Item - Tattoo of Death

Also could have been titled "Master of Tai Chi."

As other reviewers have said, it's a fairly dark story. Despite the bleak atmosphere, there's still some Montgomery wackiness to be had, particularly with "Big Guy" turning out to be... different.

It's not a bad book at all, and was better than I expected. Still not really compelling to my tastes, but it's still worth a read.

More reviews by Jordashebasics

Definitely one of the darker stories I've read from the CYOA books.

You are a martial artist (Tai Chi practitioner) that is forced to join a Chinese gang. The gang is really evil and they are involved in human trafficking and human slavery. The boss is called Big Guy and he is very Darth Vader like and you will know what I mean when you read the book. The headquarters is located in Kyoto Japan so you will travel over there. You can get caught and executed underground criminal syndicate style. You can be in a highway chase involving big rig trucks. You can testify against them by trying to get police protection.

There is a tiny bit of martial arts in here but for most of the story you are trying to get away from them while constantly being threatened and spied on like a hawk. Make no mistake the two punks assigned to you are murderous scum.

While not my favorite CYOA book, I still enjoyed this book because it's unique. For some reason I got the feeling that the author personally enjoyed writing this book.

More reviews by knifebat

One notable thing about this book is it displays a rather twisted sense of humor here and there, in keeping with the very dark theme of the story. Indeed, this is a lot grittier than the average CYOA. In fact, it could just as easily have been aimed at adults. That's not to say it's gratutiously violent, though -- it's still perfectly appropriate for older children and teenagers (but it would frighten younger children, especially the rather disturbing picture on page 113).

Secondly, it is very well-written, which is good considering that this author, R. A. Montgomery, is usually more fond of bizarre, incoherent storylines. You, the main character, get quite a bit of background and family history, as do most of the other characters. Also, there are frequently unusual plot twists in which you find out that one of the "good guys" is actually evil, or vice versa. Sometimes these kind of twists happen multiple times in one reading.

Finally, it's internally consistent. There are only two or three happy endings, but even the unhappy ones reveal new bits of background information that you can't get anywhere else. It's amazing just how powerful and widespread the Red Flowers are! I just can't recommend this book enough. It's one of Montgomery's best.

More reviews by stonemason

Ringing in at no. 159, Tattoo of Death is a decent piece of teenage crime fiction. The fundamental premise is that your character is the son of an influential man who, after being befriended—or perhaps, more accurately, ensnared—by two boys, more or less the same age as you, in your Tai Chi group is unwillingly initiated into the Los Angeles outfit of an international criminal organization, the Red Flowers. In all the branching narratives that follow, you try to—in one way or another and to varying degrees of success, or failure—subvert, impede, or defeat the gang.

The Red Flowers’ primary stock in trade is transpacific human trafficking; they smuggle people from East Asian countries into the U.S. through the waterfronts of L.A. Tattoo of Death was, in stretches, reminiscent of the second season of HBO’s highly acclaimed television series, The Wire, which dealt with a Baltimore-based criminal organization that, through its illicit arrangement with the longshoremen's association, engaged in transatlantic human trafficking (mostly nubile prostitutes from the Eastern Bloc). Observing some of the illustrations, and visualizing the textual descriptions, of the wretched conditions in which the unfortunate passengers described in this book are transported to the New World very much implicated my visual memory of that show.

Though I probably didn't find this book to be as dark as some of the other reviewers, I do acknowledge that the material is heavy sledding for teenaged minds, especially when considering the realistic bird's eye view of the criminal enterprise; though some of the details become unconvincing to adults (e.g., “Big Guy’s” computer-accessorized head, the gang’s agreeability to have “Big Guy” transact with you instead of your father, the lead detective’s willingness to endanger a minor's life etc.), the maritime trade of human smuggling is a frightening, extant real-world ill.

Another aspect of the book that speaks to its realism is that, save for one, whatever victories you enjoy are small and come only after placing your life in grave danger. Consider that there are plenty of opportunities to read about your gruesome deaths and, in return, the best you can usually manage is having just two or three low-ranking hoodlums (i.e., Ben, Sprazz, and, in some cases, Anaconda) brought to justice while leaving the overall structure and integrity of the organization completely intact and poised to regain its strength from, what are ultimately, temporary setbacks. In this regard, the book accurately echoes the anticlimactic nature of life when it aptly likens the organization to “the feared Hydra which grows new heads.”

The fact that Last Run (no. 153), another piece of teenage crime fiction, immediately preceded Tattoo of Death in R. A. Montgomery's authorship is not surprising. Let alone the similar themes, R. A. Montgomery’s writing style from Last Run clearly carried through to Tattoo of Death. For example, the exploration of the protagonist’s inner thoughts, fixations, and paranoia—something done quite vividly in Last Run—was also done, albeit not to the same quality and effect, in Tattoo of Death (see pgs. 66, 82, and 114 for some examples). I surmise that R. A. Montgomery, while working on Last Run, brainstormed an excess of viable ideas and then subsequently opted to use the extra material to design an altogether separate and distinct piece of crime fiction that ultimately culminated in Tattoo of Death.

By the way, another good Choose Your Own Adventure book that is an ostensible influence on Tattoo of Death is Edward Packard’s Who Are You? (no. 150). It certainly seems that R. A. Montgomery was consuming Edward Packard's books to evaluate his own work because his writing style, particularly toward the end of the series, started assuming an unmistakable Packardesque quality. Story-wise, in Tattoo of Death, as in Who Are You?, your character hitchhikes with a trucker and also manages to get onto a commercial passenger bus in an effort to flee the State. The parallelism of the narratives definitely stood out to me but it's also possible that Frank Bolle’s characteristic artistic style, employed in both Who Are You? and Tattoo of Death, forged in my mind an unconscious connection between these two books.

All in all, this is a satisfying read, made a little bit better than what it would otherwise be because of Frank Bolle’s superlative artwork. As a later entry into the series, the original Bantam edition of this book will undoubtedly cost you a pretty penny. In my opinion, despite Frank Bolle’s beautiful illustrations, this book is not worth spending more than $25, including shipping. However, one can find the later ChooseCo editions at prices low enough to make this book a good deal.

Rating: 7.5/10.0

More reviews by tonylachief