Item - Hijacked!

Here's one that I have owned since I was a kid.

Terrorists highjack your school bus, and take you all to a place where they wish to indoctrinate you with their belief system. After all, according to them, you have been "told lies about life!"

There are many interesting diverging paths in the story. You get several chances to try to escape, with or without a companion, and each chance has varying degrees of danger. In fact, even if you DO escape, it's not necessarily over yet! The terrorist organization has spread its tentacles into many aspects of the real world, which you might well encounter.

Depending on what paths you take, you could end up seeing different elements of the broader picture. For example, the bus driver at the beginning of the story? She is later seen being prodded along by some men with guns, if you happen to come across that point.

This is just a well-written story, plain and simple. The many unique events are well-written and interesting. The many endings are unique as well, giving some insight into how big the organization is and how far these guys will go. They brainwash people, they corrupt police, they have a large base, and they just seem to have massive operations that you encounter different parts of in the different story paths. If anything, the many paths might make the terrorist organization seem unrealistically gigantic in some cases (and hopeless to fight against!), but at least there are zero problems with continuity. You can't accuse the book of being dull, that's for sure!

I just can't recommend this book enough. It's easily one of my favorites. Fun theme, cool events; admittedly it strikes a personal chord with me, but it's well-written and well-designed too. Check it out if you can.

More reviews by CGally

While this book is fairly well-written, and keeps things moving along with excitement, I found it strangely disappointing.

The antagonist - a cult-like organization that has kidnapped you and your school bus companions - doesn't seem to have a clear motive. Conquer the world? Maybe. There is a nice sense of paranoia that runs throughout the book, mostly by making most of the characters untrustworthy, and occasionally, suspicious ones are helpful.

It's actually a pretty good book, and my reservations are my own, I don't know if anyone else will feel the same.

More reviews by Jordashebasics