Item - Hostage!

Hostage! was mentioned in a list online as being one of the... craziest CYOA books. Their description was not accurate.

This book is surprisingly straightforward. No major tangents, reasonable choices, mostly good consistency.

While your class is touring Washington, D.C., a local institute for biological research is invaded by a terrorist group, and your bus is taken hostage. You get some choices about trying to escape, or you can stick with your classmates on the bus.

The terrorists want a bunch of other terrorists released from prison, and are using a killer virus being held in the institute as leverage. There's a good amount of drama with this, swapping vials of the real virus for fake virus, you can be injected with the virus, and most importantly, there is a balance of good and bad endings.

I love when the books aren't afraid to go into some dark places. There's an ending that results in the end of mankind. I love it!

This book has been fairly hard to find, and seems to be high-priced. Of the expensive ones, this has been the most satisfying so far.

More reviews by Jordashebasics

What happens when you and your class from school are invited for a tour of Washington, D.C. that happens to coincide with a heated moment in international politics? Your class is on a bus destined for the White House when news breaks: access has been temporarily suspended due to threats from the Alarin cartel, a global juggernaut in the weapons and drug trade. Your bus is diverted away from the White House, but safe passage is interrupted when gunmen in military fatigues storm the bus and order the driver to head for the Biological Research Institute. These Alarin cartel foot soldiers are threatening to release an extremely contagious virus known as EF1 unless dozens of their comrades are released from prison. The virus is contained within the Institute, and you and your friends are now locked inside its gates as hostages. When a glimmer of opportunity arises to quietly escape the bus on your own, should you take it, or stay with your classmates and hope for the best?

If you stay on the bus, you'll be singled out and brought into an office inside the Biological Research Institute where Marcos, the cartel leader, interrogates you. He wants you to deliver his demands to the United States president, but should you be upfront about your contempt for the cartel, or pretend you admire Marcos's spunk? The latter choice could land you in trouble, selected as guinea pig to be injected with the EF1 virus to confirm that Marcos and his men possess the genuine article. Quarantined in a cell under observation by the Alarin team, are you better off breaking the window and possibly spreading the virus, or biding your time? If you level with Marcos from the start, you're sent instead to communicate his demands to the president. You're now out of danger yourself, but are you willing to return to Marcos with the president's response? You could wind up on an airplane to South America with Marcos and his men as assurance they won't be shot down, but when you learn they managed to smuggle out a vial of the EF1 virus, will you pretend to join the cartel in hopes of stealing the vial and saving the world?

Making a run for the bushes when you're still on the bus opens up other story options. You could vault over the Biological Research Institute wall, but if you try it in broad daylight you may be shot by a guard or attacked by the cartel's ferocious dogs. Waiting until night seems reasonable, but even then you are captured. A bleeding gash on your ankle is given basic treatment, and the door to your cell left unlocked. If you go search for your classmates, you'll find yourself running from gunmen and seeking a dramatic path to escape before the cartel brings the hammer down. Will your daring gambit make you a hero? Alternatively you could be recaptured, and locked in a room where you meet Dr. Andrew Kostrikis of the Institute. The cartel doesn't know he's here, and you can help him steal the EF1 vial so the terrorists can't abscond with it. You might threaten the cartel men with breaking the vial yourself, but subtle games are going on behind the scenes. Play your cards right and you may receive the Medal of Honor for courage in the face of peril.

The action isn't as thrilling as it could be, but Hostage! offers decent narrative variety. It also reveals the extraordinary stakes in one ending where the EF1 virus leaks into the world; it's projected that within four months there will be upward of a billion deaths, and in five months nearly the entire human race will die. If you didn't comprehend the consequences of failure before that ending, you do now. The best parts of the book are the times you receive the Medal of Honor; these endings are actually somewhat emotional, so Hostage! feels like more than a slapdash action adventure you move on from with a shrug after reading. Even if it doesn't live up to Edward Packard's classics, it's pretty good.

More reviews by KenJenningsJeopardy74