Item - Vanished!

For all the interesting ways it makes you, uh, vanish, Vanished! is a really smooth CYOA. You and your friends Tony and Andrea are taking your family's private plane (in true everykid fashion) to the Bermuda triangle to rescue your friend Jill and her family.

I think one of the things that might have removed a lot of mystery is, well, I've read about the legend of the Bermuda Triangle and why it's just that, nothing supernatural. That doesn't stop this from being a good story. But I imagine it's the sort of thing I would have loved as a kid.

Though you take a plane there, you can also wind up taking a boat to search areas, which presents new kinds of dangers. And there are, true to the book title, a lot of ways for you to vanish, both to your doom and to find new adventure, with time travel, a race of alien species and a water species, too. You also meet modern-day pirates. The endings deserve mention for working well together. There's one where you find Jill (don't think this is a spoiler--it'd be mean not to have one like that for kids!) and another where you find a raft with survivors on it, but it's not Jill and her family.

However, there are other side ones as well, which get a bit fantastic, but it's nothing grossly unrealistic. My favorite part was the one where you double crossed your captors a bit, who offered to let you go, and there were some neat psychological consequences from that. You also wind up with different fates than Tony and Andrea, or with no knowledge of what happens to them. So I think there's a lot of really good branching. One ending in particular is amusing, where you try to play dumb and get called on it. Actually, there are a couple, and it's unusual to give a player that much opportunity to deceive others. Usually you're forced into being a bit of a Mary Sue (the protagonist here is female), though double crossing other people has its pitfalls too.

More reviews by andrewschultz

This book is a definite change of pace for its author, who had only written fantasy up until this point. It actually feels like it belongs earlier on in the series, as its fast pace and many random and unexpected plot twists are rather reminiscent of the first dozen-or-so entries. Really, I find it surprising that the series didn't capitalize on the Bermuda Triangle phenomenon sooner (and also that they didn't mention the dreaded area in the book's title -- I imagine doing so would have increased sales). Anyway, the book has its ups and downs. It's nice to have only minimal time between choices and lots of things to try, and there's also a strong gameplay element, since finding Jill is definitely not easy. The problem, though, is that victory isn't particularly exciting once you manage it. Actually, there's not a whole lot of satisfaction to most of the paths through the book, successful or otherwise -- it all goes by so fast that it rarely feels like anything has actually happened (though there are some exceptions; I found the portion of the book where you encounter aliens to be at least a bit more intriguing than the rest of the story). There are also a couple of weird attempts at being educational -- in one section, for example, you increase your vocabulary by learning the word "seiche" just in time to get killed by one! This book is great if your attention span is feeling short, but if you're looking for a fully developed story, you'd most likely do better looking elsewhere.

More reviews by Demian

This book is about the Bermuda Triangle, where your friend Jill has suddenly vanished. My main problem with it is that your character tends to make decisions without you, leading to frustrating death endings. I agree with Demian; sometimes you just go off on a different plot than finding Jill and, when you end up successful, end the book while wondering if anything ever happened. However, the style is nice and the challenge presented is good, and the elements ultimately even each other out into an "okay" story.

More reviews by Waluigi Freak 99