Rejoice – the Choose Your Own Adventure books are back
The Choose Your Own Adventure books had a cult-like appeal in the 1980s and 1990s. Between 1979 and 1998, they sold 250 million copies, making them one of the bestselling children's series of all time. The novels were written by 30 different authors, but one of the names most keenly associated with the stories is RA Montgomery, a publisher from Vermont who was involved in the series's initial launch, and went on to contribute an astonishing 49 of the 184 titles. Journey Under the Sea (1979) was his first – and this new edition by Pushkin, one of six books in the series that the publisher is resurrecting, will make you wonder why these enthralling tales ever fell out of print.
For the uninitiated: the appeal of the novels lies in their pioneering 'game book' format. Each story is narrated in the second person, with the reader – a seemingly gender-neutral 'YOU' – assuming the role of protagonist, and being required to make decisions that determine the outcome of the plot. 'You and YOU ALONE are in charge of what happens in this story,' we're warned on each book's opening page. 'The wrong decision could end in disaster – even death.'
It sure can. Each book offers the reader 40-odd possible endings, and during the series we risk almost every conceivable form of catastrophe, from falling down mineshafts to being eaten by intergalactic meatpackers. In Journey Under the Sea, the stakes are predictably high. 'You are a deep-sea explorer searching for the famed lost city of Atlantis,' the book begins in a tone of motion-picture suspense. ''This is your most challenging and dangerous mission. Fear and excitement are now your companions.'
The scenarios are not for the faint hearted. 'It's no use. The whirlpool has you in its grip. You feel your arms and legs being torn in every direction. There is no way out. Round and round you go' – this is the sort of fix in which we continually find ourselves. But Montgomery alloys suspense with understatement. The reader can either blast a hole in the whirlpool wall (turn to page 96) or 'continue to struggle' (turn to page 97).
By the end, everyone will have achieved the ending they deserve, though fortune invariably favours the brave. Pity the reader who opts to 'rest a few days' after a near-death diving experience: 'You are all alive, but there are no replacements for the damaged equipment. The money has run out. The expedition to Atlantis is over. The End.' As with many of the Choose Your Own Adventures, elements of the story feel boldly derivative – in this case, the echoes of Jules Verne's 1870 masterpiece Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea are rather clear. Still, it's remarkable how fresh the Choose Your Own Adventure format still seems, nearly half a century after its initial success.
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