I grew up with the Fighting Fantasy gamebooks so I was more than excited when I saw Aconyte was starting to release gamebooks to some of the IP they license. Having played and read Jonathan Green’s other offerings I was excited for The Tides of Innsmouth since it deals with my favourite location in the Arkham Horror universe.
While this one offers three characters for you to pick from, rather than just having ‘you’ being a character made from scratch (or rather the accompanying character sheet) I still enjoyed this immensely. It had a sense of nostalgia for me but also offers something new and brings a modern twist on the Choose Your on Adventure/Sole Roleplaying Games of the 80s and 90s. The story itself is engaging and full of the usual creeping dread you can expect in the Arkham Horror universe. I do think this has replay ability, particularly if you enjoy gamebooks and want a sole adventure to fill time. While the ending(s) aren’t overly different I still enjoyed this and think it’s a fab addition to the Aconyte Gamebook and Arkham Horror line.
A must read for fans of the games and books.
As always thank you to Aconyte Books for the advanced copy to review, my reviews are always honest and freely given.

I have friends who love these kinds of books, and I have been meaning to find out why. This isn't just a choose your own adventure, this is like a video game in book form, or what would happen if you mixed a choose your own adventure book with Table Top RPGs. The resulting book is much more satisfying, and more logical, than choose your own adventure stories. You use dice, so an element of surprise can give you a different outcome even when playing the same character or making the same choices. There is a character sheet, so you aren't left going "I wouldn't make any of these choices" since you have to consider what your character would make, and the traits they have really are taken into account by the writer. Also, you can acquire items and traits, which add to the way things can change up even more. That was a lot of fun, and I'll be looking into other books in this format.

Received as ARC from Netgalley:
The Tides of Innsmouth is the second book in the Arkham Horror Investigators Gamebook series by Jonathan Green and Aconyte Books. It is a choose-your-own-adventure, solo adventure gamebook set in the Arkham Horror universe, with this book as the name suggests being set specifically in the infamous town of Innsmouth. You initially go to Innsmouth in order to meet with a professor who can help you locate a hidden treasure within the town but she is a no show so you must investigate her disappearance.


The author does a great job in describing the town of Innsmouth and bringing it to life. I enjoyed the hybrid gamebook/roleplaying rules. The rules are a little bit more complex than those found in a typical Fighting Fantasy book without going into the territory of a full blown TTRPG. A bonus for me was that there are rules in the back of the book that allow you to bring along a character you might have played from the previous book. There are multiple characters, multiple endings and dozens of achievements which gives the book plenty of replayability.


I would recommend this book without hesitation to anyone who has played the first book in the series and to anyone who enjoys horror themed gamebooks.I also believe this would make a good starting point for anyone who is a fan of H.P. Lovecraft, the Arkham Horror universe or the Call of Cthulhu TTRPG to get into playing gamebooks.

I'm a huge fan of H.P. Lovecraft and the Call of Cthulhu role playing game, though I haven't had the opportunity to play in years. So a "choose your own adventure book" that plays out similar to CoC? Yes, please! It was really fun playing an investigator, experiencing Lovecraft's mythos and all the insanity that goes with it. With enough twist and turns, and secrets and achievements to be found, you can go through the adventures within several times without getting bored.

This was fun! I haven't read a "Choose Your Own Adventure" book since I was a kid. So this was wonderfully nostalgic, and dripping with Lovecraftian cosmic horror. I've read the "Innsmouth" story so there wasn't much in the way of surprises, story wise. But it's extremely well-written, punchy, and a good time. Grab a beer and some dice, and it's a good way to pass an afternoon.

These game booklets are solo RPGs -- essentially choose your own adventure books, but with a character sheet (which you download and mark separately) that alters as you make your choices and roll for successes. This makes it much more flexible on your choices and luck and does feel like it splits the difference between the two.

The writing is great, very engaging while remaining very functional at getting the game information across, and with a bit of thrill and chill to it. You have your choice of three characters to play through, but though they have different stats, they don't have significantly different personalities due to all being in second tense and often hitting the same pages; I kind of wish they'd stuck with just one or two and gave them more unique versions of their own pages.

The storyline is fairly brief; very easy to get through one playthrough in about 20 minutes. Understandable since a narrative game can balloon hugely based on the number of choices available, though.

I'm not sure about why we had the secrets or super secrets in here; they're a checklist only and don't result in any additional endings to view or anything of the sort. I guess they're like a video game achievement, but it felt like an odd fit.

All in all, it's fun; I probably wouldn't replay to try to see everything, but I enjoyed the time I spent with it and it was a great example of the genre.

Received as ARC from Netgalley:

This was a really exciting, layered gamebook with a ton of branching paths, and fun puzzles.

Jonathan Green knows how to weave a compelling story into these excellently, with the lovecraftian elements leading to some great endings.

This was definitely harder than the prior Arkham gamebook, but it's well worth exploring!

My thanks to NetGalley and Aconyte Books for an advance copy of this book that is both a tale of horror, and an interactive game that one can play, making decisions that can lead to victory for your characters, or insanity and fates worst than death.

Growing up I loved Choose Your Own Adventure stories. The idea that I could read a book and make decisions that could affect the story was something that just blew my mind. I felt like a God, or an author, or even a film director, getting my character through alive, and sometimes allowing death to come for them, just to see what happened. TSR followed these up with books that were almost like Dungeons & Dragons, but for only one person, perfect for car rides and to swap with others for fresh tales. I'm glad to see these ideas have not faded away in the world of minigames on phones, though I wish I could remember the last 12 hours, time lost while playing/reading/enjoying this eldritch tale of horror, secrets, treasure, and foulness. The Tides of Innsmouth: An Arkham Horror Investigators Gamebook is written by Jonathan Green, and is both a story set in the world of the Arkham Horror game, and a solid adventure needing pencils, paper, dice and a very strong stomach to deal with the sights, sounds and smells of the decaying seaside town on the New England Shore.

The book begins with a brief rundown of the rules. One can take on character of three different investigators, a sailor, a folklorist, and a sea trawler captain. The choice of character brings with it a series of abilities, and strengths, and a few weaknesses that might effect gameplay. One can also import a character as this is the second book of a series, though again they have their plus and minuses. Game play is the standard six-sided die, with rolls for combat, figuring clues, and more importantly in the Arkham area, keeping one's sanity. The rules are pretty simple, and after no time the reader can set out on the adventure, finding success, escaping with their sanity, or being let in on the dark secrets of Innsmouth, secrets that the town does not fear sharing, for dead people tell no tales.

The story is a quest for treasure in the town of Innsmouth, Massachusetts, a seaside town that has seen better days. The smell of rot, mold, and other things fill the air. The inhabitant all have a big eyed almost froglike appearance, and dislike visitors. The character has pursued a job helping a professor find an ancient shipwreck, but from the first moments in town things go wrong. The professor is missing, and no one wants to help in anyway. The character must make decisions, fight off dark forces, and more importantly keep their brains in a town that is decaying in more ways than one.

I enjoyed this alot, playing first the sailor, followed by the folklorist. My deaths were many, but diverse. The rules are easy to pick up, and a lot of fun. In addition the story is a blast, one that I would like to read more about. The book hits all the right notes, the smells, the rot, the people, the darkness. This is the third Gamebook I have read by Jonathan Green, and I really enjoy how he sets up both the adventures, and has the writing chops to back it up. Highly recommended both for the tale, and the gameplay.