Coming across this book was a bit of a blast from the past, I haven't read a Choose Your Own Ending book since I was in my tweens. Not adverse to a bit of nostalgia I thought I'd give it a go.
Leroy Sturlubok is the (acting) Vice Principal at a public elementary school. He has very lofty opinions of himself, not necessarily shared by other members of staff or his acquaintances. The blurb says the book offers 100 different choices and 46 possible endings to his story. I went through the book about 5 times and found him working on a reality TV show with Tony Danza (another blast from the past), teaming up with a telepathic elderly Japanese man to foil a crime, and destroying the life of a beautiful young woman, among other plots and subplots. The choices allowed me to basically make him a real pain in the proverbial or make him slightly less so, he really isn't much of a sympathetic character.The navigation was easy and I have to say the best way to describe it was fun. I stumbled across hints of other plots more than once and can see myself going back to it in future to see where different choices take me.
The downside to this book was that the narrative in between each choice was pretty short, and it felt a bit too fast paced with little opportunity to set the scenes. Even completing 4 or 5 stories didn't take me very long, the work of an evening. I appreciate that to fully develop each plot with so many going on would result in an enormous tome but a little more in the way of description would have been nice.
I don't think I'll make choose your own ending books a regular event but I did have fun with this book.
Format: Kindle, review copy
My Rating: 3*
2 comments:
I haven't read a choose your own ending book in so long! Definitely a blast from the past :)
I think what made it so much fun was meshing something I associate with being younger with a grown up story.
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