1. Craven House Horrors
British Title: Horror House
Author: Hilary Milton
Illustrator: Paul Frame
First Published: 1982
ISBN: 0-671-45631-8
Length: 116 pages
Number of Endings: 29
Library of Congress Summary: Trapped by a storm in a mysterious and
frightening house, the reader is given several alternative choices to
manipulate the plot and plan an escape.
My Thoughts: This is a rather disappointing book. Although the
"old dark house" scenario is usually a fun horror premise, it is
poorly handled here. The book is filled with so many inconsistencies and
random events that it's more confusing than frightening. The author would
have been better off choosing one storyline and exploring all of its
possibilities rather than trying to cram a little of everything into the book
and ending up with this plotless mess. The book isn't very satisfying from a
gameplay perspective either; as I mentioned, there's no story consistency, and
there are also an awful lot of choices where the reader chooses not what his
or her character does, but rather what will actually happen next. You don't
choose whether or not to enter the secret door, you actually choose what's
behind it; you don't choose how to react to the bird, you actually choose
what the bird will do next. Some might find this sort of thing interesting,
as it is an uncommon feature for a gamebook, but I don't really like it, as
it distances the reader from the story and diminishes suspense. Shockingly
enough, you'd actually be better off skipping this adventure and reading a
Give Yourself Goosebumps book instead!
2. Nightmare Store
Author: Hilary Milton
Illustrator: Paul Frame
First Published: 1982
ISBN: 0-671-45630-X
Length: 121 pages
Number of Endings: 25
Library of Congress Summary: The reader, trapped after closing in the
newest and largest department store in Atlanta, is given choices to make to
remove himself from the night of terror.
My Thoughts: This book is something of an improvement over the
previous volume even though it shares most of the same flaws. There are
choices that affect outcomes rather than actions, but not quite so many, and
while the story is full of random and senseless events and has nothing that
could be described as a meaningful plot, at least the paths through it are
longer and more satisfying than those in the last book. Some of the stories
told in this volume are purely silly and ridiculous, but others have at least
a little bit of atmosphere; in fact, when I was considerably younger, I
recall being genuinely frightened by parts of the book. It's still far from
being a great success, but it's not as hopelessly weak as its predecessor.
3. Space Age Terrors!
Author: Hilary Milton
Illustrator: Paul Frame
First Published: 1983
ISBN: 0-671-49248-9
Length: 118 pages
Number of Endings: 29
Library of Congress Summary: The reader faces a choice of unknown
horrors in the Vanguard Air, Rocket, and Space Museum after it closes, late
one night.
My Thoughts: This book follows the series' trend of featuring random,
unexplained and unrelated horrific events occurring without explanation or
internal consistency. It didn't make for a satisfying read before, and it
once again doesn't make for a satisfying read here. This book is made worse
by the fact that its scenario is even goofier and more outlandish than those
in the last two adventures. It's also brought down (though at the same time
made somewhat unique) by its choices. Many choices ask you what you feel or
what you think will happen, but most of the time the choice you pick has
little or no bearing on what actually happens. It makes the book feel even
more random and senseless than it otherwise would have, but it's a design
strategy that might be quite interesting if used by a more skilled author.
4. Horror Hotel!
British Title: Grand Hotel of Horror
Author: Hilary Milton
Illustrator: Paul Frame
First Published: 1983
ISBN: 0-671-49249-7
Length: 122 pages
Number of Endings: 28
Library of Congress Summary: Trapped in a historic hotel high on a
cliff overlooking a river, the reader must make choices in order to remove
himself from the horrors he finds there.
My Thoughts: The trends started in the previous volume are continued
here. By now, the majority of the choices actually involve the outcome of
the story rather than the actions of the protagonist, and at at least one
point, the choice is simply "Turn to page x, or if you prefer, turn to
page y." It doesn't get much more random than that! As I said before,
this sort of randomness might not be so bad in the hands of a talented
author, but the writing here is clumsy at best. Although the book gets off
to a slightly more promising start than usual for the series, it swiftly
degrades into an uninteresting mess. It was a good idea to provide the
reader's character with a pamphlet to explain the history of the horrors that
unfold during the story, but this history is included in the narrative in an
awkward and heavy-handed manner. Even worse, too many unrelated threads
are tossed into the storyline, ultimately drowning out any hope of a coherent
or interesting plot emerging. Add this one to the "avoid" list
with all the rest of the series so far.
5. Escape from High Doom
Author: Hilary Milton
Illustrators: Paul Frame (interior and American cover), Dave Eastbury (British cover)
First Published: 1984 (American edition), 1985 (British edition)
ISBN: 0-671-52405-4 (American paperback edition), 0-671-53039-9 (American library-bound edition), 0-416-53390-6 (British paperback edition)
Length: 119 pages
Number of Endings: 30
Library of Congress Summary: The reader visits Noose City, a Texas
ghost town famous for the ghosts of executed criminals, which reappear each
year on the anniversaries of their deaths; the reader makes choices which
determine the outcome of the plot.
My Thoughts: Well, the fact that the series title changed from
Plot-Your-Own Horror Stories to Plot-It-Yourself Horror Stories
with this title doesn't seem to mean that the contents are any different.
Don't let the official Library of Congress summary fool you into thinking
that this book has some sort of coherent plot; like the rest of the series,
it's just a collection of random events held together by choices that
frequently have little or no bearing on what actually happens next. In fact,
the first choice in the book is another purely random one in which the only
decision to make is which of two possible pages to turn to. Although things
get a little better after that, the improvement is minimal. Some paths
through this book are fairly lengthy, others are remarkably brief; whatever
happens, it's not especially scary, it's definitely not very logical and,
alas, it's not even remotely interesting. I hope that future books in the
series get a little better than this, because I'm growing rather tired of
making the same criticisms again and again!
6. Fun House Terrors
Author: Hilary Milton
Illustrator: Paul Frame
First Published: 1984
ISBN: 0-671-52406-2 (American paperback edition), 0-671-53041-0 (American library-bound edition)
Length: 118 pages
Number of Endings: 27
Library of Congress Summary: The reader visits a seaside amusement
park where the rides turn out to be more terrifying than amusing; the reader
makes choices which determine the outcome of the plot.
My Thoughts: Argh! The true horror of this series is dealing with
the same uninspired formula time after time after time! You're on vacation
in a mundane place, but it's not mundane, it's evil, and after making lots of
meaningless choices, the story ends, usually with your death and far too many
periods of ellipsis. What was the author trying to do? Persuade children
that going on vacation is bad? It certainly doesn't seem like any desire to
tell a story or generate entertaining reading material went into the creation
of these tedious tales. At least some of the artwork isn't bad. Still, I've
said it before, and I'll say it again: avoid, avoid, avoid.
7. Museum of the Living Dead
British Title: Dining with Dinosaurs
Author: Hilary Milton
Illustrator: Paul Frame
First Published: 1985
ISBN: 0-671-54447-0
Length: 120 pages
Number of Endings: 29
Library of Congress Summary: Trapped by a thunderstorm in a museum of
prehistoric creatures that seem to come alive, the reader must find a way out
of increasingly frightening situations.
My Thoughts: Well, I found this book marginally more interesting than
the last few, but that's entirely because the subject matter was of more
interest to me, not because of any improvement in the writing or game design.
In fact, even the appealing subject matter is poorly handled here; I doubt
the author knew much about prehistoric life or bothered to do any significant
research, since the encounters with extinct species lack interesting
descriptions or other details and overuse vague adjectives like
"horrible" and "frightening." Outside of that, we've got
the usual disregard for plot consistency and lots of choices for which the
reader's decision has little or no impact on what actually happens. This
really should have been much better.
8. Dungeon Demons
Author: Hilary Milton
Illustrator: Paul Frame
First Published: 1985
ISBN: 0-671-54448-9
Length: 119 pages
Number of Endings: 29
Library of Congress Summary: The reader must find a way of excaping
from Duncarney Castle where he/she is surrounded by evil ogres, black
knights, witches, and many other unsavory characters.
My Thoughts: This book is more or less indistinguishable from the
rest of the series. It starts off with what might reasonably be the
beginning of a story with an actual plot, but then it puts the reader on his
or her own and plods through a succession of random and mostly meaningless
events until eventually coming to a less-than-thrilling end. The writing is
even more cringe-inducing than usual here thanks to some awful
pseudo-medieval dialogue, and there's also a rather sloppy tense problem
during the introductory pages. It's a shame, really -- I started reading
this series expecting it to be above average (due mainly to dim childhood
memories of Nightmare Store), but it turned out to be one weak
disappointment after another. Oh well; it's over now, and I'm not exactly
sad to see it go.