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annettebooksofhopeanddreams's review
2.0
I really love the idea of the choose your own way stories. It makes a story exciting and it's one of the few things that can actually make me re-read a book (apart from those books that really bring me comfort and joy on my hardest days), so when this book was free on Amazon I had to grab it to play around with.
However, I soon discovered that this choose your path story was not so much a choose your path story, but find the right path story. Although it claims to have 22 different endings, what it actually means is that most of those ending quit the story before you figured anything out. My first round lasted all of five minutes. Some choices lead into a loop and circle back to the main plot, but most choices just lead to dead ends forcing you to start all over again.
And although I know that some choices are not the smartest ones, in this case it's impossible to know which choice is gonna lead to a dead end and which one is gonna help the story along. At a certain moment I got a little frustrated and it took the joy away from making my own choices. What are those choices worth if they are just wrong? If they end the story after 5 or 10 or 15 minutes of reading?
It took me a while to figure out one of the possible routes (because, yes there are more) towards the ending, but I still didn't manage to get there. After 2 hours of reading and playing around I didn't feel like going back to the last point where I had gone wrong and try again. So, I guess I will never know how the story ends.
I think it can be quite nice for kids to play around with, but for me choose your own way and choose the right way are two different things. And in this case the chances for things to go wrong were just TOO big and the different choices mostly didn't lead to a new (part of the) story to discover but to dead ends.
However, I soon discovered that this choose your path story was not so much a choose your path story, but find the right path story. Although it claims to have 22 different endings, what it actually means is that most of those ending quit the story before you figured anything out. My first round lasted all of five minutes. Some choices lead into a loop and circle back to the main plot, but most choices just lead to dead ends forcing you to start all over again.
And although I know that some choices are not the smartest ones, in this case it's impossible to know which choice is gonna lead to a dead end and which one is gonna help the story along. At a certain moment I got a little frustrated and it took the joy away from making my own choices. What are those choices worth if they are just wrong? If they end the story after 5 or 10 or 15 minutes of reading?
It took me a while to figure out one of the possible routes (because, yes there are more) towards the ending, but I still didn't manage to get there. After 2 hours of reading and playing around I didn't feel like going back to the last point where I had gone wrong and try again. So, I guess I will never know how the story ends.
I think it can be quite nice for kids to play around with, but for me choose your own way and choose the right way are two different things. And in this case the chances for things to go wrong were just TOO big and the different choices mostly didn't lead to a new (part of the) story to discover but to dead ends.
jbarr5's review
5.0
Danger in Monrovia by Paul Moxham
Choose your own way
This intrigued me because there could be so many choices in a book like this.
Starts out with listing of other works by the author and praise for his work.
Each several pages you are given a choice to make.
I have read the Crown Jewels book so this should be interesting with my own twists on the story, as I choose them.
Love this reminds me of the time I made up a secret map of the island we lived on during the summer months and there were clues that you had to follow to collect clues for the next step. If you selected wrong you were in the bay with no oars or boat.
SO cool! Possibilities are endless, days and weeks of reading the book to find different things in a different order.
I ended up dying the first try. So fun to figure it out!
Love this book because of the choices you get to make to finish the story. Excellent for kids of all ages and gender, even adults!
Received this review copy from the author and this is my honest opinion.
Choose your own way
This intrigued me because there could be so many choices in a book like this.
Starts out with listing of other works by the author and praise for his work.
Each several pages you are given a choice to make.
I have read the Crown Jewels book so this should be interesting with my own twists on the story, as I choose them.
Love this reminds me of the time I made up a secret map of the island we lived on during the summer months and there were clues that you had to follow to collect clues for the next step. If you selected wrong you were in the bay with no oars or boat.
SO cool! Possibilities are endless, days and weeks of reading the book to find different things in a different order.
I ended up dying the first try. So fun to figure it out!
Love this book because of the choices you get to make to finish the story. Excellent for kids of all ages and gender, even adults!
Received this review copy from the author and this is my honest opinion.
katrina_ingram's review
2.5
I’ve not read one of these since I was a kid and remember loving it then. My experience this time wasn’t so great which I think is partly down to the structure and partly the writing. As it’s choose your own path, it’s written in second person present tense which is very different and took a little getting used to. Even taking that into mind the writing wasn’t great, the dialogue felt off and in general it felt like the story had been written by a child. I took multiple routes and all led to a dead end, apparently there are 22 endings I must have found most of them before getting bored and frustrated. I’m not sure if all choose your own adventure books are like this so I might give a different one a try
megans_book_corner's review
2.0
Unfortunately this just wasn't for me. I couldn't seem to connect with the writing style, it seemed it a bit disjointed to me so I don't think I will be picking up the other books
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