Post 3: Book 1 Project

Alex Testerman, Big Book Blog, Post 3

Book 1 Project:

            My idea for extending the fans ability to interact with the novel would create a scavenger hunt board game, which the scavenger hunt is like the one created by Amy to her husband and main character Nick.

            This idea stems from the scavenger hunt that Amy creates for Nick every year for their wedding anniversary which sends Nick across New York following the clues that lead him to other clues. This idea of the scavenger hunt from Amy is used later in the book for a different reason but it would spoil the novel. Nick can never find out the clues every year that he tries “It is a do-it-yourself era: health care, real estate, police investigation. Go online and figure it out for yourself because everyone’s overworked and understaffed.” This is what said by Amy defending her husbands’ inability to solve the puzzle instead of thinking that “he doesn’t love her as much”.For the reader this scavenger hunt would come with a collectors additions of the novel which comes with the novel and a set of clues that have cryptic descriptions of the places and events that happen throughout the book. These clues and scavenger hunt would be set up as a game between other fans/readers of the where there will be a place, quote, or event and you have to guess what happens during that crucial event in the book, who says a certain quote, or what the place listed on and once you get an answer correct, you move a space on the game board and get closer to the final square which will read “AMY!”  Meaning the goal is to find Amy first at the end of the board. The quote from Amy saying “My mother had always told her kids: if you're about to do something, and you want to know if it's a bad idea, imagine seeing it printed in the paper for all the world to see.” This is when she is creating the second Scavenger hunt later in the novel and she doesn’t know if she wants to send it to Nick which ends up being a very critical point in the novel. Also said by Amy, “The worst feeling: when you just have to wait and prepare yourself for the lie.” Which is when Nick would tell Amy a list of different things while he thinks she doesn’t know he is lying but she obviously does, another crucial point which all can be used as the clues.

            I think this idea will work because it allows the readers who want more to not only re-live important moments from the book but also have new clues to look and think about which get these fans to double take an opinion on a character or the novel itself. Also and interactive board game where you go over the plot twists and deep quotes spoken but Nick and Amy throughout the novel. This idea allows/ encourages people who are already fans of the book to stay connected the book itself and with the author is the ability to put the readers into certain situations with the clues and answer a scenario the way they would think which can give them ideas about the novel or even some new takes on things that the fans haven’t noticed before when reading the piece. Also this game adds competition among fans to prove who is the bigger fan of Gone Girl which can cause others who do not do well in the game is to buy their own copies and becoming bigger fans of the series and spreading the game and book around to others, making the book more and more popular.