Narrative Refusals, Lacunae, and the Reference by Absence in Quantum Break Novelization

The goal of the article is to scrutinize the rather narrow and scarce group of video game novelizations. Acknowledging the particular and unique quality of video game narration that largely depends on the player, the article considers the challenges of adapting the interactivity of the gameplay onto the text and the specificities of the relationship between the novelization and the source text. Through the close reading of Cam Rogers’ novelization of the 2016 video game Quantum Break (Remedy Entertainment, 2016), the article draws from Peter Stockwell’s conceptualization of the literary resonance as well as Robyn Warhol’s and Gerald Prince’s discussion of unnarrated and the unnarratable in literature to consider what is referred to as reference by absence. It is argued that the omissions of ludic elements or narrative moments dependent on the player’s choice offer significant clues regarding interpreting certain game events as canon.