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Zombie Apocalypse #1
Can You Survive the Zombie Apocalypse?
Inside these pages lies unspeakable horror. Bloodsplattering, brain-impaling, flesh-devouring horror. You’ve probably read your fair share of zombie stories. But this time it’s different. No longer can you sit idle as a bunch of fools make all the wrong moves. All hell is about to break loose—and YOU have a say in humanity’s survival.You have choices to make.Moral dilemmas.Strategic decisions.Weapons. Vehicles.Will you be a hero?Or will you cover your own ass at all costs?Can you withstand the coming hours, days, weeks, and months? Or will you die amidst the chaos and violence of a zombie uprising?Or, worst of all, will you become one of them?
400 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 8, 2011
181 people are currently reading
3350 people want to read
About the author
Max Brallier
93 books682 followersMax Brallier is a New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal bestselling author. His books and series include The Last Kids on Earth, Eerie Elementary, Mister Shivers, Galactic Hot Dogs, and Can YOU Survive the Zombie Apocalypse? He is a writer and producer for Netflix's Emmy-award-winning adaptation of The Last Kids on Earth. Max lives in Los Angeles with his wife and daughter. Visit him at MaxBrallier.com.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 378 reviews
September 18, 2013
Beyond this page lies unspeakable horror. Bone-crunching, blood-splattering, brain-impaling horror—the horror of the zombie apocalypse.Wrong.
I get it, I do. This isn't intended to be taken seriously at all. I mean, it's a choose-your-own-adventure about surviving a zombie apocalypse, for fuck's sakes. But I felt the introductory sentence was reaaaaaally overreaching. There is no unspeakable horror here. It's a whole lot of silliness, a whole lot of stupidity, and really...anyone who's read his or her fair share of zombie horror movies will find the majority of the scenarios frustrating and unbelievable. It wasn't even fun to read. It involved more eye-rolling action than anything involving an uplift of my mouth.
The choices offered are so very limited, and so often incredibly stupid, that I never felt like I was a part of the adventure. In order to be immersed in this type of choose-your-own type book, the reader actually has to believe in the credibility of the characters' actions and thoughts, and I just could not put myself in the position of the person in the book.
You’re twenty-five years old. You live in a crappy, overpriced studio apartment in Manhattan. You work a corporate job that you’re not particularly fond of. Up until now, your day-to-day life offered few surprises.I mean, I like to think of myself as a smart person. Really, you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who says "OH I'M REALLY STUPID, HUR HUR HUR," but still...I like to think I'm a little more rational and intelligent than the person depicted.
But today, on a hot and humid July morning, zombies have come to Manhattan.
The scenarios are short vignettes, pages long at times, at the end of which, the reader gets to choose between one of several options regarding their next step. As the story starts, I'm doing my daily grind, counting down the minutes until 5 PM, bored as fuck; anyone can relate to that, really.
All of a sudden. BOOM. The cute receptionist bursts into the conference room, blabbering something incoherently and turns on the TV. It is a reputable news source, and chaos is what we see.
The patient is biting the doctor. No, not just biting. Eating him—devouring the guy. Tearing into his flesh with her teeth and hands. Clawing at his body. Ripping skin from his limbs. As she tosses her head back to chew, stringy flesh hangs from her teeth.Mobs of the infected form from the infected hospital source, hordes stumble from within, drenched in blood, faces pasty white.
It's pretty obvious that it's a zombie apocalypse.
What do I do?
You head for your cubicle.WHAT?! NO. FUCKING NO. I WOULD NOT DO THAT. I WOULD GET THE FUCK OUT OF THERE.
You get to your computer and start typing.
Initially, the choices are fairly easy, after that, the choices become rather...absurd. You get to choose between drinking away the pain with beer or taking a call from your mom. Your mom. You want to stay inside your apartment, where it's safe (NO IT'S NOT, MANHATTAN IS BEING OVERRUN BY THE LIVING DEAD. I WANT TO GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE).
Mommy dearest offers you $500 to get the fuck out of the city. Which you take, because MONEY IS SO VERY IMPORTANT WHEN THERE ARE ZOMBIES ALL OVER THE PLACE AND RAMPANT LOOTING IN STORES.
Then you fucking run into some movie buffs preparing for a fictional Zombie Walk (which is unfortunately now a very, very real thing).
What do you do? Naturally, you sit down and discuss fucking zombie movies.
Taft shoots you a look that says you’re invading his zombie knowledge territory. “Well,” he says, “the water issue depends on who you ask. In George Romero’s Land of the Dead, they do cross the water—finally infiltrating Fiddler’s Green. And in Lucio Fulci’s Zombie, also known as Zombi 2, there’s the classic zombie-versus-shark scene.”This fucking hipster.
NO. NO. NO. NO. Everyone's fucking read The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead and we theoretically know how to behave when confronted with situations where we might be eaten. This book goes against all common sense, and I personally would not make any of the decisions presented from the extremely limited list of options with which this book presented me. Of course, I didn't read the entire book, it's not designed to be read that way, but I've read and went back to choose enough of the options to know that this book was neither amusing nor scary. Skip it. Go reread some Max Brooks; his books are more realistic and more enjoyable.
This book just made me want to stand in one place and be eaten by the zombies; at least it'd be a quick death and I wouldn't hate myself for "my" idiocy throughout the entire decision-making process within this so-called "adventure."
June 14, 2011
Zombies hit Manhattan while you are in the middle of a corporate company meeting. Quicker than you can blink an eye, they are everywhere. People are panicking. The streets are clogged. And you have to make a decision.
Do you:
(a) Hail a cab?
(b) Walk 12 blocks to the subway and head out to Brooklyn?
(c) Run to your apartment?
This is the moment where all those Zombie books and movies are supposed to mean something. How many times did you sit there, on the couch, watching some dumb ass actors make some dumb ass decisions that ended up getting them cornered and killed? How many times were you yelling at them not to hide but to keep running, to remain out in the open, to leave the wounded and helpless behind?
Now it's your chance to shine! YOU get to choose what the character does. YOU are in control of humanities destiny, should you accept the challenge.
And we did. We accepted the challenge at 8:30pm this evening. My husband, my 8 and 13 year olds, and I snuggled up on the couch and passed Can You Survive The Zombie Apocalypse back and forth as we each took turns reading from it's pages.
We chose to run to our apartment. It's the smart thing to do. It's familiar. We can gather supplies. We can get our heads together before making an irrational decision.
We chose to answer the phone when we saw "mom" was calling, rather than ignore it and get wasted on beer. Mom made us take the ferry to get off the island, but the zombies were already out there so we ran and hid in a meat packing warehouse.
There were other people in there, Zombie aficionados, and we decided to cover ourselves in raw meat and cow guts to disguise our smell and "Shaun of the Dead" ourselves out into the crowd and over to the water where we would swim to Liberty Island.
But at the last minute, when given the choice, we chose to remain behind. We realized the plan was flawed. It wouldn't work.
As the others executed the plan, we attempted to distract the zombies, and wound up being chased by loads of them, straight into the meat freezer. Which is locked from the inside. Our frozen body was found two years later by the Army. We are not too smart. We lasted a whole 30 minutes. By 9pm, it was all over.
The End.
But it's not really the end. The cool thing about this book is the fact that we can start all over again tomorrow and make better decisions and hopefully last longer than we did tonight. We can read this book 100 times and come up with 100 different outcomes.
We LOVED this retro-reading experience! And, I don't want you to start judging me when I say this (even though I know you will), this was my 8 year old's first attempt at reading an adult novel out loud. Of course, he had to skip the bad words and replace them with "beeeeeep", but he had a blast!!
We have already made plans to pick it back up again tomorrow night and read it together to try to beat those fucking zombies! We're gonna show them who's boss! We won't lay down and play chicken, no way, Jose!
Family Fun Night at the TNBBC house has returned and it's all thanks to Max Brallier and his hilarous, heart-racing, nerve-wracking, blood-drenched roller-coaster ride of a story!
Do you:
(a) Hail a cab?
(b) Walk 12 blocks to the subway and head out to Brooklyn?
(c) Run to your apartment?
This is the moment where all those Zombie books and movies are supposed to mean something. How many times did you sit there, on the couch, watching some dumb ass actors make some dumb ass decisions that ended up getting them cornered and killed? How many times were you yelling at them not to hide but to keep running, to remain out in the open, to leave the wounded and helpless behind?
Now it's your chance to shine! YOU get to choose what the character does. YOU are in control of humanities destiny, should you accept the challenge.
And we did. We accepted the challenge at 8:30pm this evening. My husband, my 8 and 13 year olds, and I snuggled up on the couch and passed Can You Survive The Zombie Apocalypse back and forth as we each took turns reading from it's pages.
We chose to run to our apartment. It's the smart thing to do. It's familiar. We can gather supplies. We can get our heads together before making an irrational decision.
We chose to answer the phone when we saw "mom" was calling, rather than ignore it and get wasted on beer. Mom made us take the ferry to get off the island, but the zombies were already out there so we ran and hid in a meat packing warehouse.
There were other people in there, Zombie aficionados, and we decided to cover ourselves in raw meat and cow guts to disguise our smell and "Shaun of the Dead" ourselves out into the crowd and over to the water where we would swim to Liberty Island.
But at the last minute, when given the choice, we chose to remain behind. We realized the plan was flawed. It wouldn't work.
As the others executed the plan, we attempted to distract the zombies, and wound up being chased by loads of them, straight into the meat freezer. Which is locked from the inside. Our frozen body was found two years later by the Army. We are not too smart. We lasted a whole 30 minutes. By 9pm, it was all over.
The End.
But it's not really the end. The cool thing about this book is the fact that we can start all over again tomorrow and make better decisions and hopefully last longer than we did tonight. We can read this book 100 times and come up with 100 different outcomes.
We LOVED this retro-reading experience! And, I don't want you to start judging me when I say this (even though I know you will), this was my 8 year old's first attempt at reading an adult novel out loud. Of course, he had to skip the bad words and replace them with "beeeeeep", but he had a blast!!
We have already made plans to pick it back up again tomorrow night and read it together to try to beat those fucking zombies! We're gonna show them who's boss! We won't lay down and play chicken, no way, Jose!
Family Fun Night at the TNBBC house has returned and it's all thanks to Max Brallier and his hilarous, heart-racing, nerve-wracking, blood-drenched roller-coaster ride of a story!
December 16, 2015
Before we start, a big thank you Max Brallier for sending me a signed copy of this book to review.
That out of the way, I can sum up this review in 5 words: "Yes, it is that awesome."
I love zombies, so when I saw 1) that such a thing as a zombie choose-your-adventure book existed, and 2) that I could get a signed copy to review, I jumped ALL over that! And I'm thrilled that I did. This book is fantastic, cover to cover. Speaking of the cover, it is great. I love the vintage look it has, as if it's a well-read 70s favorite paperback melded with a graphic novel. I love both versions of the cover art, and the artwork inside is amazing. Pen and ink, comic-book style sketches that perfectly fit and complement the stories inside.
I don't think that I've read all of the variations and storylines yet - there are a surprising amount of them in the book. So many that it could keep me busy for a LONG time going through them. I read a whole lot of them though, and not a single one disappointed me at all. They were everything I've always wanted in zombie fiction: Well thought out, believable, well written, vicious, original and interesting, with just the perfect amount of humor thrown in.
I liked and could identify with the characters, especially me (AKA: the main character), who was a perfect blend of Regular Joe and Rambo as needed and as fit the story for the choices made. The secondary characters were very human (until they weren't anymore). I loved the tension of reading this, not knowing if my choice would be the right one, or if it would be the one that led to disaster.
I could continue to rave about this book... but really, all I have to say is this: If you love zombie fiction, this book is a must read.
That out of the way, I can sum up this review in 5 words: "Yes, it is that awesome."
I love zombies, so when I saw 1) that such a thing as a zombie choose-your-adventure book existed, and 2) that I could get a signed copy to review, I jumped ALL over that! And I'm thrilled that I did. This book is fantastic, cover to cover. Speaking of the cover, it is great. I love the vintage look it has, as if it's a well-read 70s favorite paperback melded with a graphic novel. I love both versions of the cover art, and the artwork inside is amazing. Pen and ink, comic-book style sketches that perfectly fit and complement the stories inside.
I don't think that I've read all of the variations and storylines yet - there are a surprising amount of them in the book. So many that it could keep me busy for a LONG time going through them. I read a whole lot of them though, and not a single one disappointed me at all. They were everything I've always wanted in zombie fiction: Well thought out, believable, well written, vicious, original and interesting, with just the perfect amount of humor thrown in.
I liked and could identify with the characters, especially me (AKA: the main character), who was a perfect blend of Regular Joe and Rambo as needed and as fit the story for the choices made. The secondary characters were very human (until they weren't anymore). I loved the tension of reading this, not knowing if my choice would be the right one, or if it would be the one that led to disaster.
I could continue to rave about this book... but really, all I have to say is this: If you love zombie fiction, this book is a must read.
September 10, 2016
I survived two readings of this book making different choices each time! Watching The Walking Dead payed off! I felt a bit like a kid again reading a choose your own adventure.
June 16, 2018
A funny "Choose your own adventure" game-book set in the start of a zombie apocalypse, main character sometimes reminded me Big Bang Theory's Howard Wolowitz (in the going back to your apartment path he/you has a funny phone call with his mom and load his bag with beers, videogames and Hustler magazines...) and the pop culture/movie references were a blast, but often things just have no sense here: the world is blowing up, zombies are everywhere and you go to a strip-club?
That and the Comic-Con battle between cosplayers (armed with real versions of signature weapons used by their characters) were just too weird, and the same is for the "sexy-fake-tits-bartender leaving a topless pic of her on your phone"/"sexy-ninja-stripper-zombie-killer" endings... oh good grief.
Luckly there was something good too.
A path reminded me of John Carpenter's "Escape from New York", the bar one had a strong "Shaun of the Dead" vibe, and some moral choices were thrilling (are you going to risk your life trying to save or kill him/her/it?) or just hardcore (are you going to smoke or not that pot or play "Trainspotting" and have heroine with that Hell's Angels biker? Wow).
Another good ending was the one where you got infected and then han a nice but too short zombie pow scene just before dying, but my most favourite one was the path with the cameos of George Romero and Tom "Sex Machine" Savini as themselves.
Not bad at all if you are into game-books and zombie apocalypses, but some paths/endings were just awful.
February 14, 2011
okay I'm labeling this book as american cause it seemed american and I'm too lazy to put any effort into actually checking.
well I've been having some serious trouble committing to books recently. I mean I love them and I keep wanting to commit them but there are so many and the all look so fun. But I read 20 pages and then I get distracted, or then I get busy, and I can't fucking keep up.
the solution to this ZOMBIES. no not really as established I could really give a crap about zombies. But there is the nice thing that zombies are a very lowest denominator kind of plot point. Books about zombies don't tend to be super smart and philosophical and complicated to follow. This book is no exception. I mean the fact is that I started reading and thought, wow I know so many uneducated idiot guys who act exactly like this...
Interruption: this book promises that unlike regular zombie movies where you have to watch people act like idiots and have no power here you get to make the choices. the time between the choices is such that you still watch him do completely retarded things. Not to mention some of the choices... take a subway? you can't get a train in rush hour why the fuck would you expect to get one in the middle of a zombie apocolypse just silly, and morality... I can't not answer a call from my mother when she's worried I"m dead, I'm a better person than that.
on the other hand, it was fun and short and I didn't have to commit, I would totally be friends with benefits with this book.
well I've been having some serious trouble committing to books recently. I mean I love them and I keep wanting to commit them but there are so many and the all look so fun. But I read 20 pages and then I get distracted, or then I get busy, and I can't fucking keep up.
the solution to this ZOMBIES. no not really as established I could really give a crap about zombies. But there is the nice thing that zombies are a very lowest denominator kind of plot point. Books about zombies don't tend to be super smart and philosophical and complicated to follow. This book is no exception. I mean the fact is that I started reading and thought, wow I know so many uneducated idiot guys who act exactly like this...
Interruption: this book promises that unlike regular zombie movies where you have to watch people act like idiots and have no power here you get to make the choices. the time between the choices is such that you still watch him do completely retarded things. Not to mention some of the choices... take a subway? you can't get a train in rush hour why the fuck would you expect to get one in the middle of a zombie apocolypse just silly, and morality... I can't not answer a call from my mother when she's worried I"m dead, I'm a better person than that.
on the other hand, it was fun and short and I didn't have to commit, I would totally be friends with benefits with this book.
February 1, 2025
3.5 - I survived my first read!
Pretty fun book, especially if you're in a reading slump :) it wasn't great, but it was fun and fast-paced.
Pretty fun book, especially if you're in a reading slump :) it wasn't great, but it was fun and fast-paced.
June 3, 2011
Choose your adventure style book + Adult themes + Zombies = FREAKIN AWESOME!!
In Can You Survive the Zombie Apocalypse? By Max Brallier You will die over and over and have more fun doing it that you ever thought possible! (Side note- to avoid embarrassing public outburst of laughing out loud and/or cussing when you die, DO NOT read this book in public places)
You and all your friends could read this book and all have different outcomes or endings, your ending will depend on the choices you make throughout the story. Remember the old choose your own adventure books? This is similar in writing style but definitely a much more amped up version for adults only. The first couple hours I had this book I died three times, and I was just getting started! This is a book you will want to read again and again, and why not? Every time you pick it up you have the potential for a completely different story than the last time you read it. I honestly cannot think of a time I have had more fun reading a book, and darn-it I will survive the zombie apocalypse!
*This review may also be found on amazon.com*
In Can You Survive the Zombie Apocalypse? By Max Brallier You will die over and over and have more fun doing it that you ever thought possible! (Side note- to avoid embarrassing public outburst of laughing out loud and/or cussing when you die, DO NOT read this book in public places)
You and all your friends could read this book and all have different outcomes or endings, your ending will depend on the choices you make throughout the story. Remember the old choose your own adventure books? This is similar in writing style but definitely a much more amped up version for adults only. The first couple hours I had this book I died three times, and I was just getting started! This is a book you will want to read again and again, and why not? Every time you pick it up you have the potential for a completely different story than the last time you read it. I honestly cannot think of a time I have had more fun reading a book, and darn-it I will survive the zombie apocalypse!
*This review may also be found on amazon.com*
March 15, 2013
A pretty interesting book, but definitely a novelty item. It is pretty grim and gruesome in places, but it's not scary. What the book actually strives to do is serve as an homage to the "geek" side of zombie fandom. (You know... the ones who do more than just watch an occasional zombie movie...)
With that ambition to fulfil, the book does really well as a tribute. There are many references to zombie pop-culture throughout this book. The only time the book seems to go too far into "fanboy" sycophantism is during the George Romero "cameo" sequence. Otherwise, the book is nicely balanced and stays trendy with both the "camp" crowd and the "uber-gore" crowd.
Another point of merit worth mentioning is in regards to the setting. The author lives in New York City and has made efforts to include many of the landmark features of that city in the novel. It adds realism to the story, and could actually serve as a cool "zombie-enhanced" tour guidebook to a visitor to New York City. I imagine the author had a lot of fun walking around the city imagining a zombie attack and using the sites (and sights) around him to develop his storylines.
This book does lose a few points for not living up to its promise. The cover suggests that you will make decisions and get feedback on those decisions, allowing you to determine if you would survive an actual zombie outbreak. Unfortunately, the main character in the book is rather stupid, and after you make a decision, the character usually makes another 3-5 decisions on his own, so your choices are not alone to blame when you die at one of the 50 different endings.
Speaking of endings, you'll likely want to get to all of them eventually. Quite a few are actually endings in which you survive to fight on another day. But... unless you write down exactly where you've been, you'll eventually lose interest in going through this book to get the last few endings, because it's hard to remember exactly what choices you've made, and it all starts becoming similar.
I've copied out my simple record of the chapter titles and where they lead. This enabled me to read all of the possible storylines. Some were better than others, but it was nice to complete them all. It's a spoiler of sorts, so don't click without knowing that you've been warned.
With that ambition to fulfil, the book does really well as a tribute. There are many references to zombie pop-culture throughout this book. The only time the book seems to go too far into "fanboy" sycophantism is during the George Romero "cameo" sequence. Otherwise, the book is nicely balanced and stays trendy with both the "camp" crowd and the "uber-gore" crowd.
Another point of merit worth mentioning is in regards to the setting. The author lives in New York City and has made efforts to include many of the landmark features of that city in the novel. It adds realism to the story, and could actually serve as a cool "zombie-enhanced" tour guidebook to a visitor to New York City. I imagine the author had a lot of fun walking around the city imagining a zombie attack and using the sites (and sights) around him to develop his storylines.
This book does lose a few points for not living up to its promise. The cover suggests that you will make decisions and get feedback on those decisions, allowing you to determine if you would survive an actual zombie outbreak. Unfortunately, the main character in the book is rather stupid, and after you make a decision, the character usually makes another 3-5 decisions on his own, so your choices are not alone to blame when you die at one of the 50 different endings.
Speaking of endings, you'll likely want to get to all of them eventually. Quite a few are actually endings in which you survive to fight on another day. But... unless you write down exactly where you've been, you'll eventually lose interest in going through this book to get the last few endings, because it's hard to remember exactly what choices you've made, and it all starts becoming similar.
I've copied out my simple record of the chapter titles and where they lead. This enabled me to read all of the possible storylines. Some were better than others, but it was nice to complete them all. It's a spoiler of sorts, so don't click without knowing that you've been warned.
October 20, 2025
This is such a fun book! What’s not to love about a choose your own adventure book that has zombies in it? I’ll admit that my decision making skills weren’t the best at times, but I did give it a couple of really good attempts!
April 6, 2011
Plot Sketch: This is a choose-your-own-adventure style book for adults wherein you are a 25-year old male professional working in Manhattan when all of the sudden Mount Sinai is all of the sudden bursting with flesh-eating, blood-spurting zombies and now you get to make choices in the reading to see where they take you.
Verdict: This book is going to be fantastic for later-teen and adultswho males. But since it's true to its second-person narration - the only style that really works for this type of a novel - and I was a girl, trying to put myself into a male's head, it didn't really work so well for me. I think the hardest part for me was the parts where I was supposedly getting mild erections. Not really something I can relate to, seriously. The other thing I would caution with this one is that there is a lot of strong very strong language. You know going into it that because it's a zombie novel it's going to have violence, and you expect some of the language, but at least on the path that I took (that left me dying because I chose to fight zombies with a toy machine gun) it was excessive - for me. If that's not going to bother you, then you're going to have a lot of fun with this one - especially if you're a guy! My younger bro was here while I was reading it, so I read some of it aloud to him and he's all over it and wants it the second I'm done writing this review - so that tells you something, right? What I would have loved to have seen was an initial choice of gender in the book. Do you want to read it as a female character or as a male one? Most of the pages could have overlapped, because there wasn't anything gender-specific, but it would have made me feel less alienated as a reader.
Location: Manhattan
Favorite Character: Well, on my particular path, I'd have to say that I was my favorite character, by far. I made really stupid choices, yet it took me like 4 really dumb ones to finally die. I rock like that.
Would Change: Girl POV option
Favorite Line: n/a
Good for Monster? I'm not sure. On one hand, I think he might like it, and on the other, I think he might think it's stupid. But that's just my Monster. 17+ males are gonna be all over this one!
People Who Will Like This: 17+ males, Santa Claus, John Wayne, Elizabeth Bennett from Pride & Prejudice & Zombies
People Who Won't Like This: the female YA crowd (well, most of them), Elizabeth Bennett from Pride & Prejudice, Dalai Lama
Verdict: This book is going to be fantastic for later-teen and adultswho males. But since it's true to its second-person narration - the only style that really works for this type of a novel - and I was a girl, trying to put myself into a male's head, it didn't really work so well for me. I think the hardest part for me was the parts where I was supposedly getting mild erections. Not really something I can relate to, seriously. The other thing I would caution with this one is that there is a lot of strong very strong language. You know going into it that because it's a zombie novel it's going to have violence, and you expect some of the language, but at least on the path that I took (that left me dying because I chose to fight zombies with a toy machine gun) it was excessive - for me. If that's not going to bother you, then you're going to have a lot of fun with this one - especially if you're a guy! My younger bro was here while I was reading it, so I read some of it aloud to him and he's all over it and wants it the second I'm done writing this review - so that tells you something, right? What I would have loved to have seen was an initial choice of gender in the book. Do you want to read it as a female character or as a male one? Most of the pages could have overlapped, because there wasn't anything gender-specific, but it would have made me feel less alienated as a reader.
Location: Manhattan
Favorite Character: Well, on my particular path, I'd have to say that I was my favorite character, by far. I made really stupid choices, yet it took me like 4 really dumb ones to finally die. I rock like that.
Would Change: Girl POV option
Favorite Line: n/a
Good for Monster? I'm not sure. On one hand, I think he might like it, and on the other, I think he might think it's stupid. But that's just my Monster. 17+ males are gonna be all over this one!
People Who Will Like This: 17+ males, Santa Claus, John Wayne, Elizabeth Bennett from Pride & Prejudice & Zombies
People Who Won't Like This: the female YA crowd (well, most of them), Elizabeth Bennett from Pride & Prejudice, Dalai Lama
March 17, 2013
Can You Survive the Zombie Apocolypse? is by no means a good book, and I won't even try to glorify it in any way. What I expected when I bought this was that I was about to be in for a tailor made experience filled with many opportunities to exercise my choices. What I got was a couple of quirky choices, and an overall storyline experience that was far too short for my liking. One of the most dissapointing things I found about this book was the absolute disregard for your choices. You are forced to play as the Saint/Paragon/Mesiah complexdouchebag even during your very limited time actually partaking in making the decisions. Don't save the boy getting hit by a train? DEAD. Try to kill the futt bucker who killed one of your friends AND got bitten? DEAD. Seriously, you get killed if you choose to kill him first, but if you just sit around like some tool, trusting the guy who you JUST saw get bitten like two pages ago, you kill him instead. How does that even work? Aside from the choices that don't even matter in the end because they all end in anticlimactic cliff-hangers, The ridiculousness of the situations is just too overwhelming. My initial impression is that this is going to be a legitimate zombie adventure, so I prepare myself for serious concequences...BUT THEN LEGOLAS SHOWS UP TO CRASH THE PARTY!!! I thought to myself when I intially read this, "What the fuck just happened? Why are there loser nerds killing zombies at a Comic-con convention? Why is it so ironic that George Romero is the God of zombies? What happened?" But now that I am older, (About two hours after reading this piece of misleading garbage) and have read all of the other branches of the book, I can confidently say that there was no reason. Why not have a Black Conan cutting zombies into pieces, it sounds cool right? Especially when the results of your seemingly intelligent choices take you to an African safari where there are even more zombies that will try to rustle your jimmies with an unsatisfying amount of suspense. Oh, We're surrounded by zombies and we're sad about it? I feel myself getting flacid. I apologize for the imagery, but that was how much it let me down. The synopsis promised that you would make meaningful moral, pragmatic, psychological, and strategic decisions. And it failed. Badly. The End. Go home and don't read this book.
October 12, 2011
So you want to write a Choose Your Own Adventure book for grown-ups. Obviously it's going to have a zombie apocalypse theme, right? Of course right!
I have always loved CYOA books. Always. I still make a tiny pile of bookmarks so I can explore every single choice in the whole book and die in as many horrible ways as possible. And I have to say, the choices here are pretty good, and they play fair. Here's a hypothetical example: you are given the choice between getting on a bus out of town or taking a cab. If you take the bus, the driver will get zombified and you'll end up dying in a twelve car pileup. If you take the cab, the twelve car pileup will still happen, you just won't be in it. (This was most emphatically not always so in the original CYOA books, where your choices could totally change the premise of the book.)
There is, however, a very definite character. I am not a stereotypical guy in my early twenties, and that would throw me out of the experience at times. This is so not going to be a problem for most of the people who are likely to pick up a zombie themed adult CYOA.
It is gory, and it is bleak, but what else did you expect? The vast majority of the endings are horrible, horrible things to consider. But it's a zombie outbreak, and you're not about to get a good ending here. There are three or four that aren't terrible and don't involve immediate, horrific death. Which is somewhat better than I had expected, to be honest.
I have always loved CYOA books. Always. I still make a tiny pile of bookmarks so I can explore every single choice in the whole book and die in as many horrible ways as possible. And I have to say, the choices here are pretty good, and they play fair. Here's a hypothetical example: you are given the choice between getting on a bus out of town or taking a cab. If you take the bus, the driver will get zombified and you'll end up dying in a twelve car pileup. If you take the cab, the twelve car pileup will still happen, you just won't be in it. (This was most emphatically not always so in the original CYOA books, where your choices could totally change the premise of the book.)
There is, however, a very definite character. I am not a stereotypical guy in my early twenties, and that would throw me out of the experience at times. This is so not going to be a problem for most of the people who are likely to pick up a zombie themed adult CYOA.
It is gory, and it is bleak, but what else did you expect? The vast majority of the endings are horrible, horrible things to consider. But it's a zombie outbreak, and you're not about to get a good ending here. There are three or four that aren't terrible and don't involve immediate, horrific death. Which is somewhat better than I had expected, to be honest.
April 3, 2011
Can I survive the zombie apocalypse? Well according to the average outcome from my choices while reading this little gem...umm no apparently I can't, unless I team up with a ninja stripper and hide behind her feathered g-string.
This book is the adult version of all those Choose Your Own Adventure books we read and loved in childhood. Can You Survive the Zombie Apocalypse is the very definition of a fun read. It's a great way to pass some time while waiting in the doctors office. Each adventure is fairly quick and if you don't like the outcome, well you can just start over. Now some of the choices presented for your character are a little, shall we say silly and probably not the best thing to do during a Zombie uprising, but on the whole I rather enjoyed this book. It did provide me with quite a few laugh out loud moments and that is mainly what I look for in reads of this type. Life is serious, zombies aren't...unless they're munching on your cerebral cortex. Anyway, if like me you devoured those Choose Your Own Adventure books and you love anything zombie related then this book is for you. I rate it 4 out of 5 braaaaaaaainz.
This book is the adult version of all those Choose Your Own Adventure books we read and loved in childhood. Can You Survive the Zombie Apocalypse is the very definition of a fun read. It's a great way to pass some time while waiting in the doctors office. Each adventure is fairly quick and if you don't like the outcome, well you can just start over. Now some of the choices presented for your character are a little, shall we say silly and probably not the best thing to do during a Zombie uprising, but on the whole I rather enjoyed this book. It did provide me with quite a few laugh out loud moments and that is mainly what I look for in reads of this type. Life is serious, zombies aren't...unless they're munching on your cerebral cortex. Anyway, if like me you devoured those Choose Your Own Adventure books and you love anything zombie related then this book is for you. I rate it 4 out of 5 braaaaaaaainz.
Read
May 23, 2016Jag dog.
October 27, 2025
*1.5
It was okay. I liked the call back to the "Choose Your Own Adventure" books I was so enamored with as a kid but this book was very unrealistic throughout. I know it is supposed to be purely for enjoyment (hence the 1.5 star and not the one star) but while I read through all of the endings and overall had a good time, this book was crazy unrealistic in terms of the main characters reaction to things (you choose the path but you aren't really the main character).
I can't really recommend this overall but if you have a chance to pick it up and have a free afternoon, there are worse ways you can spend it.
Originally this was going to be a 2 but after writing the content warning for him checking out a zombie's breasts I decided to be real with myself and drop it to a 1.5 because that was beyond weird. (Sentences I never thought I would have to write)
Content: strong language used regularly, graphic violence, one of the endings involved you eating a dog so that's cool, sexual innuendo/ sexual content (the main character apparently has a thing for breasts like he even checks out a zombies at one point so at least he's consistent. Also there is another scene where he goes swimming with a girl who is just in her bra and underwear but nothing overly graphic besides the descriptions of the breasts which was gross solely because he was looking)
It was okay. I liked the call back to the "Choose Your Own Adventure" books I was so enamored with as a kid but this book was very unrealistic throughout. I know it is supposed to be purely for enjoyment (hence the 1.5 star and not the one star) but while I read through all of the endings and overall had a good time, this book was crazy unrealistic in terms of the main characters reaction to things (you choose the path but you aren't really the main character).
I can't really recommend this overall but if you have a chance to pick it up and have a free afternoon, there are worse ways you can spend it.
Originally this was going to be a 2 but after writing the content warning for him checking out a zombie's breasts I decided to be real with myself and drop it to a 1.5 because that was beyond weird. (Sentences I never thought I would have to write)
Content: strong language used regularly, graphic violence, one of the endings involved you eating a dog so that's cool, sexual innuendo/ sexual content (the main character apparently has a thing for breasts like he even checks out a zombies at one point so at least he's consistent. Also there is another scene where he goes swimming with a girl who is just in her bra and underwear but nothing overly graphic besides the descriptions of the breasts which was gross solely because he was looking)
May 21, 2022
A pick a path for whom the usual series have become too tame. Probably wildly unsuitable for intermediate children but I have some boys at school who I know will love this, see far worse on films and video games they’re allowed to watch/play, and therefore will enjoy this. Yes the main character is a man in his mid twenties, but aren’t most of the film characters? This contains swearing you wouldn’t want to hear your kids saying but know they are doing out of teacher earshot, and kids who are faint hearted just won’t borrow it, so what’s the harm?
Read
December 25, 2020A choose your own adventure zombie adventure.
I loved these so much as a child. They’re some of the best fun.
Be prepared to die. A lot.
I loved these so much as a child. They’re some of the best fun.
Be prepared to die. A lot.
October 7, 2025
Took me thirty minutes to read until I died. It wasn’t very interesting so I didn’t feel the need to go through it again with different choices or anything.
Read
February 15, 2023Bogen skulle have 50 forskellige slutninger, men jeg har ikke tålmodighed til dem alle. Efter de første 5-10 har man også fået nok af universet, men sjovt nok ellers.
July 20, 2025
gettin straight zombies bitches 😎
February 24, 2016
4.5 stars! This is quite the original, creative book.
You have choices to make now - lots of them. Moral dilemmas. Strategic decisions. Weapons. Vehicles. Will you be a hero? Or will you cover your own ass at all costs? Will you survive the coming hours, days, weeks, and months? Or will you die amidst the chaos and violence of a zombie uprising?
Or worse of all, will you become one of them...?
The choice is yours. And hey, if you don't make it - you've got no one to blame but yourself.
I recently read another book by Max Brallier, and I wanted to know if he wrote other stuff. Thus I stumbled upon this book, I was interested, zombies are one of my favourite scary monsters, and I just loved how the cover looked (like a paperback from the 70s or 80s). But then I saw something even more awesome than zombies, even better than the cover. I saw this was an choose-your-own-adventure book! I love those! I was curious as to how it would be done, how many bad endings there were, how many good endings, how many endings were we have to fill in the dots ourselves.
But first I started reading it, I followed a route, but bumped into so many choices that I decided to make a chart. So I got my dear boyfriend, and we both started typing down all the possible endings, all the possible routes, and by Lord, it is BIG, HUGE, there are countless of routes, countless of endings. Some routes are really small and are relatively easily reached (and some of them don't have too many sideroads), but some take ages to go through before you hit the ending of that route. The biggest one is the military-based storyline. One I kind of enjoyed, but also kind of didn't. Yeah, I am conflicted.
So yeah, I had a chart, and I decided to read it, since I want to reach most of the stories and the endings, and while I could do it blindly, I prefer a chart so I know exactly what line I followed, and which one I didn't.
This book is terrific. Of course the whole You did this, and You did that, took some time to get used to, but after a while you don't even think it is weird or strange and you just get lost in the story. The story about a guy, with a dead-end job, getting lost in the zombie apocalypse. Every choice you make leads to something, death, freedom, or something else. At times I really liked the guy, at other times I just wanted to shake him around. I know, I picked the choices, but dear Lord, that guy wasn't really the smartest even without me picking the choices.
At times I was just laughing my butt off from various situations which were just super hilarious, or silly. Or just because of puns, jokes (yes, even in the apocalypse one makes jokes).
We meet various people, depending on the choices you make. I didn't like all the of the characters we meet, but generally we do have some great characters. I especially liked Yakuma, and Chuck. They were fantastic and they really kicked ass. Well, especially Yakuma. Stripper + swords + kick ass moves = WOW.
Yes, you heard that right. Stripper. This book isn't for the kiddies. There is tons of gore, quite a few references to drugs and alcohol, a bit of swearing, and several other things. Now the gore can also be present in some kid/YA books, but generally those keep it quite clean.
But this book made me feel a bit sick in the stomach. Guts, intestines, heads being blown off, zombies tucking in a human.
The book also gave me a lot of goosebumps. Even though the main character wasn't one I identify with (I am a woman for starters), with the POV we have, we were just smack dab in the middle of all the horrible stuff that happened. It was at times really gruesome, normally you can distance yourself a bit, still feeling sorry for the character of course, but you aren't as close to the action as it was with this book.
I still got some routes to finish, some endings to find, but I did most of them. My favourites would be Yakuma, Chuck and the apartment building story.
There was another thing I didn't like, but that didn't have to do with the book, and more to do with my ereader. I still want to mention it though, as this is a review, and I want to mention everything.
You could click on the choices, but sadly my ereader hated doing that, often flipping out, it sometimes took quite a few tries before I could get my ereader to understand that I wanted to click a link, and not wanted it to open the menus. That was quite annoying, as I just wanted to continue the story, find out about stuff, and then my ereader would just be like: NOPE.
All in all, this is one book I would really recommend to everyone. Looking for a fun, creepy, scary book? A book in which you can decide what happens to characters, main character? Then this is one you should check out.
Review first posted at http://twirlingbookprincess.com/
You have choices to make now - lots of them. Moral dilemmas. Strategic decisions. Weapons. Vehicles. Will you be a hero? Or will you cover your own ass at all costs? Will you survive the coming hours, days, weeks, and months? Or will you die amidst the chaos and violence of a zombie uprising?
Or worse of all, will you become one of them...?
The choice is yours. And hey, if you don't make it - you've got no one to blame but yourself.
I recently read another book by Max Brallier, and I wanted to know if he wrote other stuff. Thus I stumbled upon this book, I was interested, zombies are one of my favourite scary monsters, and I just loved how the cover looked (like a paperback from the 70s or 80s). But then I saw something even more awesome than zombies, even better than the cover. I saw this was an choose-your-own-adventure book! I love those! I was curious as to how it would be done, how many bad endings there were, how many good endings, how many endings were we have to fill in the dots ourselves.
But first I started reading it, I followed a route, but bumped into so many choices that I decided to make a chart. So I got my dear boyfriend, and we both started typing down all the possible endings, all the possible routes, and by Lord, it is BIG, HUGE, there are countless of routes, countless of endings. Some routes are really small and are relatively easily reached (and some of them don't have too many sideroads), but some take ages to go through before you hit the ending of that route. The biggest one is the military-based storyline. One I kind of enjoyed, but also kind of didn't. Yeah, I am conflicted.
So yeah, I had a chart, and I decided to read it, since I want to reach most of the stories and the endings, and while I could do it blindly, I prefer a chart so I know exactly what line I followed, and which one I didn't.
This book is terrific. Of course the whole You did this, and You did that, took some time to get used to, but after a while you don't even think it is weird or strange and you just get lost in the story. The story about a guy, with a dead-end job, getting lost in the zombie apocalypse. Every choice you make leads to something, death, freedom, or something else. At times I really liked the guy, at other times I just wanted to shake him around. I know, I picked the choices, but dear Lord, that guy wasn't really the smartest even without me picking the choices.
At times I was just laughing my butt off from various situations which were just super hilarious, or silly. Or just because of puns, jokes (yes, even in the apocalypse one makes jokes).
We meet various people, depending on the choices you make. I didn't like all the of the characters we meet, but generally we do have some great characters. I especially liked Yakuma, and Chuck. They were fantastic and they really kicked ass. Well, especially Yakuma. Stripper + swords + kick ass moves = WOW.
Yes, you heard that right. Stripper. This book isn't for the kiddies. There is tons of gore, quite a few references to drugs and alcohol, a bit of swearing, and several other things. Now the gore can also be present in some kid/YA books, but generally those keep it quite clean.
But this book made me feel a bit sick in the stomach. Guts, intestines, heads being blown off, zombies tucking in a human.
The book also gave me a lot of goosebumps. Even though the main character wasn't one I identify with (I am a woman for starters), with the POV we have, we were just smack dab in the middle of all the horrible stuff that happened. It was at times really gruesome, normally you can distance yourself a bit, still feeling sorry for the character of course, but you aren't as close to the action as it was with this book.
I still got some routes to finish, some endings to find, but I did most of them. My favourites would be Yakuma, Chuck and the apartment building story.
There was another thing I didn't like, but that didn't have to do with the book, and more to do with my ereader. I still want to mention it though, as this is a review, and I want to mention everything.
You could click on the choices, but sadly my ereader hated doing that, often flipping out, it sometimes took quite a few tries before I could get my ereader to understand that I wanted to click a link, and not wanted it to open the menus. That was quite annoying, as I just wanted to continue the story, find out about stuff, and then my ereader would just be like: NOPE.
All in all, this is one book I would really recommend to everyone. Looking for a fun, creepy, scary book? A book in which you can decide what happens to characters, main character? Then this is one you should check out.
Review first posted at http://twirlingbookprincess.com/
January 7, 2011
Remember those Choose Your Own Adventure (CYOA) books from when you were a kid? Yeah, I don't either. I was like 1 years old when they came out. *snorts* (yeah right). If I had to guess at what they were, again - I was probably too young to know what they were, I'd say they were books where you starred as the main character and you got to choose what you could do next. Your outcome could either be good or bad, based upon your decisions.
When I first started this one, I didn't realize it was a CYOA book. I was surprised that they gave me a choice. Actually, I was quite happy! I got to test drive my zombie survival skills!! Yes! You'll be happy to know that I (if it follows the path I took in the book) will survive. I will survive! At first, I had my husband help me make decisions. Then, after a while (and like any good zombie movie), I started to question his decisions (really, traffic is gridlocked so he thought it would be a good idea to get a car, just in case. In case of what???? It's GRIDLOCKED TRAFFIC!!) and eventually I went on my own way.
I met up with someone and he was actually pretty cool. I'm glad that I decided to do the ridiculous. We fought a few zombies but eventually we were able to keep them out long enough for me to take a nap - which is something everyone needs in between zombie fights. After my nap we had a mini showdown and needless to say I made the best decisions because I survived. Well, me and my buddy! We were rescued.
After that I got to thinking. I didn't want to survive. I wanted to be the stupid person in the movie that makes the dumb decisions. I wanted to be the dumb person that mocked someones fears only to get attacked while laughing at them. I wanted to trip while I was running away from a zombie! So I adopted a plan I tagged, "Think Like a Dummy and Get Devoured by Zombies in easy steps". You know what? It was harder than I thought! I kept trying and trying but mostly I just prolonged pain. I really did pay for my dumb mistakes but not as fast as I thought I would. See? I should show my husband this as proof of how impossible it is for me to make stupid decisions.
So all in all a quick fun read... with zombies! Very nice twist on CYOA books. I like the way it started out and how everything was introduced. The only thing I didn't care for was that in the story I am a he and some of the decisions I had no control over. Oh goodness, does that sound like I'm nagging and that I want to control everything?? Noooooo! Oh well, better than a zombie apocalypse I'd say.
And don't you like how the cover even pays homage to the CYOA books?
When I first started this one, I didn't realize it was a CYOA book. I was surprised that they gave me a choice. Actually, I was quite happy! I got to test drive my zombie survival skills!! Yes! You'll be happy to know that I (if it follows the path I took in the book) will survive. I will survive! At first, I had my husband help me make decisions. Then, after a while (and like any good zombie movie), I started to question his decisions (really, traffic is gridlocked so he thought it would be a good idea to get a car, just in case. In case of what???? It's GRIDLOCKED TRAFFIC!!) and eventually I went on my own way.
I met up with someone and he was actually pretty cool. I'm glad that I decided to do the ridiculous. We fought a few zombies but eventually we were able to keep them out long enough for me to take a nap - which is something everyone needs in between zombie fights. After my nap we had a mini showdown and needless to say I made the best decisions because I survived. Well, me and my buddy! We were rescued.
After that I got to thinking. I didn't want to survive. I wanted to be the stupid person in the movie that makes the dumb decisions. I wanted to be the dumb person that mocked someones fears only to get attacked while laughing at them. I wanted to trip while I was running away from a zombie! So I adopted a plan I tagged, "Think Like a Dummy and Get Devoured by Zombies in easy steps". You know what? It was harder than I thought! I kept trying and trying but mostly I just prolonged pain. I really did pay for my dumb mistakes but not as fast as I thought I would. See? I should show my husband this as proof of how impossible it is for me to make stupid decisions.
So all in all a quick fun read... with zombies! Very nice twist on CYOA books. I like the way it started out and how everything was introduced. The only thing I didn't care for was that in the story I am a he and some of the decisions I had no control over. Oh goodness, does that sound like I'm nagging and that I want to control everything?? Noooooo! Oh well, better than a zombie apocalypse I'd say.
And don't you like how the cover even pays homage to the CYOA books?
March 29, 2016
If you're going to stick the word 'Zombie' into a title, and then leave it up to the (let's face it, confused and unfortunate) masses to save themselves, don't make the endings wimptastic.
The basic endings breakdown in this:
30 Bad Ends: meaning you either die or become a zombie
10 Good Ends: You somehow manage to live relatively content
8 Questionable Ends: You survive, possibly, but the future looks bad
1 The End: The 'True' ending to the book
This book is gruesome, a little horrifying and almost stomach turning. But if you're reading this to begin with I'm assuming you're not looking for gilded flowery writing. Brallier writes tongue-in-cheek. A few of the questionable endings are him berating you for making the 'stupid' choice (leaving the kids to die, telling the hottest girl ever to go away) to save yourself. Personally I think it would make more sense not to trust a situation you have no control over. My sister and I were discussing some of the decisions and consequences Brallier has in his book and were doubted the wisdom more often than not.
Interesting things can occur--you have a chance to join the Hell's Angels New York Chapter at one point in fact, but its very easy to let these things suddenly distract you. There is only one path to take to reach the 'true' ending and navigating the treacherous waters of the choices isn't as easy as it may sound. It took me twenty tries to finally nail down how to puzzle out the path to the end, though it was worth it. If you are serious about finding it I suggest taking notes. Make a note for each decision you make and the choice you could have made.
Sounds like a lot of work, but heck those old Choose Your Own Adventure novels were a lot of work too!
Inside jokes abound, especially when our lead character runs into a crowd dressed for the 'Undead Walk'. Their bad luck that their Zombie Walk was pre-empted by the undead. There's several arguments about this or that zombie mythos versus each other. Standard trivia things, but still amusing for a Zombie Enthusiast.
Is this a book for everyone? Heck no. Those with weak stomachs when watching horror films should never touch this book. Kids under the age of 14 should not touch this book. This does seem like something that would be a fun party game or dinner discussion--pop out the book and then discuss with friends and loved ones whether preemptively killing your friend is a wise choice or will ultimately lead to your death.
The basic endings breakdown in this:
30 Bad Ends: meaning you either die or become a zombie
10 Good Ends: You somehow manage to live relatively content
8 Questionable Ends: You survive, possibly, but the future looks bad
1 The End: The 'True' ending to the book
This book is gruesome, a little horrifying and almost stomach turning. But if you're reading this to begin with I'm assuming you're not looking for gilded flowery writing. Brallier writes tongue-in-cheek. A few of the questionable endings are him berating you for making the 'stupid' choice (leaving the kids to die, telling the hottest girl ever to go away) to save yourself. Personally I think it would make more sense not to trust a situation you have no control over. My sister and I were discussing some of the decisions and consequences Brallier has in his book and were doubted the wisdom more often than not.
Interesting things can occur--you have a chance to join the Hell's Angels New York Chapter at one point in fact, but its very easy to let these things suddenly distract you. There is only one path to take to reach the 'true' ending and navigating the treacherous waters of the choices isn't as easy as it may sound. It took me twenty tries to finally nail down how to puzzle out the path to the end, though it was worth it. If you are serious about finding it I suggest taking notes. Make a note for each decision you make and the choice you could have made.
Sounds like a lot of work, but heck those old Choose Your Own Adventure novels were a lot of work too!
Inside jokes abound, especially when our lead character runs into a crowd dressed for the 'Undead Walk'. Their bad luck that their Zombie Walk was pre-empted by the undead. There's several arguments about this or that zombie mythos versus each other. Standard trivia things, but still amusing for a Zombie Enthusiast.
Is this a book for everyone? Heck no. Those with weak stomachs when watching horror films should never touch this book. Kids under the age of 14 should not touch this book. This does seem like something that would be a fun party game or dinner discussion--pop out the book and then discuss with friends and loved ones whether preemptively killing your friend is a wise choice or will ultimately lead to your death.
May 23, 2017
You're in your mid-forties, with fond memories of the Choose Your Own Adventure books. You especially liked the horror titles (you have fond memories of The Mystery of Chimney Rock), so when you discovered that someone had written and published an adult CYOA book, written around a zombie apocalypse, of course you had to buy it. You figure the author and publisher were counting on it.
The thing is, you still want to read a good story. That's what you liked about the CYOA books to begin with. It wasn't just the conceit of being the star in the story that appealed to you; it was also that they drew you in and made you want to find out what happened next. The more you read Can You Survive the Zombie Apocalypse, the more disappointed you get. You find that the choices to make aren't meaningful, and neither is the character you're supposed to be. You remember the original CYOA books having your choices drive the character growth, but here you find that the character is already established: male, mid-twenties, obsessed with sex even in the midst of a collapsing society, and pretty pathetic.
What happens if the reader isn't any of those things? you think. Why can't there be stories like this that feature different characters the reader can choose to better reflect who they are in the real world? Fiction is fantasy, sure, but when you're supposed to be the star of the book, the story should reflect as much of that person as possible.
You find the book to be too juvenile for adults. You think the book was written for males suffering from arrested development. More often that not, the stories play out where the main character isn't much of a hero, since he relies on other people to save him more than he does anything himself.
You do have to give credit for the book working well as an e-book. Gone are the days of shuffling pages back and forth looking for the next section to read; instead, you have the luxury of clicking on a link and going straight to your choice. It's just a shame you couldn't read a good story, too.
You remember that Kim Newman wrote an adult CYOA book, too, called Life's Lottery. Maybe that will be the adult CYOA book you were hoping Can You Survive the Zombie Apocalypse? would be.
The thing is, you still want to read a good story. That's what you liked about the CYOA books to begin with. It wasn't just the conceit of being the star in the story that appealed to you; it was also that they drew you in and made you want to find out what happened next. The more you read Can You Survive the Zombie Apocalypse, the more disappointed you get. You find that the choices to make aren't meaningful, and neither is the character you're supposed to be. You remember the original CYOA books having your choices drive the character growth, but here you find that the character is already established: male, mid-twenties, obsessed with sex even in the midst of a collapsing society, and pretty pathetic.
What happens if the reader isn't any of those things? you think. Why can't there be stories like this that feature different characters the reader can choose to better reflect who they are in the real world? Fiction is fantasy, sure, but when you're supposed to be the star of the book, the story should reflect as much of that person as possible.
You find the book to be too juvenile for adults. You think the book was written for males suffering from arrested development. More often that not, the stories play out where the main character isn't much of a hero, since he relies on other people to save him more than he does anything himself.
You do have to give credit for the book working well as an e-book. Gone are the days of shuffling pages back and forth looking for the next section to read; instead, you have the luxury of clicking on a link and going straight to your choice. It's just a shame you couldn't read a good story, too.
You remember that Kim Newman wrote an adult CYOA book, too, called Life's Lottery. Maybe that will be the adult CYOA book you were hoping Can You Survive the Zombie Apocalypse? would be.
March 1, 2011
Quick! The zombies are getting close! Do you try to reload the rifle or pick up the morning star? Hop in a taxi or run for the subway? Duck into Nintendo’s Comic Con booth or hope the Lucasfilm hallway leads to an exit? These are the choices you must make in Can You Survive the Zombie Apocalypse?, a gamebook by Max Brallier, a game writer for Poptropica.com.
The main character is a male 25-year-old New Yorker with a crappy apartment, a crappy job and – frankly – a crappy life. In many ways a zombie apocalypse would be a step up, so when a morning meeting is interrupted with news of a cannibalistic attack on nearby hospital workers his (and your) mind starts working.
Like a Choose Your Own Adventure, flavor text describing your situation precedes two or three choices: do you stay hidden under the platform or make a run for it? You turn to the page number indicated by your choice and keep reading. Where this book differs is that the text is usually several pages instead of a paragraph or two, leading to the feeling that when you’ve reached one of the game’s endings you’ve just read a pretty cool zombie novella.
In all, there are 74 “An End”s spread throughout the book’s 400 pages, with one “The End” providing the definitive conclusion. In my playthroughs, I never found an instant-kill scenario and was never trapped in one of those loops some gamebooks have.
While Brallier includes the requisite amount of gore needed to properly tell a zombie story, the various paths edge between horror and black humor – providing an interesting amount of variation especially in terms of the other survivors you meet. That, with the varied locales, will have you holding your place in the book because maybe you didn’t decided to take the bridge out of town after all.
Ebook note: I read/played this on my Kindle and was amazed at how well it worked. Instead of flipping to page numbers, the choices are smart-linked and the bookmark function let me jump back to explore alternate paths.
The main character is a male 25-year-old New Yorker with a crappy apartment, a crappy job and – frankly – a crappy life. In many ways a zombie apocalypse would be a step up, so when a morning meeting is interrupted with news of a cannibalistic attack on nearby hospital workers his (and your) mind starts working.
Like a Choose Your Own Adventure, flavor text describing your situation precedes two or three choices: do you stay hidden under the platform or make a run for it? You turn to the page number indicated by your choice and keep reading. Where this book differs is that the text is usually several pages instead of a paragraph or two, leading to the feeling that when you’ve reached one of the game’s endings you’ve just read a pretty cool zombie novella.
In all, there are 74 “An End”s spread throughout the book’s 400 pages, with one “The End” providing the definitive conclusion. In my playthroughs, I never found an instant-kill scenario and was never trapped in one of those loops some gamebooks have.
While Brallier includes the requisite amount of gore needed to properly tell a zombie story, the various paths edge between horror and black humor – providing an interesting amount of variation especially in terms of the other survivors you meet. That, with the varied locales, will have you holding your place in the book because maybe you didn’t decided to take the bridge out of town after all.
Ebook note: I read/played this on my Kindle and was amazed at how well it worked. Instead of flipping to page numbers, the choices are smart-linked and the bookmark function let me jump back to explore alternate paths.
June 6, 2011
Choose Your Own Adventure books were a pretty fun part of my early reading experience and this was no exception. What makes a great Choose your own book? A wide variety of endings, possible story lines and great characters to run into along the way. You'll find all of that in Brallier's zombie book making it one of my favorite of this book type.
I don't want to delve too deep into the sort of adventures you're going to have here (after all that's probably one of the more appealing aspects of choose your own- all the neat surprises) but I will say that you're likely to have a chuckle at some of the outcomes, a kick about others and some great adventure fun with some more. There are plenty of ideas in zombie novels that get repeated and after awhile that can let the monster get run into the ground for horror fans. In Can You Survive however quite a few original ideas and events occur that I have yet to see in fiction or film, from the slapstick to the surreal there really are a lot of neat ways for things to go down.
Brallier also offers quite a few endings. As memory serves most choose your own's had a limit of about 20 endings and some of them got reused by differing plot paths half a dozen times. Here I can only recall that happening once out of the 50 different endings available. The fact that there's enough variety in these plots that retracing your steps to get the other ending isn't at all tedious makes for a heck of an argument for checking the book out. After all not even some of the best choose your owns from back in the day could say that by the time you'd gotten through most of the story threads.
I don't want to delve too deep into the sort of adventures you're going to have here (after all that's probably one of the more appealing aspects of choose your own- all the neat surprises) but I will say that you're likely to have a chuckle at some of the outcomes, a kick about others and some great adventure fun with some more. There are plenty of ideas in zombie novels that get repeated and after awhile that can let the monster get run into the ground for horror fans. In Can You Survive however quite a few original ideas and events occur that I have yet to see in fiction or film, from the slapstick to the surreal there really are a lot of neat ways for things to go down.
Brallier also offers quite a few endings. As memory serves most choose your own's had a limit of about 20 endings and some of them got reused by differing plot paths half a dozen times. Here I can only recall that happening once out of the 50 different endings available. The fact that there's enough variety in these plots that retracing your steps to get the other ending isn't at all tedious makes for a heck of an argument for checking the book out. After all not even some of the best choose your owns from back in the day could say that by the time you'd gotten through most of the story threads.
May 8, 2014
Do you remember the Choose Your Own Adventure books from your childhood/teenage years? They were amongst some of the most popular books in the library when I was in Primary School....all the cool kids had one!
So when I stumbled across this book I had to have it. Now. Right now. And thanks to the magical power of Amazon, I could have it almost now.
This isn't really a book I can review in great detail because, well the ending is different depending on the path you choose! The fun with these type of books is every choice you make influences how the story progresses and how far you get in evading zombies, helping the military or meeting a grisly end!
As such, you can't really determine when you have 'read' this book in it's entirety (unless you get a little bit anal and track which paths you have and haven't chosen and mark them off - I didn't go THAT far). However, that also means that you can pick it up at any time, read one 'path' and come back to it again and again.
The writing style is kinda 'blokey' and a little sexist towards women in some places, but hey, this is a pure fun book - and I loved it!
So when I stumbled across this book I had to have it. Now. Right now. And thanks to the magical power of Amazon, I could have it almost now.
This isn't really a book I can review in great detail because, well the ending is different depending on the path you choose! The fun with these type of books is every choice you make influences how the story progresses and how far you get in evading zombies, helping the military or meeting a grisly end!
As such, you can't really determine when you have 'read' this book in it's entirety (unless you get a little bit anal and track which paths you have and haven't chosen and mark them off - I didn't go THAT far). However, that also means that you can pick it up at any time, read one 'path' and come back to it again and again.
The writing style is kinda 'blokey' and a little sexist towards women in some places, but hey, this is a pure fun book - and I loved it!
June 15, 2011
Max Brallier actually made a 'choose your own adventure' book interesting and fun. I can only remember reading one other book of this type years ago and got annoyed enough to quit it after getting 'killed' several times. Brallier makes the story interesting and far more than just a different take on zombie novels. The great thing is how different choices will lead to a very different sort of feel. Why some choices are straight horror and action, others are quite humorous. I don't want to give anything away, but comicbook and video game fans will have a lot of fun with some of the options.
Another surprise, is now Brallier makes you feel something for the new characters he introduces, sometimes for only a page or two. Also, while the central character you 'play' in the story is initially a jerk you begin to feel sympathy and even concern for the guy as you keep moving him from one situation to another. Highly recommended, whether you like these sort of books or are just a zombie fan.
Another surprise, is now Brallier makes you feel something for the new characters he introduces, sometimes for only a page or two. Also, while the central character you 'play' in the story is initially a jerk you begin to feel sympathy and even concern for the guy as you keep moving him from one situation to another. Highly recommended, whether you like these sort of books or are just a zombie fan.
June 16, 2012
Why read: An adult zombie choose your own adventure sounded amazing.
What impressed me: More often than not, the situations in this book felt realistic. Nothing was innovative, with most decisions being those zombie fans have already seen numerous times in movies. But that was part of the fun, getting to make the choices you've seen before for yourself, instead of just thinking the movie characters were some sort of idiots.
What disappointed me: The short answer is no. You cannot survive the zombie apocalypse. I reread this book, choosing different paths at least eight times and always, always, died one way or another - some more grisly than others. Maybe that's the point of the book, that no one can survive, but that doesn't make it very fun.
Recommended: Yes. While the constant deaths were annoying, this is definitely a book zombie fans are going to want to experience for themselves.
What impressed me: More often than not, the situations in this book felt realistic. Nothing was innovative, with most decisions being those zombie fans have already seen numerous times in movies. But that was part of the fun, getting to make the choices you've seen before for yourself, instead of just thinking the movie characters were some sort of idiots.
What disappointed me: The short answer is no. You cannot survive the zombie apocalypse. I reread this book, choosing different paths at least eight times and always, always, died one way or another - some more grisly than others. Maybe that's the point of the book, that no one can survive, but that doesn't make it very fun.
Recommended: Yes. While the constant deaths were annoying, this is definitely a book zombie fans are going to want to experience for themselves.
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