Cathy's Key

Hello everyone! I hope everyone is excited about starting classes on Monday...personally I wish the break were longer but oh well...
Anyways, I decided to hop on here and leave a message because I stumbled across some awesome news...THERE IS A THIRD BOOK IN THE CATHY'S SERIES COMING OUT IN MAY! It is called Cathy's Ring and I have already pre-ordered the book on Amazon...
Well that is all I have to say!
Good luck!

I enjoyed reading these books, for the most part, even if they might not be ARGs and are kind of juvenile. The one thing that really kills me is the ending though, where she and Victor are going to find way to somehow work out the problem no one else has ever figured out. Come on. I was actually really hoping that Victor might use the serum and become mortal, but I guess I shouldn't be surprised, since a teenage focus always seems to be achieving less realistic, more glamorous alternatives (Twilight, anyone?). As for all the extra bits, maybe they didn't make the game an ARG, but I think they definitely added a bit of a layer to the story (plus, I just really like stuff). The characters all kind of perplex me, though. They're kind of cliche characters, once unique, but quickly becoming stock characters in teenage fiction. The kind of weird/rebellious/artistic girl who's not afraid to break the rules (but for all her independence, it's always about a guy), the geeky sidekick, the mysterious guy who has more depth than meets the eye, the uninvolved parents.  read more »

Second Life really worries me. I think the game itself needs a lot of work before it can be taken seriously for an educational environment. I think it is interesting to say the least. It is a lot like a chat room or aim but with avatars. I find it entertaining but not beneficial to anything but a past time. I believe that is enough about the game and now on to the book. I enjoyed Cathy's Book and Cathy's Key. If I was younger when I began reading the book I think I would have been immediately thrown into the text and it would have been a powerful interactive fiction game.

I had actually read both books last week and found that I could not put either of them down. I absolutely loved both of these books and found the stories very engaging and easy to relate to (minus the whole immortal thing haha). I won't ruin the ending of Cathy's Key for those that haven't finished it yet, but it definetly made me rethink the whole thing about it being an ARG. I loved the evidence that each book gave and found that even though I could't really interact that much with the phone numbers, they were still pretty neat. I had never experienced novels that were quite this interactive. After reading both books, I began to think about ARGs and how we define them, I thought back to the ARG Professor Whalen talked about at the beginning of the semester and compared that one to Cathy. I think what we each get from these books are our own opinions but I think that Cathy as a ARG is highly plausible. Regardless of its existence as an ARG or not, I found both books engaging and I couldn't stop reading them.

No, neither of Cathy's journals are ARGs, and in fact I wouldn't go so far as to call them games. I wouldn't even call them interactive--they are interactive in the same way an action figure is. Whatever you get out of it is what you do with it, it has nothing to do with its actual form. You can get a very substandard sort of interactivity out of Cathy's Book and Key by playing with the papers and sorting through them, but--from my admittedly less-than-spotless examination (it's hard to sustain the interest needed for thorough perusal and pattern recognition when the stuff you're looking through has no appeal to you)--there's not much more there than what is obviously there. In an ARG like The Beast (more about which later), the deeper you go the more you find. It's like the examination of poetry, or good poetry anyway. You can get deep enough into it that even the etymology of words brings greater meaning to the poem. With Cathy's Key, you can try to find that kind of richness, but it just isn't there.  read more »

So far in my reading (almost half way through Cathy's Key), I have not been too surprised at the direction the second book is taking. I knew it would be kind of a slow-mover in terms of big events occurring and also it has the same strange feeling of more surprise lurking in the background. It seems to me that there is less of an interactive portion of this book and more of a discovery portion. In the last book, there was pretty much a website or a number to go to on every page, but in this book I haven't noticed quite as many. That might be because I got frustrated looking for things at times because some of the websites seem to be so dead-end. The book seems very similar though in most respects to Cathy's Book.
I found the "ARG Question" post very interesting. I have never been one that was into or really understood the concept of gaming and the level of complexity it has reached in modern times. I agree that Cathy's Key is not really gaming, it is more playing along with an already established and solved game. It is more like observing someone work out a game and put it down on paper.  read more »

I'm just under half way through Cathy's Key, and I'm finding that I'm just not as intrigued. I definitely liked the break from the traditional English literature we read. In the sequel, Cathy is exploring some questions that I had in mind, and hopefully she'll answer them. I am eager for more information on the actual history of the Ancestors and where they all are and are up to now.

It kind of annoys me that Jewel stole her book; for some reason, people like her get under my skin. I can't even explain it.

But back to the ARG aspect: I'm finding that I want to interact with the websites less than before. I still do, but I typically put it off. I have less motivation. I suppose I was just put off last time by the advertising on the websites, and I was really hoping there would be clues. I am still using the bag-o-evidence, but there's not as much this time. It almost feels like the evidence is just filler with this sequel. I'm not finding this book to be a true ARG, but really an interactive fiction novel.

So I just finished Cathy's Key and I have to say I really enjoyed reading it. There were some unanswered questions I had which made me google the book to see about there being a potential third book in the making. I didn't see anything that suggested that - which bummed me out. The books were both relatively short so I did end up with more questions versus answers but I still enjoyed the journey. I haven't look at the evidence of Cathy's Key as of yet. I had glanced at the evidence from Cathy's Book (after reading it) and thought the concept was nifty and original. I had shown my family and they really liked the concept of the extra items as well. As for these texts being ARG, I don't really think so. I enjoyed these books because it wasn't like the other literature I have been assigned for my other classes and I read each book in one sitting. I got suckered into the potential love story and ended up disappointed...why can't Cathy get into a freak accident so we can all find out she really is immortal! Dang it! ;-) haha Obviously I am engaged in Cathy's story and I want to find out more. If there were a third book, I would definitely check out a copy from the public library.  read more »

Okay, I've read half of Cathy's Key and have skim read the ending (because I'm impatient and always want to know how the book is going to end before it ends), so I know most of the major plot twists and what happens in the book. I kind of suspected that there was something up with her father's odd and untimely death. I was surprised though about Tsao and his desire for Cathy, which I knew there was something up, but couldn't put my finger on what exactly. I think it was cool that they introduced Auntie Joe to show that the gene or whatever makes them immortal can be present all over.

I didn't really notice a difference in how they're approaching the interactive portion. I still didn't call the number on the front, even though I probably should before reading. On what they included as evidence, I guess they've put in more drawings this time rather than birth or death certificates, which usually tell you more information-wise than a drawing. I still didn't use the evidence or even look at it while reading the book. I think it distracts from the actual story to keep flipping back and forth everytime there is a mention of something.  read more »