and he was suppressing his emotional ties to the girls. Grayson’s confrontation with Trowbridge is a reversal of his earlier attempts to take of Gigi; now, he openly claims them as family, both a political and emotional bond.