I read my first choose your own adventure in years! I used to hate them as a kid, so I never read them much but Hari Conner's Night at the Vampire Castle was a lot of fun!
It is exactly what it sounds like, a second person novel where the reader is positioned as a human who ends up in a vampires' castle for the night. There are a lot of different choices for the reader which I chose to read almost like a collection of interconnected short stories? I had a lot of fun exploring different paths and aiming for different outcomes with varying results. After 8 or so paths I ended up following, I started skimming through to see what storylines I missed, which I would highly recommend.
I also enjoyed how many side characters you could romance as well!! There is a qpr option, which was nice, and even a poly option at one point! I really enjoyed the art throughout, which made me interested about the different characters.
I will say the form of this book is really what made it shine, Conner took advantage of the uniquenes of a choose your own adventure to expand the world and introduce really fun characters. I thought a lot of the endings were really satisfying in different ways, I enjoy that not all of the happy endings included romance.
I had a really fun time with this book, 4/5 stars. I do plan on reading Conner's other choose your own adveture and I personally recommend Raisa's path. And also not being too cautious in your choices!
