Item - Escape from High Doom

Well, the fact that the series title changed from Plot-Your-Own Horror Stories to Plot-It-Yourself Horror Stories with this title doesn't seem to mean that the contents are any different. Don't let the official Library of Congress summary fool you into thinking that this book has some sort of coherent plot; like the rest of the series, it's just a collection of random events held together by choices that frequently have little or no bearing on what actually happens next. In fact, the first choice in the book is another purely random one in which the only decision to make is which of two possible pages to turn to. Although things get a little better after that, the improvement is minimal. Some paths through this book are fairly lengthy, others are remarkably brief; whatever happens, it's not especially scary, it's definitely not very logical and, alas, it's not even remotely interesting. I hope that future books in the series get a little better than this, because I'm growing rather tired of making the same criticisms again and again!

More reviews by Demian

(review based on the Spanish translation)

This is one of the better entries in the series. The Old West is an excellent setting for horror ghost stories, and Milton does indeed weave a scary one here. The dangers in the desert also work effectively. The results of choices are not really arbitrary - rather, the author usually does something interesting with what the reader chooses as the next plot twist. Definitely recommended.

More reviews by Guillermo