Item - How I Became a Freak

This is book is above average for the series. The story and writing are quite good (there are several points where the book is actually effectively humorous) and the choices come at a quick pace.

More reviews by Demian

This book has some good things going for it. It starts off quickly, and the story moves along at a quick pace. The premise isn't bad - you are disfigured by a funhouse mirror.

But somehow, I didn't care for the strangely nonsensical endings. Most of the endings are upbeat, with you getting cured by a variety of means. In one, you are cured by drinking a bottle of flat soda. But for some reason, it ends with you assuming that if you drink more soda, you'll turn back?

Despite technical quality, at the end, the book just isn't that satisfying.

More reviews by Jordashebasics

How I Became a Freak is Richard Brightfield's third and final Choose Your Own Nightmare, and he took the story in some crazy directions. You and your friend Susan rush out after supper when you learn a carnival has set up on Elm Street. You enjoy the rides and classic carny foods, but when you spot the hall of mirrors, you insist on exploring inside even though the carnival clowns are closing up for the night. As you hurry back out to leave before closing time, you catch your grotesque reflection in a mirror before exiting the hall of mirrors. You're too tired to pay much attention to anything as you stumble home into bed after curfew. Next morning when your mom wakes you for school, she runs away shrieking. In the mirror you see your face is horribly deformed just like last night in the hall of mirrors. Should you conceal your face and search for answers, or hide away from a world sure to be repulsed by your new look?

A proactive approach may be your best chance. Putting on a ski mask, you tell your parents what happened last night, and they agree the clowns at the carnival are to blame. Go file a police report, and the officers lock you in a cell to prevent public terror at your face. Wait patiently and the police escort you to the abandoned carnival site; if you destroy the mirror that transformed you, will it change the way you look? Earlier, if you escaped police custody and sneaked over to Susan's house, you're prepared for her to be aghast at your face, but what if you've been cured and don't know it? If instead of contacting the police in the first place, you and your dad go to the carnival site alone, you meet three men from the Institute for the Unexplained. Go with them in their black van, and you meet others who were turned into freaks. Choose to undergo the "quick fix" and you find a more drastic solution than you'd like; the alternative is an extended stay at a ranch managed by clowns. If you rejected the men from the Institute for the Unexplained when you first met, they pursue you in a high-speed car chase. The tactics you employ to elude them have a huge impact on your future.

Was your initial instinct upon discovering your new freak face to hide in bed? Your mom and dad summon a Dr. Quank, who suggests an experimental therapy called the ozone box. Crawl inside it, and your horrors may only be beginning. Refuse to cooperate and Dr. Quank orders you brought to his facility; with luck, his treatments return you to normal, but if you run away you might find the carnival site. When a clown offers you a job in the freak show, should you accept your new lot in life? Struggle too hard against it, and you wind up in a place more awful than the freak show. If you avoided ever encountering Dr. Quank, you might slip out your bedroom window on the morning your mom first sees you, and meet a boy whose face is as distorted as yours. Can you two stumble onto a cure? You'll do anything to restore the life you had before that carnival.

I have to put How I Became a Freak in the running for worst Choose Your Own Nightmare. The story behind your hideous transformation isn't fleshed out consistently at all, and the characters behave in ridiculous ways, especially your parents. Rather than a suspenseful gamebook about your being victimized by supernatural evil yet mustering the courage to chase down the truth, you spend these pages riding unfocused narrative waves that toss you to and fro with little reward for perseverance. I wish Richard Brightfield had committed to getting the most out of the premise.

More reviews by KenJenningsJeopardy74