Item - Danger at Anchor Mine

This is an exceptionally good entry in the series. The story is complex, interesting and well-written, and its internal consistency is perfect. The more you play, the more story threads you discover and the more you understand how events relate to one another. While it's not too difficult to reach a successful ending and help out your grandmother, it's both challenging and rewarding to learn the full story of the mine and the townspeople who live near it. On a totally unrelated note, I can't help but wonder if the inclusion of a character named Randolph Carter is a nod to H. P. Lovecraft or merely a coincidence; I'd lean towards coincidence, but you never know....

More reviews by Demian

Rating: 2.5/10

Rather disappointed with this one. As fun as it is, 6 endings come too fast! So it's like a standard 10 ending book. Not finding treasure is another downfall on this book. Fun, but a waste of time.

More reviews by Good

This doesn't sound like an exciting book, but it's more pleasing than I expected.

It's well-written. There's more nuance to the plot than almost all of the CYOA books I've read. The text is just tight enough; you get all the information you need, then it jumps into making decisions.

It's a fairly grounded story as well. There's a small amount of supernatural occurrences, but most of them are intended to be uncertain.

It isn't wild fun, but if you want a moderately serious book in this line, this is it.

More reviews by Jordashebasics

I was actually impressed by this book. It was really good! While it does use the tired visiting-your-strange-relatives-for-the-summer cliché, Anchor Mine does use it in a more original way than most. The story is engaging and well worth reading. If you make bad decisions, you get a bad ending. Unfortunately, you can't ever really find the fortune buried in the mine – because it turns out to just be a town rumour.

There are some issues I have with the plot, though. It's worth noting that many of the intrigues in this book are fairly dated. I doubt whether a mine owner could get away with giving his workers useless stocks instead of paycheques. It's also doubtful whether a local cop would still be playing tax collector then, either. Moreover, as a Canadian, I also know that the Latin American refugees in the book (and yes they're in there, although it isn't obvious from the cover) wouldn't have to hide or fear being deported as they're shown – they'd be probably allowed to stay temporarily until their claim was dealt with.

More reviews by Stockton