Item - Cup of Death (Graded Reader)

It's been more than ten years since I read the original version of this adventure, so I was able to approach this revision without a clear recollection of the story. I had a lot of fun rediscovering the solution to the mystery; my earlier review still applies: this is my favorite sort of gamebook, where a single story is told, and the reader's choices reveal different aspects of the plot, with each reading revealing another important detail until everything becomes clear.

While my fading memory of the original made the re-reading more enjoyable, it does limit my ability to comment on how things have changed. There are some obvious modernizations (probably inherited from the ChooseCo reissue) to update the story with things like cell phones and computers, but I get the feeling that this is largely true to the unabridged version. The biggest change unique to this edition may be the fact that the reader's character is now a (presumably adult) private investigator rather than a vacationing student, which works seamlessly here.

I found the simplification of the language less intrusive than in the Mystery of the Maya graded reader that I read previously. There were still a handful of sentences that seemed a little awkward to a native English speaker, but for the most part it was a smooth read. It may be that the novelty of the Japanese setting helped to disguise the simplicity of the language construction.

Bottom line: a successful reworking of an above-average title. Worth a look.

More reviews by Demian