Customer Reviews

Forest of Fear (Choose Your Own Adventure)

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When I saw the title, "Forest of Fear," I wasn't sure
if maybe I was going to be reading some corny book by
some author I didn't recognize in the Choose Your Own
series. Sometimes, it's the authors who have not
written as many books in the series who come up with
some of the greatest material, though Packard, the
inventor of the Choose Your Own series and probably
the entire genre, has some well written ones in his
huge lot of ones that he has written such as Fright
Night.

Forest of Fear turns out to be a superbly written
book! I wasn't expecting to be entranced constantly
by the possibilities. Of course, there are
possibilities which aren't considered because the book
is limited to 116 pages and you could go on forever
trying to constantly make up different possibilities,
such as if you meet the store owner, they do not leave
you with the option to take her money from her, or
they offer possibilities you might not think of doing
yourself such as not following Ms. Ellison's
instructions to hide money in a pile of wood, and to
hide it in a tree instead.

It's interesting how they have you meet a Maine native
who lives near your uncle at the beginning of the
story, and what you may find out about your uncle,
Jason, when you go to visit. Each important detail
you read about at the beginning of the book could be
related to an ending you end up with such as how
Jason, your uncle, writes his unfinished book, how a
stranger you meet, Isaac Cairns, may come into play
later on, and if you meet an Indian named Henry.
There are some possibly imaginery scenarios with a
time warp or spirits involved in a few endings, but it
is not overdone as it usually is in many books.
There's just enough to keep the flow of the story
going. What makes this book stick out to me is that I
noticed that the book was dedicated to one of the
author's sons, in which her son taught the author that
"Sometimes what we fear is what saves us." One of the
endings was purposely written for her son with that
quote, and it doesn't come off as cute, but it comes
off as impeccable writing. I also like how not all
the endings are good as in some cases, especially with
the children's series, but that there are some
reasonably good endings. There are a lot of possible
surprises that I won't give away such as what is "Old
Treis Pied" and who are "Sarah and Benjamin" but it is
one of the best books in the series to read.

An exciting book that can be about Indians, ghosts or thieves...you choose. You've gone hunting for the spirit tree. Will you find it or will you become one of the spirits in it? This book is packed with action and mystery.