I'm a big fan of choose-your-own-adventure books so I was excited to try this one out. I am thankful for the maps at the beginning of each chapter as it's not very clear that it's the end if you didn't have that. I started reading the next chapter thinking you were to keep going until it said the end. It was still a cute and fun time, considering it was originally written in the 30s, and I could see reading a book like this, or similar style, would be fun to do around the pool or laid-back time with friends (or by yourself too!).

The reader makes choices to determine the fates of three protagonists in three separate narratives: Helen, Jed and Saunders. The narratives are connected, with overlapping characters.

This has my nomination of book of the year. It kept me entertained and engaged. Will recommend to others.

Supposedly the first ever choose-your-own-adventure book, dating from the 1930s, this is not so much about choosing adventures as it is choosing opportunities. There are three separate sections in it, giving you the opportunity to play the game of life for three people from the same small New England town. Will it be elopement, career, education, affair, divorce, fidelity, remarriage, self-sacrifice, dishonesty, a change of location, a child… etc, etc, etc.

At the end of each possible path, you’re given a moral to the story. This makes it feel more like a didactic work for young people than a game. Mildly amusing if you’re looking for something very much of its time or if you’re interested in seeing the development of a form of fiction that would come into its own many decades later.

Thanks to NetGalley and Pushkin Press for this digital review copy. Note that there was absolutely no formatting or internal links to allow you to actually jump to different parts of the book, so I just had to read it straight through and more or less remember how the paths were shaping up. I can only hope that’s fixed in the final digital version.