Item - The Halloween Party

The Halloween Party was a mixed bag. Once the setup has occurred, you get two main paths, each going with different friends. I actually liked this idea, since it provides your companions with more personality than just wanting to follow you.

The book does reward reading the entire thing, since there is some background information you can piece together from the multiple paths. Unfortunately, most of the book is not all that scary, mostly because of the threat not being well defined. There’s a witch, but what is she doing? It’s unclear.

However, there is one spooky bit with a bunch of zombie-like kids chasing you down a stairwell.

Passable, but not great.

More reviews by Jordashebasics

Some of the best original eighteen Choose Your Own Nightmares relied heavily on atmosphere. Night of the Werewolf, Risk Your Life Arcade, Welcome to Horror Hospital, and The Halloween Party fit this category. Meg Robinson, who just moved into your apartment building, invites you to her Halloween party. You attend in costume as a panther, wearing a face paint pattern said to ward off evil. Meg leads you and your friends Laurie and Peter to a back room for a special effects show, but things turn horrifying when a witch emerges and threatens you. If you survive until midnight, she screeches, you can go free. As a smoke bomb goes off and you evacuate the room, a panicked Meg claims her mother is missing. Should you accompany Peter and Meg to search for her, or go with Laurie to get help?

Joining Peter and Meg, you discover her mother isn't missing at all. She was the witch who cursed you. You and Peter can escape the apartment through a service elevator, but Meg follows, insisting that witch isn't her real mother. The three of you end up in the apartment building's basement, then stumble out a tunnel into the open air beside a cemetery. Cut through the woods to avoid the gravestones, and you'll be accosted by living skeletons. Going through the cemetery could be better, but Peter gets lost on the way. If you go back for him, you meet a group of strange kids hiding in a mausoleum. Will they lead you to Peter, or your doom? Don't readily trust anyone tonight.

If you originally went with Laurie for help, all the apartment building's hallway lights are out. Do you want to try the elevator, or stick with the stairs? Knocking on an apartment door at random, you meet a faded-looking man and woman you grow to suspect are kidnappers. Can you get outside the building and sneak away down an alley? Alternatively you could hide in the laundry room, but may find yourself in a war between the witch and some ghosts. If you and Laurie took the elevator and not the stairs, it opens onto a floor labeled minus thirteen. Maybe you should just press the lobby button and wait with Fred the doorman until midnight, but even that's a risk on this cursed evening. Exploring the minus-thirteenth floor might be your best bet; you end up at a Halloween party with Mr. Grimaldin, a grouchy neighbor. The party is full of paranormal enemies, and you hope your face paint will keep them at bay. With help from Mr. Grimaldin, you just might live to midnight.

The Halloween Party has flaws, but the atmosphere is memorable. Who is E. A. M. Jakab, though? Solid information on the author is difficult to come by, so I wonder if it's a pen name. I rank The Halloween Party in the upper tier of Choose Your Own Nightmares, and I go back for a read every October. Eerie atmosphere is a rare quality, and this book has it.

More reviews by KenJenningsJeopardy74