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trash_reader_'s review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
1.5
I was really excited when I saw this in the bookstore because I was immediately reminded of being in grade school reading those "Choose Your Own Adventure" Goosebumps books. The fact that I could read one of those books targeted for adults was such an appealing thought.
But this book just didn't do it for me.
For starters, some of the decisions still forced you to do things that didn't make any sense, or things you wouldn't want to do. Like, why am I doing a bunch of drugs and drinking just because I decided to go straight home? Going home is honestly the most logical option for you to make, at least at first, but then you don't have a say in what is considered essentials (because frozen pizza and beer isn't, let's be real, especially if you drink all the beer upon returning home), and you also don't have a choice of whether you want to ignore the gunshots and not open your apartment door. You're also not given a choice between staying home or going to Staten Island if you answer your mother's phone call. All because your mother offered you a check for $500? It's the fucking apocaplyse, you don't need a check for $500, and the decisions the character made that you didn't have a choice in pissed me off to the point where this wasn't that enjoyable.
Another big thing that took me out of the book and made it less enjoyable was the absurdity of some of the events that took place. An average, every day office employee CAN-ABSOLUTELY-NOT swim to the Statue of Liberty. And in 2 hours? And after running for God-knows-how-long across Manhattan? Fucking please. It's probably a dumb thing to get so bent out of the shape over, but even the small things matter, especially in a book like this where you're supposed to be able to make the major decisions. I feel like deciding to swim across an expanse of water that has killed countless people is a major decision I should have had a choice in.
I tried reading as many paths and endings as I could, but it got way too dumb after a time. The character is beyond stupid, no matter what decision you as the reader make. And the humor was so forced it wasn't funny. It wouldn't be funny even if you tilted your head and squinted. Everything just got so repetitive after a while, too. Doing drugs, drinking, hurting yourself - Oh look, the military saves the day. And then you have those endings that aren't even endings. You just get flirted with and then it's over. That's not and ending.
All this to say - I'm extremely disappointed that I wasted money on this.
But this book just didn't do it for me.
For starters, some of the decisions still forced you to do things that didn't make any sense, or things you wouldn't want to do. Like, why am I doing a bunch of drugs and drinking just because I decided to go straight home? Going home is honestly the most logical option for you to make, at least at first, but then you don't have a say in what is considered essentials (because frozen pizza and beer isn't, let's be real, especially if you drink all the beer upon returning home), and you also don't have a choice of whether you want to ignore the gunshots and not open your apartment door. You're also not given a choice between staying home or going to Staten Island if you answer your mother's phone call. All because your mother offered you a check for $500? It's the fucking apocaplyse, you don't need a check for $500, and the decisions the character made that you didn't have a choice in pissed me off to the point where this wasn't that enjoyable.
Another big thing that took me out of the book and made it less enjoyable was the absurdity of some of the events that took place. An average, every day office employee CAN-ABSOLUTELY-NOT swim to the Statue of Liberty. And in 2 hours? And after running for God-knows-how-long across Manhattan? Fucking please. It's probably a dumb thing to get so bent out of the shape over, but even the small things matter, especially in a book like this where you're supposed to be able to make the major decisions. I feel like deciding to swim across an expanse of water that has killed countless people is a major decision I should have had a choice in.
I tried reading as many paths and endings as I could, but it got way too dumb after a time. The character is beyond stupid, no matter what decision you as the reader make. And the humor was so forced it wasn't funny. It wouldn't be funny even if you tilted your head and squinted. Everything just got so repetitive after a while, too. Doing drugs, drinking, hurting yourself - Oh look, the military saves the day. And then you have those endings that aren't even endings. You just get flirted with and then it's over. That's not and ending.
All this to say - I'm extremely disappointed that I wasted money on this.
heathercottledillon's review
4.0
Remember those "Choose Your Own Adventure" books that used to be popular for kids? Here's an adult--a very adult--version. You start out as a 20-something male working in a boring Manhattan office job when the zombie plague breaks out. What happens after that is up to you. With 100 different paths to 50 endings, there's plenty of variety. You could find yourself killing a Nazi, beheading zombie strippers, flying to safety in a NY Yankee's private jet, riding with Hell's Angels, being saved by a museum curator/ninja, and/or many other crazy things.
This unique format is a lot of fun. At first I just dove in and made choices that seemed smart, and later I went back and marked the pages as I went to make sure I followed all of the paths. Flipping around every few pages was kind of annoying to me, but it was well worth it. My only other complaint is that some of the endings don't seem like real endings to me--sometimes the storyline ends while it's still uncertain what is going to happen in the long term. That said, I still loved this book. In addition to the fun of making choices, the writing itself is pretty funny. I especially enjoyed the goofy chapter titles, such as "Chivalry Isn't Dead (But You Might Be)" and "Making Tom Berenger Proud."
This unique format is a lot of fun. At first I just dove in and made choices that seemed smart, and later I went back and marked the pages as I went to make sure I followed all of the paths. Flipping around every few pages was kind of annoying to me, but it was well worth it. My only other complaint is that some of the endings don't seem like real endings to me--sometimes the storyline ends while it's still uncertain what is going to happen in the long term. That said, I still loved this book. In addition to the fun of making choices, the writing itself is pretty funny. I especially enjoyed the goofy chapter titles, such as "Chivalry Isn't Dead (But You Might Be)" and "Making Tom Berenger Proud."
mehsi's review
5.0
4.5 stars! This is quite the original, creative book.
You have choices to make now - lots of them. Moral dilemmas. Strategic decisions. Weapons. Vehicles. Will you be a hero? Or will you cover your own ass at all costs? Will you survive the coming hours, days, weeks, and months? Or will you die amidst the chaos and violence of a zombie uprising?
Or worse of all, will you become one of them...?
The choice is yours. And hey, if you don't make it - you've got no one to blame but yourself.
I recently read another book by Max Brallier, and I wanted to know if he wrote other stuff. Thus I stumbled upon this book, I was interested, zombies are one of my favourite scary monsters, and I just loved how the cover looked (like a paperback from the 70s or 80s). But then I saw something even more awesome than zombies, even better than the cover. I saw this was an choose-your-own-adventure book! I love those! I was curious as to how it would be done, how many bad endings there were, how many good endings, how many endings were we have to fill in the dots ourselves.
But first I started reading it, I followed a route, but bumped into so many choices that I decided to make a chart. So I got my dear boyfriend, and we both started typing down all the possible endings, all the possible routes, and by Lord, it is BIG, HUGE, there are countless of routes, countless of endings. Some routes are really small and are relatively easily reached (and some of them don't have too many sideroads), but some take ages to go through before you hit the ending of that route. The biggest one is the military-based storyline. One I kind of enjoyed, but also kind of didn't. Yeah, I am conflicted.
So yeah, I had a chart, and I decided to read it, since I want to reach most of the stories and the endings, and while I could do it blindly, I prefer a chart so I know exactly what line I followed, and which one I didn't.
This book is terrific. Of course the whole You did this, and You did that, took some time to get used to, but after a while you don't even think it is weird or strange and you just get lost in the story. The story about a guy, with a dead-end job, getting lost in the zombie apocalypse. Every choice you make leads to something, death, freedom, or something else. At times I really liked the guy, at other times I just wanted to shake him around. I know, I picked the choices, but dear Lord, that guy wasn't really the smartest even without me picking the choices.
At times I was just laughing my butt off from various situations which were just super hilarious, or silly. Or just because of puns, jokes (yes, even in the apocalypse one makes jokes).
We meet various people, depending on the choices you make. I didn't like all the of the characters we meet, but generally we do have some great characters. I especially liked Yakuma, and Chuck. They were fantastic and they really kicked ass. Well, especially Yakuma. Stripper + swords + kick ass moves = WOW.
Yes, you heard that right. Stripper. This book isn't for the kiddies. There is tons of gore, quite a few references to drugs and alcohol, a bit of swearing, and several other things. Now the gore can also be present in some kid/YA books, but generally those keep it quite clean.
But this book made me feel a bit sick in the stomach. Guts, intestines, heads being blown off, zombies tucking in a human.
The book also gave me a lot of goosebumps. Even though the main character wasn't one I identify with (I am a woman for starters), with the POV we have, we were just smack dab in the middle of all the horrible stuff that happened. It was at times really gruesome, normally you can distance yourself a bit, still feeling sorry for the character of course, but you aren't as close to the action as it was with this book.
I still got some routes to finish, some endings to find, but I did most of them. My favourites would be Yakuma, Chuck and the apartment building story.
There was another thing I didn't like, but that didn't have to do with the book, and more to do with my ereader. I still want to mention it though, as this is a review, and I want to mention everything.
You could click on the choices, but sadly my ereader hated doing that, often flipping out, it sometimes took quite a few tries before I could get my ereader to understand that I wanted to click a link, and not wanted it to open the menus. That was quite annoying, as I just wanted to continue the story, find out about stuff, and then my ereader would just be like: NOPE.
All in all, this is one book I would really recommend to everyone. Looking for a fun, creepy, scary book? A book in which you can decide what happens to characters, main character? Then this is one you should check out.
Review first posted at http://twirlingbookprincess.com/
You have choices to make now - lots of them. Moral dilemmas. Strategic decisions. Weapons. Vehicles. Will you be a hero? Or will you cover your own ass at all costs? Will you survive the coming hours, days, weeks, and months? Or will you die amidst the chaos and violence of a zombie uprising?
Or worse of all, will you become one of them...?
The choice is yours. And hey, if you don't make it - you've got no one to blame but yourself.
I recently read another book by Max Brallier, and I wanted to know if he wrote other stuff. Thus I stumbled upon this book, I was interested, zombies are one of my favourite scary monsters, and I just loved how the cover looked (like a paperback from the 70s or 80s). But then I saw something even more awesome than zombies, even better than the cover. I saw this was an choose-your-own-adventure book! I love those! I was curious as to how it would be done, how many bad endings there were, how many good endings, how many endings were we have to fill in the dots ourselves.
But first I started reading it, I followed a route, but bumped into so many choices that I decided to make a chart. So I got my dear boyfriend, and we both started typing down all the possible endings, all the possible routes, and by Lord, it is BIG, HUGE, there are countless of routes, countless of endings. Some routes are really small and are relatively easily reached (and some of them don't have too many sideroads), but some take ages to go through before you hit the ending of that route. The biggest one is the military-based storyline. One I kind of enjoyed, but also kind of didn't. Yeah, I am conflicted.
So yeah, I had a chart, and I decided to read it, since I want to reach most of the stories and the endings, and while I could do it blindly, I prefer a chart so I know exactly what line I followed, and which one I didn't.
This book is terrific. Of course the whole You did this, and You did that, took some time to get used to, but after a while you don't even think it is weird or strange and you just get lost in the story. The story about a guy, with a dead-end job, getting lost in the zombie apocalypse. Every choice you make leads to something, death, freedom, or something else. At times I really liked the guy, at other times I just wanted to shake him around. I know, I picked the choices, but dear Lord, that guy wasn't really the smartest even without me picking the choices.
At times I was just laughing my butt off from various situations which were just super hilarious, or silly. Or just because of puns, jokes (yes, even in the apocalypse one makes jokes).
We meet various people, depending on the choices you make. I didn't like all the of the characters we meet, but generally we do have some great characters. I especially liked Yakuma, and Chuck. They were fantastic and they really kicked ass. Well, especially Yakuma. Stripper + swords + kick ass moves = WOW.
Yes, you heard that right. Stripper. This book isn't for the kiddies. There is tons of gore, quite a few references to drugs and alcohol, a bit of swearing, and several other things. Now the gore can also be present in some kid/YA books, but generally those keep it quite clean.
But this book made me feel a bit sick in the stomach. Guts, intestines, heads being blown off, zombies tucking in a human.
The book also gave me a lot of goosebumps. Even though the main character wasn't one I identify with (I am a woman for starters), with the POV we have, we were just smack dab in the middle of all the horrible stuff that happened. It was at times really gruesome, normally you can distance yourself a bit, still feeling sorry for the character of course, but you aren't as close to the action as it was with this book.
I still got some routes to finish, some endings to find, but I did most of them. My favourites would be Yakuma, Chuck and the apartment building story.
There was another thing I didn't like, but that didn't have to do with the book, and more to do with my ereader. I still want to mention it though, as this is a review, and I want to mention everything.
You could click on the choices, but sadly my ereader hated doing that, often flipping out, it sometimes took quite a few tries before I could get my ereader to understand that I wanted to click a link, and not wanted it to open the menus. That was quite annoying, as I just wanted to continue the story, find out about stuff, and then my ereader would just be like: NOPE.
All in all, this is one book I would really recommend to everyone. Looking for a fun, creepy, scary book? A book in which you can decide what happens to characters, main character? Then this is one you should check out.
Review first posted at http://twirlingbookprincess.com/
brendalovesbooks's review
4.0
Why I read it: Received review copy
The Plot: Inside these pages lies unspeakable horror. Bloodsplattering, brain-impaling, flesh-devouring horror. You’ve probably read your fair share of zombie stories. But this time it’s different. No longer can you sit idle as a bunch of fools make all the wrong moves. All hell is about to break loose—and YOU have a say in humanity’s survival. (This book is in the classic "Choose your own adventure" style, which was very fun!)
The Characters: There really are no characters here. You are the main character, except that you're a young man. So, if you're a woman like me, it can be a little harder to put yourself in the slot of the main character and play along.
The Setting: I think most of the story takes place in New York, but that doesn't really matter so much. All you need to know is that there are zombies!
Who Should Read This? Fans of the old Choose Your Own Adventure books, fans of zombie books.
Final Thoughts: I had a lot of fun with this one, but the one thing I realized is that you can't read it for any long periods of time. Even though you can pick different paths and read a different scenario, after awhile I forgot what had happened in my current path and what was from a different one, and it all just blended together. Not to mention that you kind of get sick of it after too long. This is a fun one to pick up here and there when you don't have much time to read.
Grade: B
Cover Thoughts: I like the cover. It's definitely not boring, although one could argue that there's too much there.
The Plot: Inside these pages lies unspeakable horror. Bloodsplattering, brain-impaling, flesh-devouring horror. You’ve probably read your fair share of zombie stories. But this time it’s different. No longer can you sit idle as a bunch of fools make all the wrong moves. All hell is about to break loose—and YOU have a say in humanity’s survival. (This book is in the classic "Choose your own adventure" style, which was very fun!)
The Characters: There really are no characters here. You are the main character, except that you're a young man. So, if you're a woman like me, it can be a little harder to put yourself in the slot of the main character and play along.
The Setting: I think most of the story takes place in New York, but that doesn't really matter so much. All you need to know is that there are zombies!
Who Should Read This? Fans of the old Choose Your Own Adventure books, fans of zombie books.
Final Thoughts: I had a lot of fun with this one, but the one thing I realized is that you can't read it for any long periods of time. Even though you can pick different paths and read a different scenario, after awhile I forgot what had happened in my current path and what was from a different one, and it all just blended together. Not to mention that you kind of get sick of it after too long. This is a fun one to pick up here and there when you don't have much time to read.
Grade: B
Cover Thoughts: I like the cover. It's definitely not boring, although one could argue that there's too much there.
diszie's review
3.0
I love choice games so I couldn’t resist! But I will say that you don’t get attached to the main character because you don’t really see his personality as much. Some of the plot lines for the different endings are cheesy, but it did have some of its good and funny moments! Overall still a cool premise!
anaidelawless's review
4.0
Sometimes I can survive the Zombie apocalypse.
This is choose your own adventure book and after keeping meticulous notes, I can proudly say I got through all the options. At times this book can be really funny and I did not mind all the gore, even though there was one point, where I was unsettled.
I enjoyed the routes a lot, my favourite part was the museum arc, I also liked barricading myself in Barnes and Nobles (what else is new?), and even the Hells Angels were cool.
I am sure If I will read the sequel, I got what I wanted. Maybe somewhere down the line, definitely not now.
This is choose your own adventure book and after keeping meticulous notes, I can proudly say I got through all the options. At times this book can be really funny and I did not mind all the gore, even though there was one point, where I was unsettled.
I enjoyed the routes a lot, my favourite part was the museum arc, I also liked barricading myself in Barnes and Nobles (what else is new?), and even the Hells Angels were cool.
I am sure If I will read the sequel, I got what I wanted. Maybe somewhere down the line, definitely not now.
mwfieldbinder's review
1.0
What is this book. The disillusioned idea of decisions to make in a zombie apocalypse are just outrageous. So many undertones of racism and fat phobic commentary. This book offers a small handful of laughs but outside of that it was a massive waste of my time. First and probably last CYOA.
beastreader's review
5.0
Can You Survive the Zombie Apocalypse? is a zombie fest, good time! I have not had this much fun reading a book in a very, long time. I can remember sitting in the library reading these adventure books trying to predict the best choice. Can You Survive the Zombie Apocalypse? brings back wonderful memories.
You start out as the hero but be warned as every step you make could be your last. You must decide if you want to be the hero and help people or say screw it and watch your own back. Either choice could be the best choice. There is some language used in this book. Of course though what would you expect…there is a zombie apocalypse and you are supposed to watch your language. What helped really make this book over the top is the fact that the zombies were the genuine kind. They were flesh eating, gruesome beings. After reading this book, I am hoping that choose your own adventure books are making a come back.
You start out as the hero but be warned as every step you make could be your last. You must decide if you want to be the hero and help people or say screw it and watch your own back. Either choice could be the best choice. There is some language used in this book. Of course though what would you expect…there is a zombie apocalypse and you are supposed to watch your language. What helped really make this book over the top is the fact that the zombies were the genuine kind. They were flesh eating, gruesome beings. After reading this book, I am hoping that choose your own adventure books are making a come back.
rofitz's review
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5