Welcome to Castle Cove by Kory M Shrum

Although slightly too old for the choose Your Own Adventure novel craze I do have very fond memories of it and thoroughly enjoyed it 20+ years ago.  I was, therefore really looking forward to this modern, adult take on a forgotten genre.  Even better when read on an e-reader there's none of that nasty desire to just peek at the choices before you decide which way to go - you have to choose and commit right now.

Sadly, that is where my enthusiasm for this novel begins and comes to a crashing and abrupt halt.  The chapters are exceptionally short so you have little information on which to make your choice and no real gut feeling to go off either as we never really get under the skin of the character.  So, go methodically think I - choose "safe options" for the first run through and just get a feel for it.  However, this meant that everything just becomes completely confusing in very short order.  People are introduced in later choices that it is quite clear the character you are supposedly inhabiting already knows but you haven't got Clue One who they are.  So making your next choice is just a case of "get me to the end as soon as possible as I have no idea what is going on here". 

So, second read through and I decide to make more honest choices try and get more of an event out of it.  This did work to a lesser extent.  I found out a little more about Castle Cove but then clearly made a wrong decision as I was suddenly in a completely different section of the story with no idea who the people where around me and just wanted to step back a choice so that it made sense.  No, that isn't the spirit of the book so lets get to the end.  Started a third attempt and it was just a rehash of my previous experiences with the exception that because I'd had 2 goes at deciding my destiny I kind of knew who these people were.

The whole experience left me feeling rather cheated.  I came away feeling that the wuthor had generated an idea for a strange town and started working on a novel based on that idea but had ended up with a set of disparate parts and just couldn't find a way to bring them in to a cohesive narrative.  So spend a month or two with a pad and paper and take the nostalgic route and we get this rehash of an old idea.  I am sure it would have been much quicker to persevere with a traditional novel and, for my money, I think it would have made a better reader experience.

This was very definitely not for me as the narrative becomes lost after the first 3 choices as not enough thought has been given in to the introduction of characters, places and themes to fit the choices which means you can suddenly crash in to a location or a character that it is clear the fictional you knows but you have never met on the page, or screen, before.  Needs a lot more thought and work to allow each storyline to make some sort of sense unless you have read through it multiple times and are nearing the end of your possible choice combinations.  Sadly, I was too disappointed and disillusioned to try it more than three times and will not be returning for more.