Gaming near an asylum

I've been reading Jenny Davidson's The Magic Circle for the past few days and it has thinking all over again about the endless appeal of abandoned buildings with mysterious histories.*

What is it about former factories and prisons and asylums that makes our inner explorers want to peek in the windows and crack open the doors? Why do we wander past cemeteries and monuments, consider old train stations and schools, and linger just a few moments longer then we really have time for? It's not treasure but something else - something more appealing then flash and cash.

We don't study the history of buildings that much in school but boy, do we yearn to know more when we drive past them on the highway.

In The Magic Circle, which is a thriller somewhat in the terrifying vein of Single White Female (although the roommates are 100% not the enemies....really), two of the characters are creating games that center on buildings in New York City. One is focused purely on the virtual world - you walk the route and play through your iphone which gives you information, challenges and rewards as you go. The other is gearing up to more hands-on (I'm only halfway through the book) and seems to involve challenges with some dangerous possibilities.

I just know that things are not going to end well for everyone in this one.

As the characters talk about playing the two games in The Magic Circle, I can't help but remember times that I was drawn into something similar when I was in college. It was never this indepth or detailed but still - the longing was the same. We wanted to find something in a forgotten place; we wanted to discover something. We wanted an adventure that gave us a chance to be brave. Jenny has perfectly tapped into that longing and for all that her book is set in New York City, it reminds me very much of the Florida I knew and the girl I was.

I know this one is going to end well for everyone, but it's no surprise to me that I can't stop reading.

* I should point out however that Libba Bray's The Diviners has thoroughly cured me of every going near anything that appears to be a haunted house.

[Post pic of Rockland State Psychiatric Hospital in Orangeburg, NY.]