I did not read Brightside and I believe in this novella's case, you really should read that book first.  You are not going to get much world building or much character building.  So this may have been more a three star read for me, but that is mostly because I didn't read Brightside and I don't feel like the book deserves a lower rating because I didn't read that.  Anyways, it was interesting and I did get wrapped up in the story.  And it was so neat how the narrator did the mind to mind voices even though it totally creeped me out at times.  The characters were diverse and interesting.  I was listening to this at work so I chose to listen to the read straight through without making decisions option.  I guarantee I wouldn't have made the right decisions to keep me alive. And this really made me wish I had read Brightside so I guess I will have to remedy that now.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to listen to and review the audiobook.

Getting started was rough as the narrator's voice wasn't really engaged in the tale. I didnt pay close attention and ended up killing the main character on the first decision. While the story was interesting it left me wanting to know more about Brightside. Why are the really there? Other than dying, what are they trying to get away from? Just not thought out well, for me, but overall it was interesting.

What a fun book.  I have not done a "Choose your Adventure" book in years, not since reading them when my kids were small.  Tjisvwas such an interesting story and giving me options made it more dnjoyable.

I LOVED the premise having never tried an interactive book/ audiobook before!
This was really clever but quite difficult to follow. I listen to audiobooks while multi tasking which I would not recommend with this one! 
The narrator was great and she really engaged me with the role and the decisions I had to make. 
I feel the plot could have been stronger and there was more time to decide before it immediately started the next chapter.

I loved the choose your own adventure books as a kid and I was so happy to see an audiobook version. The story follows Becky as she tries to escape the town she's trapped in. She was sent there for being a 'though thief' aka telepathic, where the guards are as likely to kill you as keep you safe. She makes choices throughout the day that will hopefully lead to freedom. You face the guards, push other prisoners into letting you into their plans, and choose which route won't get you caught.

I had a great time with the different decisions, even though I died a lot lol. There's also a version at the end that takes you through the story with the right choices, but where's the fun in that? I'm excited for the next book and will be on the lookout!

I received this audiobook from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

The excerpt of the audiobook peaked my interest. The narrator is a sophomore on highschool who was brought to Brightside two weeks ago. She’s an outsider who silently observes all that is going on around her because Brightside and it’s people is not a normal town. We learn that people are dragged away in the night. Wrong thoughts will get you detained in the cabin and nurse Jenny, pleasant as she may seem carries a glock. All so interesting this I want to learn more.

I was a big fan of choose your own adventure style books as a child so I was immediately drawn to this book. It is definitely an adult version though with death as a theme! I enjoyed trying to make the right choices in order to stay alive - very cleaverly done.

In this fun little choose you own adventure audiobook, you step into the role of the main character. You are trying to escape with others from the seemingly perfect town of Brightside. The people of this town read thoughts and only talk out loud when they don’t want to look suspicious. Be careful because you never know who might be listening in on your silent conversations. You will be given a choice at the end of every chapter. Choose correctly and you might escape the town, choose incorrectly and you will die

I really enjoyed this audio book. I have not come across an audio book that is a choose your own adventure until this one. Its a wonderful concept that I really enjoyed.
I liked that to choose the next part of the story you just had to skip ahead to a new chapter and that could be done easily through the chapter listing for the book.
If you do happen to choose a chapter in the book where the protagonist does die, you can decide to try again and make a different choice and continue the story.

I really liked the narration, the voice fit the character really well and the pace of the reading was perfect for me. I did not need to speed up or slow down the pace of the book. everything was pronounced clearly too which was wonderful.

About the only thing that annoyed me a bit about this book is that its written in first person, therefore when you do make a choice that culminates in our charter's death, the death is described in first person, which annoyed me, as you can't describe your own death if your dead...this I know, is personal preference with reading.
I certainly would recommend this book to others as I found it to be unique and very entertaining.

This book from beginning to end kept me on my toes. The suspense kept me wanting more. The thing about this book that makes it different from the other books is the choice aspect which I have never read before.. I liked the choice of picking out the outcome and finding out what the right outcome was and then going back. Overall 10/10,recommend

As an audiobook, Try Not to Die: In Brightside is such a fun and different listening experience. TNTD is an interactive, choose your own adventure type story where you follow a character who is trying to escape Brightside, a kind of militia run town that has a lot going on underneath the surface  (and I wished there had been a little more explanation of exactly what was going on in the world of this book, why they so badly needed to escape, and where they were escaping to).

The audiobook has two listening options - one where you chose the actions of the character and one where you listen straight through. I chose to chose the options, and I'll be honest, I died a lot. Apparently my moral compass and gut reactions are not in line with the main character's, but it was still fun to try to figure out what the best next action should be. Though, with the amount of violence and variety of ways you can die, it was a bit gruesome in my opinion to be a YA novel. I also wasn't expecting the book to end so abruptly, so I'll be looking forward to the sequel. 

As someone who typically listens to audiobooks while multitasking (driving, cleaning, etc.), this is the kind of book where you have to pay a bit more attention while listening or you'll get lost/not know exactly which option you should choose.

Overall, it was a different and fun, though gruesome, read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Vincere Press for the audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

This was fun!  Trying to guess what I should do to not die!  I haven't really seen a choose your adventure type book in  along time but I remember them being really popular with my students in the late 90s.  Brightside is some sort of compound made to look like a town. There are "boots" who are patrolling and keeping the "thought thieves" in line.  There's "the cabin" that they are taken to if they don't behave.  The mind readers are sent to be studied and controlled in Brightside but they are not taking it anymore.  The residents plan their escape.  And you need to make the right decisions to get them out.

The narrator hit a good balance.  She changed her voice for different characters without making any of them sound completely ridiculous.  She sounded like a believable teenage girl unsure of what she was doing or how far she was willing to go to escape.  I loved that there was an option to skip ahead and just listen to the story without the choices if you want to.  I didn't, but it was good to have it there.

I would love to recommend this to adults and young ones alike.  There is obviously violence, since you are trying not to die and don't always succeed.   So you may want to be careful who you recommend it to.

What a cool concept! This is my first choose-your-own-adventure in audio form. It starts off with a bang, with a serial killer in a small town. I definitely died my first go. There's a survivor version without choices later on in the book, too. It's a campy story, for sure, but it's fun!

2.5* which makes it an ok read for me. Due to the points that I’ve listed below. There’s a good story amongst it. 
I am not the target audience for this book which is YA. What made me want to listen is the very novel interactive element where you choose the direction the story goes. 
This is an audiobook version. It is the 2nd part of the story. It feels like a longer novel has been chopped into 3 segments, as it doesn’t have any backstory at all to make it easier to follow if you haven’t read book one and ends very abruptly. Therefore this really needs to be read in series order. 
With the options I found it very confusing,stilted and frustrating. The options were given too quickly. I just seemed to be going round in circles, as there wasn’t any explanation that you need to make the correct choice to continue. 
So I gave up with that and went for the regular no choice story which starts at chapter 55. 
It was a good story once I’d gone for the basic option.

This is a Horror with super natural (Mind Reading), and this is an interactive book. I enjoyed choosing different paths on the kindle edition, and I also listening to the whole book by going to the chapter they said to listening through. The narrator was really go, and I really enjoyed it. I think it will be hard to pick where to go because I normally listen to audiobooks while driving. So, I am happy there is away to just listen to the book straight through. I did not think it was super scary. The book made me want to keep reading. The ending was so good. I do think there was not a lot of character development, but I do not think that hurt the book. This book is plot driven not character driven. I won a kindle edition of this book from a goodreads giveaway. I was kindly provided an e-audiobook of this book by the publisher (Vincere Press) or author (Mark Tullius and Dawna Gonzales) via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review about how I feel about this book, and I want to send a big Thank you to them for that.

Well I wouldn’t have made it (several times.) I died a few interesting deaths during this listen. Try Not to Die in Brightside was unlike anything else I have ever listened to. 

Try Not to Die in Brightside was an interactive choose your own adventure audiobook! After the chapter, you were generally given 2-3 prompts to choose from. What I enjoyed about this format is that if you died, it would give you the other options to choose from and where to find them. That way you could continue on instead of starting all over again. I know the few choose your own adventure books I have done just say you die, and you have to start from the beginning. So that little feature was super appreciated. If you wanted a safe passage through the entire story you could choose the survivor mode, which lets you listen to the entire story straight through without dying. 

This was such a fun audiobook. I really hope there are more to come. This is a little gore at times so listeners beware. 

I received an advanced audiobook copy from Independent Book Publishers Association through NetGalley. All opinions are 100% my own.