The Hawthorne Legacy

While the first ten chapters of The Hawthorne Legacy provided backstory and set up the book’s mystery, this next cluster of chapters firmly launches the narrative into the book's action—and, in the process, further explicates some of the book’s central themes. First, there’s the theme of Coming-of-Age (defined by Merriam-Webster as “the attainment of prominence, respectability, recognition, or maturity”). A coming-of-age story is usually associated with a character’s transition from “child” to “adult.” This genre finds its roots in the German Bildungsroman, a literary work describing a protagonist's growth, psychologically and morally, from youth to adulthood.

In Avery’s case, being able to go forward will require her to look backward and confront her past, notably her biological roots. This is introduced when she discovers the similarities between Toby/Harry’s handwriting and the handwriting on her birth certificate and concludes that Toby Hawthorne is her father (59). Although Avery will later learn that this isn’t true—Ricky is her biological father—she will learn that her mother’s identity is not what she thought. Later in the book, Avery discovers that her mother, “Sarah,” was living under a false identity and that her real name was Hannah Rooney. It’s only after she untangles these truths about her past and her identity that Avery will reach maturity.

Toby’s character also affirms this link between self-identity and its impact on a person’s coming-of-age. Avery, reading Toby’s old journal entries, sees how distraught he is by the discovery that he was adopted and has been lied to. She will later discover that Toby started acting out after this revelation, getting into drugs and alcohol, and even having to be sent to a rehab facility for substance abuse, Camden House. The narrative makes it clear that it can be risky to explore your roots; if your past isn’t what you thought, it can shake up your entire sense of self, which can be especially risky for younger people who are still figuring out who they are.

These chapters also heighten the intensity of the narrative. After Avery learns that Toby/Harry (so she thinks) is her father, her drive to solve the mystery is elevated. Her self-identity is at stake: “I wanted answers. This wasn’t just a mystery that needed solving or another layer to a puzzle. It wasn’t a game—not to me. Not anymore” (59). Ultimately, Avery will discover that her suspicion that Toby/Harry is her biological father is false. However, at this point in the narrative, the author continues to tease out this “red herring” (a false clue in a mystery story). Avery repeatedly flashes back to what her mom said: “I have a secret about the day you were born” (56; 57). At this point, she thinks that the “secret” concerns her father’s identity. Later, she will learn this isn’t the case.

These chapters also heighten the romantic tension between Avery and Jameson. Although they’re technically wagering against one another to crack the mystery at hand, they start working as a team and sharing information. Avery is wary of this camaraderie. When Jameson suggests they team up—“Neither of us is going to solve this alone” (62)—Avery is hesitant, thinking, “There was something undeniable about the way he said the word us, but I resisted the pull of it” (62). Moments later, when Avery accidentally uses the word “we” (“What are we missing?”), she is painfully aware of her use of the collective pronoun: “We. I’d said we” (65).

Avery’s relationship is deepening not only with Jameson but with all of the Hawthorne boys in these chapters. While Nash, Grayson, Jameson, and Xander were suspicious of her in The Inheritance Games, they now respect her—and even help and protect her. Grayson tells Jameson and Xander in Latin that she is one of them and they must protect her. On the one hand, Grayson’s protective instinct indicates acceptance of Avery. On the other hand, Grayson uses a language he knows Avery won’t understand—Latin—to communicate this acceptance, thus still putting her into a position of “outsider,” the only person in the room who doesn’t know what was said. This position of “otherness” also speaks to the class distinction between Avery and the Hawthorne boys. Although Avery may have money now, she wasn’t raised with it, and she didn’t get the education of the Hawthornes, which included learning a dead language like Latin.

Finally, these chapters heighten the overall narrative tension by illuminating the constant danger Avery lives in due to her newfound fortune. This is illustrated by the physical threat made against her in Chapter 20 when a cow’s heart with a knife stabbed into it is discovered on her bed. The imagery is gory and overtly violent. In the larger narrative, Avery’s situation doesn’t seem so life-and-death; many pages of the book are devoted to her trying to solve riddles or, even more mundane, stressing about her feelings for Jameson. These moments of horror remind the reader that Avery is under threat.