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The Wayhaven Chronicles #1
The Wayhaven Chronicles: Book One
Your first case as a detective is forcing you to open your eyes to a world bigger than you thought. But maybe it's better to keep them closed. Knowing too much doesn’t help anyone sleep at night! Seems the supernatural didn’t get the memo that nothing exciting ever happens in the little town of Wayhaven.
The Wayhaven Chronicles: Book One is a thrilling 440,000 word supernatural romance interactive fiction where your choices control the story.
Experience the big and small moments with a host of characters throughout this exciting twist on the usual supernatural tale—a story which will take you through heart-pounding romance, smile-filled friendships, and shiver-inducing drama.
Play as female, male, or non-binary—with options to be straight, gay, or bisexual.
Discover the start of distinct and lasting romances with the vampires of Unit Bravo.
Define and refine relationships with a variety of characters-from friends, family, exes, and enemies.
Decide how you will fulfill the job of detective, through Deduction, Combat, Science, or People skills.
Discover the truth of what awaits in Wayhaven in a playstyle that suits your personality.
Indulge in true moments of romance, friendship, drama, and fun!
The Wayhaven Chronicles: Book One is a thrilling 440,000 word supernatural romance interactive fiction where your choices control the story.
Experience the big and small moments with a host of characters throughout this exciting twist on the usual supernatural tale—a story which will take you through heart-pounding romance, smile-filled friendships, and shiver-inducing drama.
Play as female, male, or non-binary—with options to be straight, gay, or bisexual.
Discover the start of distinct and lasting romances with the vampires of Unit Bravo.
Define and refine relationships with a variety of characters-from friends, family, exes, and enemies.
Decide how you will fulfill the job of detective, through Deduction, Combat, Science, or People skills.
Discover the truth of what awaits in Wayhaven in a playstyle that suits your personality.
Indulge in true moments of romance, friendship, drama, and fun!
Unknown Binding
First published January 1, 2018
8 people are currently reading
134 people want to read
About the author
Mishka Jenkins
8 books93 followersMishka Jenkins lives in the UK with her family and fluffy muse, a rough collie named Harliquin, who she couldn't write without.
Mishka has a penchant for writing love stories in a variety of exciting genres, and plans to keep writing them for as long as she can type.
Mishka has a penchant for writing love stories in a variety of exciting genres, and plans to keep writing them for as long as she can type.
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
July 2, 2023
Lmao this has a Goodreads??? WHACK.
I’m looking it up because it’s come to my attention that Book 3 is out AND I’M READY TO FUCKING GOOOOOO
I’ve played this too many times. It’s not superb, but it’s enormous fun and has some solid representation.
Recommend the whole series up down and sideways if you like interactive urban fantasy romance novels. It’s got they/them pronouns and gender nonconforming dressing options and sexual orientation inclusivity, from gay to bi to ace. There is an aro route, but it’s not really a route and more like the “base” game where you get to be friends with the love interests (who are female/male/both and gay/straight based on your preferences). I haven’t played the- ah, spicier versions of the routes, so I can’t say what all goes down there. But Mason’s ace route is WOW. Amazing. Incredible. I kind of love him a lot. Even if he’s kind of a dick.
*Slaps novel* this bad boy can fit so much inclusivity in it. It’s almost on My Life as a Teenage Exocolonist level. It would be if it had trans options (which MLTE does, seriously, go check that game out, it’s phenomenal), but sadly it doesn’t.
I’m looking it up because it’s come to my attention that Book 3 is out AND I’M READY TO FUCKING GOOOOOO
I’ve played this too many times. It’s not superb, but it’s enormous fun and has some solid representation.
Recommend the whole series up down and sideways if you like interactive urban fantasy romance novels. It’s got they/them pronouns and gender nonconforming dressing options and sexual orientation inclusivity, from gay to bi to ace. There is an aro route, but it’s not really a route and more like the “base” game where you get to be friends with the love interests (who are female/male/both and gay/straight based on your preferences). I haven’t played the- ah, spicier versions of the routes, so I can’t say what all goes down there. But Mason’s ace route is WOW. Amazing. Incredible. I kind of love him a lot. Even if he’s kind of a dick.
*Slaps novel* this bad boy can fit so much inclusivity in it. It’s almost on My Life as a Teenage Exocolonist level. It would be if it had trans options (which MLTE does, seriously, go check that game out, it’s phenomenal), but sadly it doesn’t.
August 1, 2023
Surprised to see that this has a goodreads page? Anyway, TWC was all the craze on my tumblr dash back in 2020 well into 2021, and after years I finally decided to give it a try, playing Ava du Mortain's romance route with a non-binary MC. It's admittedly fun and plot was okay but nothing really blew my mind. I liked the amount of variation in customizing your MC and the choices they make. However, the prose and writing itself was nothing special and the constant switching of POVs between the MC's 1st person, Unit Bravo's 3rd person, the villain's 3rd person, and even the MC's mother's 3rd person was a bit frustrating. The constant switching to villain's POV especially takes away so much of the mystery and intrigue surrounding him. Overall could've been much better if the writing was improved as no lines really captivated me and by lessening the amount of POV switching.
Also, for an IF which includes romancing vampires, there's personally not enough gothic fucked up romance for me. I think the fact that they're vampires is severely underused in establishing possible gothic themes. Like all these years alive and you're just gonna be cop Edward Cullen? How boring.
Also, for an IF which includes romancing vampires, there's personally not enough gothic fucked up romance for me. I think the fact that they're vampires is severely underused in establishing possible gothic themes. Like all these years alive and you're just gonna be cop Edward Cullen? How boring.
January 24, 2025
I am as befuddled as everybody else that Wayhaven is even listed on this shit-ass webzone. Can I write reviews for Infocom games on here? Wayhaven is the only example of media I can conjure that has both a Goodreads listing and a Steam page. I get to review video games on the bookhole now.
Wayhaven Chronicles is the premiere lesbian vampire dating simulator. I do not acknowledge any option to make the detective a man, and I do not acknowledge the option to have the vampires be men. My Wayhaven, the only *right* one, which lives in my mindpalace, is a dyke simulator. It has a nonbinary protagonist which is rad.
Wayhaven has taught me that I could actually be really friendly with dating sims or even visual novels, if they didn't all sport writing that would see you booted from a 1950s pulp publisher. I don't know what the problem is, maybe Misha Jenkins is a genius super-author of mystery novels in her spare time? Wayhaven is built different, though. As a story it isn't up to that much - the detective you play as is sent to the titular lil town to investigate an unusual string of murders of a supernatural variety. ("All cops" does include gay lil vampire loving detectives, but this is the one piece of cop media that I haven't found to be dreadful. You never really have to *be* a cop, it's more of an excuse to get you near vampire agents) I'll spoil as little as possible but you get wrapped up in the obligatory supernatural-beings-regulation board and have to team up with four gay vampires to take down the killer. Also the head of the organisation is literally your mum and she directs the vampire team :)
There is at least one core, foundational difference between Wayhaven and video games, and that is its dialogue system. In video game, usually there are right or wrong dialogue choices. You see it as far and wide as Tactics Ogre (single dialogue choices can decide if characters live or die) and as Mass Effect (there is only one string of dialogue options to get your romance choice into bed) but it's pretty binary, which is very boring. Even in a game that's more flexible, like a Fallout New Vegas, all of the cool choices tend to lead to either the outcome you need to proceed, or combat.
Wayhaven is not like that, it's cool and epic. Firstly the game has stats after a fashion, but instead of dialogue being affected by your stats, your choices in dialogue build your character. Unless you've specified in your backstory that the detective is utterly inept at combat, if you try to elbow a thrall, it's likely to work out and the game will log it as a Good At Fighting point, stuff like that. It feels less like there's a minefield of failstates, unlike in real life lol lmao. More relevant for the fictiony side, however... it's hard to explain, but Wayhaven takes this approach to conversational dialogue too, and it rules. It helps that while it isn't a masterpiece of prose or whatever, the game is fairly well-written, especially by genre slop standards. Helpfully it doesn't pretend that its bootleg Dresden Files concept is breathtakingly original, but there are actual novels with worse line-to-line narration (looking at you, Drowning Deep, you stinky lil guy) than Wayhaven, so props.
Wayhaven is ostensibly a supernatural mystery/detective story, but actually it is about your very own (customised!) detective rizzing up one of four vampires. The thing that drew me to Wayhaven is that the game lets you mix-and-match genders for both the detective and the vampires. Wayhaven sadly isn't very pliable on this front; the detective can be a woman, a man or a Non-Binary. Despite the save files having room for custom values in many spots, you cannot mix and match pronouns, so there isn't a possibility (without save editing, anyway) for a He/Him Lesbian, say, or indeed a She/Her Non-Binary Dyke. Men and Women always have cisnormative pronouns, and enbies are always themperors. I still did two runs of Wayhaven though, one as a plain ol' lesbian lady and one as a lesbian enby.
Genders aren't just a set of pronouns and nouns in Wayhaven though; while all three gender options share some dialogue, more often than not the Man and the Woman path will have unique scenes or lines or dialogue. Thankfully the choice to be a metaphorical (and literal) top or bottom is unrelated to gender, so it's not like every Wayhaven lady is demure and shy. The enby path tends to use a mishmash of Man, Woman and its own unique bits, which is interesting at times. If your they/them detective elects for combat training in Book Two and spars with Ava, they *will* be getting their chest ogled by her. I guess it's equally possible that she COULD be licking her lips at the sight of your perfectly flat and powerful pecs, but to me it felt like this line was probably ported over from the Woman set of lines. It didn't bother me, and my detective ended up on the mat with Ava on top anyway, but it's not hard to imagine it'd be a dealbreaker for some players. I dunno, the game conflates pronouns and genders so I can't really tell what it's thinking here.
I literally do not want to be mean to Wayhaven, though, so I'm not gonna. It has its troubles and whatnot, but please read this as constructive, I'm begging you. Sure it's awkward and maybe even troublesome at times, but to be real I probably wouldn't have even touched Wayhaven if I hadn't heard it had a Funny Gender option. That tells me that whatever the story's goofy failings, it is at least thinking of me, which is huge for one of these. There's often a layer of weird disconnect that can happen if I myself am expected to self-insert in fiction and the writing then goes on to make whatever cisnormative assumptions based on my ingame gender choice, and Wayhaven just doesn't have that, so far as I can see. The ambiguity of its gender-related choices are also frequently to its strength, leaving just enough off the page for my internal roleplay to fill in the blanks. It would be weird for a novel to randomly intersperse descriptive details like this, but in Wayhaven it's a joy whenever I get to specify my hairstyle, or home decor, or outfit as a form of expression. I've never had such a fun and easy time doing roleplay or self insert in any game.
Partially that's down to the dialogue again. I said above that it doesn't feel like a minefield of failstates, and that's as much down to the game feeling very up for rolling with my punches as far as the choices go. Being painfully autistic and socially inept & oblivious as a result, many games leave me deeply unhappy when a dialogue choice ends up having tonal connotations I did not understand, or when choosing a different dialogue option results in basically switching tracks to a different "character archetype" so to speak. Bringing up Mass Effect again, Paragon and Renegade options basically can't coexist within the same Shepard, which is why it only has two binary paths. Wayhaven's options don't have to serve anything but your character and roleplay, though. Both of my detectives are pretty much dorky and will fold for strong lesbians, just like me fr fr. They're also both really willful at times though, and the text does not act like these are mutually exclusive traits. I told Morgan she couldn't smoke in my office, and since she's weird (and the competitive kind of horny) she was all surprised but gave me an approving nod as a result. Similarly when I took control of a situation where Unit Bravo was bickering and formulated a decent plan, Farah commented on liking my assertive side, I think. This would be classed as A-tier reactivity but really Wayhaven just feels greatly flexible, to however I want to mold my detective.
I want to mold my detective to be a shy, contemplative, bottomy type. I frontloaded this with mechanical interactive-fiction discussion to hide my gay simping. No more.
You get introduced to the members of Unit Bravo (who are vampires and work for your mum at the supernatural agency, barely a spoiler, revealed in the demo) almost as soon as you arrive in Wayhaven. They all sort-of fit archetypes but it's like, romance novel archetypes instead of the anime ones games constantly lean on. From a high level, Nat is the shy librarian girl-next-door, Morgan is the stone cold heartbreaker and hookups enthusiast, (she's a butch to my headcanon) Ava is the ice queen and Farah... I dunno, it's supposed to be a Fated-Mates/Instalove thing, which is not a beat I'm a fan of.
One of Wayhaven's least appreciable qualities is that it expects allosexuality and forwardness as a matter of course. Your Mileage May Vary, but being an acespec dork with a love of good slow burns, a lot of this game doesn't work for me. I like Morgan's constant dry, acerbic demeanour and leather jackets snide comments, but Imma keep it real with you, when I tried choosing her for Chapter 7 of Book One, she just tried to fuck my detective right then and there. The game barely offered an option to say "no". I know some people will be into that but you can put me on the demi spectrum too, because I'm *not* gonna fuck her until I actually know her, sorry.
If it seems like I'm making a big issue out of it, that's because Chapter 7 is when Wayhaven FORCES you to lock in your choice of romance for the ENTIRE SERIES PERMANENTLY. (Which does not start the relationship, just locks you into a potential one. Also there's no poly option at all, kinda lame, you only have the choice to break someone's heart in a dumb mono love triangle) This is why save editors exist; I did not feel like I knew enough about ANY of the vampires by that point to make a reasonable choice. I'm a big dumb fucking stereotypical lesbian at heart, and "u-haul" is a pretty good way to describe me. I want to know about my new vampire girlfriend's domestic habits, food preferences, how she spends her fridays, you know that sort of thing. I wouldn't be so anal about it usually, but the interactive fiction is FORCING ME to choose a life partner!!!
So Morgan was out for me, and if you pick Nat your detective makes a move on her in a way that A) doesn't reflect the dialogue choice, (which is one of those "gay wistful gaze and hand brushing" things) and B) I'm pretty sure comes from the Man path in a way that's gross, so I didn't go with either of them. I might try out Morgan sometime, but I actually picked Farah and took my lady lesbian detective all the way to Book Three with her. It wasn't satisfying though, and I never felt sufficiently motivated or like I knew enough to open a relationship with her. If Farah isn't a nothingburger she doesn't venture ANYTHING about herself, and my detective at the start of Book Three only knew as much about her as my detective at the end of Book One. Not cool, plus it was clear by then that holding off kissing her for three whole books wasn't in the dialogue-branching plans, so the game was really impatient and trying to get me to kiss her 24/7.
I junked that run and restarted, which was when I tried being Non-Binary in Wayhaven (very cool, sexy, rad) and when I picked Ava as my vampire. In that scene in Chapter 7 she's being all gruff and emotionless as usual, like she is pretty fucking mean. Seems like her "foolish mortal you are beneath me" sneering attitude would be an issue, but *if evil lady bad why sexy?* She is also the muscle-lesbian du jour in Wayhaven, so yaknowwwww. Any lesbian who could kill me barehanded...
You have several ways to approach her. It varies by scene, your detective and your Ava, but you can be anything from a smarmy jokester with her to a complete *uwu-senpai-noticed-me!* stereotype to a very thirsty horndog, which must be interesting, and more. I was trying to play my detective a little less aloof and a little more honest though, so when she says about how she'll see to it that no harm comes to you while on the hunt for the murderer, instead of brushing it off I decided to go full-on and reply "I believe you." all wide-eyed. Ava's response is pretty much a flustered, bashful, blushing "Oh well um I appreciate it thank you detective themby" bit, and that sealed the deal for me because lmao she is actually cute. I felt both rewarded for chancing my arm on emotional openness and motivated to move forward with her and see her be a dork to me again. This game fuckin rules.
Ava's route offers a ton of different options, I think the "intended" or "typical" route is an exchange-furtive-longing-glances, will-they-wont-they sort of thing, but both the writing and Ava herself are equally open to you being as earnest as possible and cozy up with her squishier side. I was and still am utterly fascinated, though; trying to get close to and be affectionate with your vampire of choice has a lot of push-and-pull to it. You aren't likely to make the best possible choice that leads to immediate marriage every conversation, (and indeed some of Ava's scenes probably have a bad outcome no matter what) so there tends to be a sort of natural up-and-down to things. It is really great, it's like I finally understand the appeal of otome games and dating sims. Now I'm mad that they're all either shit or for straight people, because this is awesome and I'm actually genuinely invested in the fruity lil vampire lady in my computer now. I'm hyped as fuck, it's going great.
Wayhaven is the INTERACTIVE FICTION (Schrodinger's electronic playable storytelling) that made me aware of text-based adventure games and interactive fic as a vehicle for transgender homosexual ventures, which I adore. I haven't really been able to find much like Wayhaven but I'm always searching and I also need to try Heaven Will Be Mine. If you have the same kind of dimensionally-fluid disease of the mind that I do, the one that makes you seek out gay trans fiction, you should play Wayhaven. It's taking up all the time I should be spending reading other things...
Wayhaven Chronicles is the premiere lesbian vampire dating simulator. I do not acknowledge any option to make the detective a man, and I do not acknowledge the option to have the vampires be men. My Wayhaven, the only *right* one, which lives in my mindpalace, is a dyke simulator. It has a nonbinary protagonist which is rad.
Wayhaven has taught me that I could actually be really friendly with dating sims or even visual novels, if they didn't all sport writing that would see you booted from a 1950s pulp publisher. I don't know what the problem is, maybe Misha Jenkins is a genius super-author of mystery novels in her spare time? Wayhaven is built different, though. As a story it isn't up to that much - the detective you play as is sent to the titular lil town to investigate an unusual string of murders of a supernatural variety. ("All cops" does include gay lil vampire loving detectives, but this is the one piece of cop media that I haven't found to be dreadful. You never really have to *be* a cop, it's more of an excuse to get you near vampire agents) I'll spoil as little as possible but you get wrapped up in the obligatory supernatural-beings-regulation board and have to team up with four gay vampires to take down the killer. Also the head of the organisation is literally your mum and she directs the vampire team :)
There is at least one core, foundational difference between Wayhaven and video games, and that is its dialogue system. In video game, usually there are right or wrong dialogue choices. You see it as far and wide as Tactics Ogre (single dialogue choices can decide if characters live or die) and as Mass Effect (there is only one string of dialogue options to get your romance choice into bed) but it's pretty binary, which is very boring. Even in a game that's more flexible, like a Fallout New Vegas, all of the cool choices tend to lead to either the outcome you need to proceed, or combat.
Wayhaven is not like that, it's cool and epic. Firstly the game has stats after a fashion, but instead of dialogue being affected by your stats, your choices in dialogue build your character. Unless you've specified in your backstory that the detective is utterly inept at combat, if you try to elbow a thrall, it's likely to work out and the game will log it as a Good At Fighting point, stuff like that. It feels less like there's a minefield of failstates, unlike in real life lol lmao. More relevant for the fictiony side, however... it's hard to explain, but Wayhaven takes this approach to conversational dialogue too, and it rules. It helps that while it isn't a masterpiece of prose or whatever, the game is fairly well-written, especially by genre slop standards. Helpfully it doesn't pretend that its bootleg Dresden Files concept is breathtakingly original, but there are actual novels with worse line-to-line narration (looking at you, Drowning Deep, you stinky lil guy) than Wayhaven, so props.
Wayhaven is ostensibly a supernatural mystery/detective story, but actually it is about your very own (customised!) detective rizzing up one of four vampires. The thing that drew me to Wayhaven is that the game lets you mix-and-match genders for both the detective and the vampires. Wayhaven sadly isn't very pliable on this front; the detective can be a woman, a man or a Non-Binary. Despite the save files having room for custom values in many spots, you cannot mix and match pronouns, so there isn't a possibility (without save editing, anyway) for a He/Him Lesbian, say, or indeed a She/Her Non-Binary Dyke. Men and Women always have cisnormative pronouns, and enbies are always themperors. I still did two runs of Wayhaven though, one as a plain ol' lesbian lady and one as a lesbian enby.
Genders aren't just a set of pronouns and nouns in Wayhaven though; while all three gender options share some dialogue, more often than not the Man and the Woman path will have unique scenes or lines or dialogue. Thankfully the choice to be a metaphorical (and literal) top or bottom is unrelated to gender, so it's not like every Wayhaven lady is demure and shy. The enby path tends to use a mishmash of Man, Woman and its own unique bits, which is interesting at times. If your they/them detective elects for combat training in Book Two and spars with Ava, they *will* be getting their chest ogled by her. I guess it's equally possible that she COULD be licking her lips at the sight of your perfectly flat and powerful pecs, but to me it felt like this line was probably ported over from the Woman set of lines. It didn't bother me, and my detective ended up on the mat with Ava on top anyway, but it's not hard to imagine it'd be a dealbreaker for some players. I dunno, the game conflates pronouns and genders so I can't really tell what it's thinking here.
I literally do not want to be mean to Wayhaven, though, so I'm not gonna. It has its troubles and whatnot, but please read this as constructive, I'm begging you. Sure it's awkward and maybe even troublesome at times, but to be real I probably wouldn't have even touched Wayhaven if I hadn't heard it had a Funny Gender option. That tells me that whatever the story's goofy failings, it is at least thinking of me, which is huge for one of these. There's often a layer of weird disconnect that can happen if I myself am expected to self-insert in fiction and the writing then goes on to make whatever cisnormative assumptions based on my ingame gender choice, and Wayhaven just doesn't have that, so far as I can see. The ambiguity of its gender-related choices are also frequently to its strength, leaving just enough off the page for my internal roleplay to fill in the blanks. It would be weird for a novel to randomly intersperse descriptive details like this, but in Wayhaven it's a joy whenever I get to specify my hairstyle, or home decor, or outfit as a form of expression. I've never had such a fun and easy time doing roleplay or self insert in any game.
Partially that's down to the dialogue again. I said above that it doesn't feel like a minefield of failstates, and that's as much down to the game feeling very up for rolling with my punches as far as the choices go. Being painfully autistic and socially inept & oblivious as a result, many games leave me deeply unhappy when a dialogue choice ends up having tonal connotations I did not understand, or when choosing a different dialogue option results in basically switching tracks to a different "character archetype" so to speak. Bringing up Mass Effect again, Paragon and Renegade options basically can't coexist within the same Shepard, which is why it only has two binary paths. Wayhaven's options don't have to serve anything but your character and roleplay, though. Both of my detectives are pretty much dorky and will fold for strong lesbians, just like me fr fr. They're also both really willful at times though, and the text does not act like these are mutually exclusive traits. I told Morgan she couldn't smoke in my office, and since she's weird (and the competitive kind of horny) she was all surprised but gave me an approving nod as a result. Similarly when I took control of a situation where Unit Bravo was bickering and formulated a decent plan, Farah commented on liking my assertive side, I think. This would be classed as A-tier reactivity but really Wayhaven just feels greatly flexible, to however I want to mold my detective.
I want to mold my detective to be a shy, contemplative, bottomy type. I frontloaded this with mechanical interactive-fiction discussion to hide my gay simping. No more.
You get introduced to the members of Unit Bravo (who are vampires and work for your mum at the supernatural agency, barely a spoiler, revealed in the demo) almost as soon as you arrive in Wayhaven. They all sort-of fit archetypes but it's like, romance novel archetypes instead of the anime ones games constantly lean on. From a high level, Nat is the shy librarian girl-next-door, Morgan is the stone cold heartbreaker and hookups enthusiast, (she's a butch to my headcanon) Ava is the ice queen and Farah... I dunno, it's supposed to be a Fated-Mates/Instalove thing, which is not a beat I'm a fan of.
One of Wayhaven's least appreciable qualities is that it expects allosexuality and forwardness as a matter of course. Your Mileage May Vary, but being an acespec dork with a love of good slow burns, a lot of this game doesn't work for me. I like Morgan's constant dry, acerbic demeanour and leather jackets snide comments, but Imma keep it real with you, when I tried choosing her for Chapter 7 of Book One, she just tried to fuck my detective right then and there. The game barely offered an option to say "no". I know some people will be into that but you can put me on the demi spectrum too, because I'm *not* gonna fuck her until I actually know her, sorry.
If it seems like I'm making a big issue out of it, that's because Chapter 7 is when Wayhaven FORCES you to lock in your choice of romance for the ENTIRE SERIES PERMANENTLY. (Which does not start the relationship, just locks you into a potential one. Also there's no poly option at all, kinda lame, you only have the choice to break someone's heart in a dumb mono love triangle) This is why save editors exist; I did not feel like I knew enough about ANY of the vampires by that point to make a reasonable choice. I'm a big dumb fucking stereotypical lesbian at heart, and "u-haul" is a pretty good way to describe me. I want to know about my new vampire girlfriend's domestic habits, food preferences, how she spends her fridays, you know that sort of thing. I wouldn't be so anal about it usually, but the interactive fiction is FORCING ME to choose a life partner!!!
So Morgan was out for me, and if you pick Nat your detective makes a move on her in a way that A) doesn't reflect the dialogue choice, (which is one of those "gay wistful gaze and hand brushing" things) and B) I'm pretty sure comes from the Man path in a way that's gross, so I didn't go with either of them. I might try out Morgan sometime, but I actually picked Farah and took my lady lesbian detective all the way to Book Three with her. It wasn't satisfying though, and I never felt sufficiently motivated or like I knew enough to open a relationship with her. If Farah isn't a nothingburger she doesn't venture ANYTHING about herself, and my detective at the start of Book Three only knew as much about her as my detective at the end of Book One. Not cool, plus it was clear by then that holding off kissing her for three whole books wasn't in the dialogue-branching plans, so the game was really impatient and trying to get me to kiss her 24/7.
I junked that run and restarted, which was when I tried being Non-Binary in Wayhaven (very cool, sexy, rad) and when I picked Ava as my vampire. In that scene in Chapter 7 she's being all gruff and emotionless as usual, like she is pretty fucking mean. Seems like her "foolish mortal you are beneath me" sneering attitude would be an issue, but *if evil lady bad why sexy?* She is also the muscle-lesbian du jour in Wayhaven, so yaknowwwww. Any lesbian who could kill me barehanded...
You have several ways to approach her. It varies by scene, your detective and your Ava, but you can be anything from a smarmy jokester with her to a complete *uwu-senpai-noticed-me!* stereotype to a very thirsty horndog, which must be interesting, and more. I was trying to play my detective a little less aloof and a little more honest though, so when she says about how she'll see to it that no harm comes to you while on the hunt for the murderer, instead of brushing it off I decided to go full-on and reply "I believe you." all wide-eyed. Ava's response is pretty much a flustered, bashful, blushing "Oh well um I appreciate it thank you detective themby" bit, and that sealed the deal for me because lmao she is actually cute. I felt both rewarded for chancing my arm on emotional openness and motivated to move forward with her and see her be a dork to me again. This game fuckin rules.
Ava's route offers a ton of different options, I think the "intended" or "typical" route is an exchange-furtive-longing-glances, will-they-wont-they sort of thing, but both the writing and Ava herself are equally open to you being as earnest as possible and cozy up with her squishier side. I was and still am utterly fascinated, though; trying to get close to and be affectionate with your vampire of choice has a lot of push-and-pull to it. You aren't likely to make the best possible choice that leads to immediate marriage every conversation, (and indeed some of Ava's scenes probably have a bad outcome no matter what) so there tends to be a sort of natural up-and-down to things. It is really great, it's like I finally understand the appeal of otome games and dating sims. Now I'm mad that they're all either shit or for straight people, because this is awesome and I'm actually genuinely invested in the fruity lil vampire lady in my computer now. I'm hyped as fuck, it's going great.
Wayhaven is the INTERACTIVE FICTION (Schrodinger's electronic playable storytelling) that made me aware of text-based adventure games and interactive fic as a vehicle for transgender homosexual ventures, which I adore. I haven't really been able to find much like Wayhaven but I'm always searching and I also need to try Heaven Will Be Mine. If you have the same kind of dimensionally-fluid disease of the mind that I do, the one that makes you seek out gay trans fiction, you should play Wayhaven. It's taking up all the time I should be spending reading other things...
October 4, 2023
Oh My God.
I would have never dreamed of finding The Wayhaven Chronicles here in Goodreads of all places (Something I stumbled upon by feverishly looking for updates on book 4.)
Recently a good friend of mine reminded of of choiceofgames and found TWC again after a couple of years since I last played it. Needless to say I'm still giggling and kicking my feet.
My crush for Felix (And Adam.) burns with the intensity of a thousand suns still.
God this book is just UGH. PERFECTION.
I'm a sucker for dreamy vampire romances and yet I can't get my fix anywhere. Never was a Twilight girlie either. So this? This gave me everything I wanted and more.
God I want to reread it as we speak, even if I ate through all three books in a span of a few days lmao.
Now you're all going to be stuck hearing me ramble about it.
5/5 stars. Mishka Jenkins I owe you my life.
I would have never dreamed of finding The Wayhaven Chronicles here in Goodreads of all places (Something I stumbled upon by feverishly looking for updates on book 4.)
Recently a good friend of mine reminded of of choiceofgames and found TWC again after a couple of years since I last played it. Needless to say I'm still giggling and kicking my feet.
My crush for Felix (And Adam.) burns with the intensity of a thousand suns still.
God this book is just UGH. PERFECTION.
I'm a sucker for dreamy vampire romances and yet I can't get my fix anywhere. Never was a Twilight girlie either. So this? This gave me everything I wanted and more.
God I want to reread it as we speak, even if I ate through all three books in a span of a few days lmao.
Now you're all going to be stuck hearing me ramble about it.
5/5 stars. Mishka Jenkins I owe you my life.
April 4, 2023
live laugh unit bravo!
March 9, 2024
Ok, this one is a little different from what I usually review here.
The Wayhaven Chronicles is technically a video game, but really an interactive novel series.
Not that this way of enjoying narrative writing is completely new to me – I’d “read” my fair share of interactive visual novels over the years ( Hakuoki , you will always have a place in my heart) – but I’ve never really looked at them as strictly books. Maybe because they always had a strong visual and audio aspect to them? Some of the classic visual novels have a gorgeous artworks that sometimes work as a narrative device as much as the written word.
The Wayhaven Chronicles is not like that; it’s basically an electronic version of "choose your own adventure" mixed with "dating sim". And as much as I’d love to see some official artworks, especially of the potential love interests or at least a key characters in the plot, the pure book-like experience was really enjoyable.
So, with that out of the way – how was the story?
I’ve only just finished the first book and I gotta say, I was very pleasantly surprised. As someone who had read vampire urban fantasy books in my teens, this call back to that vibe was really enjoyable.
The plot is somewhat simple but still able to give each character a place to shine. I really liked how the story was not only about the developing relationship between the main protagonist and their potential love interest, but also let the reader (let’s call us that, instead of “players”) focus on friendships, past relationships, and even delve into an emotional minefield that is child/parent dynamics.
I even didn’t mind the cliffhanger at the end, because the plot build up to the “bigger” thing from the very beginning, and I’ve always felt the way the first book ended (depending on reader’s choices too!) could not have been the “end of it all” type of deal.
I followed only one romance path so far, but after only that one I can tell the author had a clear thought out storyline for each member of the Unit Bravo. I feel like each love interested could really be a perfect partner for a main protagonist the reader chooses to make – from sweet and comforting, to aloof and kinda mean, brooding, to a silver-tongue charmer.
My only sort of complaint is that there is some awkwardness to the writing. The prose is a little choppy at times, the sentences don’t flow properly, but I understand that it’s not only a first book in the series, but also the format itself sometimes forces the author to make certain choices in the narrative.
The Wayhaven Chronicles: Book One is an interesting and entertaining read.
If you never tried “choose your own adventures” stories with a strong romantic elements or interactive novels in general, this one is a great start. Oh, and if urban fantasy/paranormal romance is not you jam, the company releasing this series has a historical romance stories too!
4/5 stars
The Wayhaven Chronicles is technically a video game, but really an interactive novel series.
Not that this way of enjoying narrative writing is completely new to me – I’d “read” my fair share of interactive visual novels over the years ( Hakuoki , you will always have a place in my heart) – but I’ve never really looked at them as strictly books. Maybe because they always had a strong visual and audio aspect to them? Some of the classic visual novels have a gorgeous artworks that sometimes work as a narrative device as much as the written word.
The Wayhaven Chronicles is not like that; it’s basically an electronic version of "choose your own adventure" mixed with "dating sim". And as much as I’d love to see some official artworks, especially of the potential love interests or at least a key characters in the plot, the pure book-like experience was really enjoyable.
So, with that out of the way – how was the story?
I’ve only just finished the first book and I gotta say, I was very pleasantly surprised. As someone who had read vampire urban fantasy books in my teens, this call back to that vibe was really enjoyable.
The plot is somewhat simple but still able to give each character a place to shine. I really liked how the story was not only about the developing relationship between the main protagonist and their potential love interest, but also let the reader (let’s call us that, instead of “players”) focus on friendships, past relationships, and even delve into an emotional minefield that is child/parent dynamics.
I even didn’t mind the cliffhanger at the end, because the plot build up to the “bigger” thing from the very beginning, and I’ve always felt the way the first book ended (depending on reader’s choices too!) could not have been the “end of it all” type of deal.
I followed only one romance path so far, but after only that one I can tell the author had a clear thought out storyline for each member of the Unit Bravo. I feel like each love interested could really be a perfect partner for a main protagonist the reader chooses to make – from sweet and comforting, to aloof and kinda mean, brooding, to a silver-tongue charmer.
My only sort of complaint is that there is some awkwardness to the writing. The prose is a little choppy at times, the sentences don’t flow properly, but I understand that it’s not only a first book in the series, but also the format itself sometimes forces the author to make certain choices in the narrative.
The Wayhaven Chronicles: Book One is an interesting and entertaining read.
If you never tried “choose your own adventures” stories with a strong romantic elements or interactive novels in general, this one is a great start. Oh, and if urban fantasy/paranormal romance is not you jam, the company releasing this series has a historical romance stories too!
4/5 stars
August 20, 2023
YA supernatural choose your own adventure with a hint of romance - I am so here for this. 😏
August 18, 2024
Reread 😌
March 25, 2025
(** Approx. One Week & Six Playthroughs Later Edit Below. The first part of this review is from my initial playthrough, and below that will be my thoughts after playing through the game six times.)
I have so many mixed feelings about this one. I had no real interest in the premise, but the size of the subreddit dedicated to the series made me curious.
On the one hand, this first book was pretty engrossing; I had fun, and I was definitely hooked all throughout. There was way more romance involved than I anticipated, so that was a big plus for me.
On the other hand... hmmmm. There are spoilers to come, so this may not be the review to read if you want to go in spoiler-free.
Naturally, some of these things are a result of choices I made, but I want to go into this review by stating I did everything in my power to play as a detective trying to solve a case, without bending to anyone's will. I was an active player, and avoided options that made me any more passive than the narrative made me.
This reads as fanfiction written by a teenager - not because the writing itself is juvenile (though it is, a bit), but in the way organizations and the professionals in them are written. This ties into my second biggest gripe: the utter toothlessness of the whole fucking shebang. Pun intended. This game presents a top secret organization jam packed with vampires, demons, and... well that's kind of all we have here (and the demons are preferable to vampires for some inexplicable reason. Literally inexplicable - it is not explained.), but allegedly there are more. We are given the cream of the crop, the best of the best, ✨️Unit Bravo✨️, as our protection duty as we try to solve a supernatural murder.
The staunch professionals of 🧛♂️Unit Bravo🧛♂️, well-oiled machine that they are, who've completed countless missions flawlessly, best to ever do it, have one priority: Keep us safe. Yet, every single time we are in danger, they flop harder than a baby doll thrown down a flight of stairs.
We are a recently promoted detective, unanimously chosen by the mayor and chief of police, and everyone we meet insists we're the best to ever do it. Any conversation that we are roped into about our job, we're assured that we're absolutely fucking killing it. But it's our first job. And the whole book is the case. And we spend the first half being thwarted at every turn by our hot vampire teammates whenever we even attempt to work. And the second half, we spend most of the time just chilling underground or in our apartment, or getting thrown around by the plot. So how can we possibly be killing it?? I spent way too much of this game thinking, don't pet me on the dick, I have done less than nothing to deserve it.
Our mother is another alleged GOAT, but the second there is a conflict of interest - us - she's the Republican stereotype of why a woman could never be president.
Also, all the cops are real salt-of-the-earth, honest-to-god good guys. The copaganda is so deeply insane that we're supposed to believe the local hospital is an antagonist, because (checks notes) the mayor is funneling so much city money that they need into the police station, because his son hangs out on his phone at the front desk, while on the payroll. Bokay.
Reading fight scenes in this game is like watching a bunch of toddlers throw hands underwater in a dream. It's shocking how much of a nothingburger the stakes are in this game, because the scenes where the villain is murdering people are pretty gnarly. Those are, in fact, the only scenes allowed to be gnarly. Even when the villain is fighting the heroes, it's like watching a bunch of marshmallows on marionette strings being puppeted by an arthritic veteran. And not like a combat veteran, like someone who just served soup in a submarine or whatever.
Furthermore, a big part of the juvenile feeling of this game stems from the overwhelming cues from the narrative that the author sees violence as a Bad Thing™. I'm a cop with a gun, but I can just run into fights between vampires and thralls with pinwheeling anime girl arms like, "Guys, stop it!!" I'm getting my throat torn out by The Big Bad and all four of my hot vampire squad, who allegedly like me, are my security detail on threat of Mommy getting mad, and are the BEST of the BEST, just stand around impotently while I'm being drained for my vampire heroin-steroid blood?
I just don't understand why our heroes aren't allowed to be vicious. In one scene, we're being attacked by a pack of thralls and everyone just sort of tells them to scram. It's 🧛♂️Unit Bravo🧛's ONLY JOB to keep us safe, but a thrall just gets to choke us out and bash us on the head to the point of unconsciousness because...? Why? How? Thralls move slowly, and these hottie baddies have super speed, super strength, etc etc etc. How the fuck did they get the jump on us? How were they ALLOWED to do this? How does the direct order to protect us, the player character, NOT supersede any directive not to harm people - which we don't know they have, by the way, I'm just making assumptions because 🧛♂️Unit Bravo🧛 is so shockingly ineffective.
There's such a weird reticence to do lethal harm to anyone or anything, ever. Without getting into the Guantanamo Bay of serial-killing supernaturals, it doesn't matter who has done what to whom, we're told not to see our sexy slay yummy vampire quartet as monsters, and monsters are people who kill, I guess, so they can never kill. I romanced the team leader, the alleged combat expert, and the one time he needed to protect me from a couple of thralls and the big bad, he literally collapses after a few roundhouse kicks to the thralls. I do indeed get kidnapped. During the climax, when I'm literally dying after being the villain's chew toy, rather than doing something kooky like actually attack the dude using my neck as a Big Gulp, the illustrious leader of 🧛♂️Unit Bravo🧛, who I happen to be romancing, tells the villain that they and their agency will kill me before they let him use me to roid him up and take out the Agency.
Let me reiterate: MY BOO, THE COMBAT EXPERT OF THIS TEAM OF PROFESSIONALS, WHO ALL ALLEGEDLY LIKE ME, TELL THE DUDE DRAINING MY LIFEBLOOD - A SERIAL KILLING VAMPIRE - THAT THEY WILL KILL! ME! BEFORE! ALLOWING HIM TO KILL ALL OF THEM. Because those are the only two options somehow. It's a given that he's going to be allowed to live, so the villain can either not slurp me up and I'll live, or he can slurp me up and I'll die - and that death won't even be at the villain's hands, but the Agency's. There's literally no other way. None. I can't think of a better solution, can you?
It's so batshit insane, pun intended (sort of. They do not turn into bats). This shying away from violence is a curious mindset to write a game about vampires and cops about, but it's the one we're stuck with.
Another of my many peccadilloes is that this is very much a product of its time. The clothing descriptions are comically mid-2000s. If the author wasn't shamelessly addicted to True Blood, Twilight, etc... well, there's no "if" here. They were. It's painfully clear.
One of the four romances is described with a fit straight out of a Jonas Brothers closet. We are supposed to find this person - wearing a waistcoat over a long t-shirt in skinny jeans and a beanie - to be the "charming one". Maybe it's because he was a dude in mine, but he just kind of comes off as a sex pest.
The way our protagonist was written is just... fine. Sometimes great, sometimes pulled right out of a CW show. I played as a guy, but I couldn't escape the feeling that I was supposed to be a petite young woman huffing and puffing with my hands on my hips, too sassy and skinny and perky and bitchy and button-nosed and sixteen NOT to be named, like. Alex, or something.
I'm going to play the next one. And I'm also going to play this one again, because I have hope that dating the Wild Card Bad Boy of 🧛♂️Unit Bravo🧛 may actually yield some blood in this vampire novel. But I'm not holding my breath. I just have to hold out hope that in the subsequent years since this first one was published, the author's frontal lobe finished developing, and maybe they got some experience living in the real world.
Also. I hate the name Unit Bravo. But that's just me.
edit: I wrote this review near the end of the book, but not yet finished. I thought to myself: Gee, there's just so much I've said already, I'm sure this will cover what little there is left.
WRONG.
The bad guy just skips away after leaving you with a fatal wound, and literally nobody pursues him. What is the meaning of this.
Another point to the juvenile author vibe: While you're bleeding out on the nasty floor of a warehouse, 🧛♂️Unit Bravo🧛 can't help you or even get near you because your blood is just too yummy. So they dump a fuckton of dirty rainwater all over your body to "wash the blood away". It would be one thing if it was done in a fashion of like, "This is risky, so we have to work quick, and we'll have to take care of the wounds after so they don't get infected," but it is instead painted as a sort of Hip Hip Hooray moment where, if it were a CW show, triumphant music would be playing, instead of like. Being fucking horrifying.
Can you imagine being on death's door after being tortured in a warehouse by a vampire, then having to free your own damn self, then watching your flaccid nothingburger vampire teammates NOT kill the guy torturing you and preparing to make you his meatpuppet, then throwing yourself at this villain when he's trounced all of your teammates BECAUSE he's been gulping down your roid blood after telling them to "trust you" only to be instantly swatted like a fly (oh my god that was fucking embarrassing, I'd honestly rather die after that), which brought you to death's aforementioned door, only for these airheads to go, "Blood too yummy :(" and risk you bleeding out in the time it takes to waterlog you with a deluge that's just going to give you a fucked up blood infection? Is the floor on a slant we don't know about, because if not, that's just going to spread all the blood. Oh my god. Are they stupid?
I have to bring up the "sacrificing yourself" bit again. I cannot bear it. It was framed as though you're going to pull some crazy, smart maneuver, like you knew you would get hurt, but you risked it to get the big bad after all. You even have a MacGuffin - this super strong vampire kryptonite - but not only does 🧛♂️Unit Bravo🧛 refuse to use it because that might mean DEATH and DEATH is MONSTROUS, it just never gets used! What was the point of it!! Why can't YOU take it from your fallen comrades and "sacrifice yourself" by actually using the ONE THING THAT COULD SAVE YOU before you just get swatted to the ground! I didn't even have a choice in the matter and I'm embarrassed. It never yields anything, only meant to lead up to some weird "you're the most brave wonderful human ever for throwing your shitty body at the villain for us" moment. I am a cop with a gun.
There's also such a weird emphasis on how "no human ever helps us" from the vampires, but like. They're employed and taken care of by humans. There's a whole giant agency that they're part of where humans protect them. This game is determined to make you the most specialest bestest human ever, but like. You don't do anything to deserve it. You're not ALLOWED to do anything to deserve it. Oi vey.
All of the people in this game have baby brains. Every single one. "Write what you know" is a powerful piece of advice I wish the author had taken. You can't just write government agencies based on vibes. I mean, you can, but you shouldn't.
** Approx. One Week & Six Playthroughs Later Edit:
I'm keeping my rating the same as before, and here's why: After six playthroughs, most of them wildly different, the majority of my gripes with this book remain the same.
Credentials:
2 A Romance Playthroughs, Sarcastic + People Detective
2 M Romance Playthroughs, Genuine + Science Detective
1 N Romance Playthrough, Friendly + Combat Detective
1 F Romance Playthrough, Intimidating + Combat Detective
The majority of my thoughts will come in my after-review of book 3, because most of what I want to say has to do with the series thus far (three books) as a whole. I will say, I was so relieved to discover that you COULD do well in this game, you don't HAVE to eat shit 24/7. Unfortunately, there's still sooooo much eating shit, and it's even worse if you're competent, because the people eating shit are 🧛♂️Unit Bravo🧛.
While I appreciate the variety of types of detective you can be, and that it matters in the text, there are definitely more satisfying types of detective than others. This game is the most fun if you try to be actually really smart OR actually really stupid. If you're not exceptional in either of these ways, you're just an embarrassment to yourself. With all of the really great attention paid to the type of character you're playing, and how that weaves into the text throughout the series, it is unbelievably cringe that we still get our dick sucked if we're a complete and total failure.
Especially that last chapter with Murphy. And the fight with the thralls if you go out to the bar with Tina. Weirdly, two of my playthroughs I went out, and two I stayed in the office, and I never failed a single encounter in the office, but both bar times I ate hot dogshit like I was being paid to. The detectives for those two bar scenes were very different, but what connected them was they weren't a smarty pants or a super dumb motherfucker, so. Let that be a lesson to me.
I have so many mixed feelings about this one. I had no real interest in the premise, but the size of the subreddit dedicated to the series made me curious.
On the one hand, this first book was pretty engrossing; I had fun, and I was definitely hooked all throughout. There was way more romance involved than I anticipated, so that was a big plus for me.
On the other hand... hmmmm. There are spoilers to come, so this may not be the review to read if you want to go in spoiler-free.
Naturally, some of these things are a result of choices I made, but I want to go into this review by stating I did everything in my power to play as a detective trying to solve a case, without bending to anyone's will. I was an active player, and avoided options that made me any more passive than the narrative made me.
This reads as fanfiction written by a teenager - not because the writing itself is juvenile (though it is, a bit), but in the way organizations and the professionals in them are written. This ties into my second biggest gripe: the utter toothlessness of the whole fucking shebang. Pun intended. This game presents a top secret organization jam packed with vampires, demons, and... well that's kind of all we have here (and the demons are preferable to vampires for some inexplicable reason. Literally inexplicable - it is not explained.), but allegedly there are more. We are given the cream of the crop, the best of the best, ✨️Unit Bravo✨️, as our protection duty as we try to solve a supernatural murder.
The staunch professionals of 🧛♂️Unit Bravo🧛♂️, well-oiled machine that they are, who've completed countless missions flawlessly, best to ever do it, have one priority: Keep us safe. Yet, every single time we are in danger, they flop harder than a baby doll thrown down a flight of stairs.
We are a recently promoted detective, unanimously chosen by the mayor and chief of police, and everyone we meet insists we're the best to ever do it. Any conversation that we are roped into about our job, we're assured that we're absolutely fucking killing it. But it's our first job. And the whole book is the case. And we spend the first half being thwarted at every turn by our hot vampire teammates whenever we even attempt to work. And the second half, we spend most of the time just chilling underground or in our apartment, or getting thrown around by the plot. So how can we possibly be killing it?? I spent way too much of this game thinking, don't pet me on the dick, I have done less than nothing to deserve it.
Our mother is another alleged GOAT, but the second there is a conflict of interest - us - she's the Republican stereotype of why a woman could never be president.
Also, all the cops are real salt-of-the-earth, honest-to-god good guys. The copaganda is so deeply insane that we're supposed to believe the local hospital is an antagonist, because (checks notes) the mayor is funneling so much city money that they need into the police station, because his son hangs out on his phone at the front desk, while on the payroll. Bokay.
Reading fight scenes in this game is like watching a bunch of toddlers throw hands underwater in a dream. It's shocking how much of a nothingburger the stakes are in this game, because the scenes where the villain is murdering people are pretty gnarly. Those are, in fact, the only scenes allowed to be gnarly. Even when the villain is fighting the heroes, it's like watching a bunch of marshmallows on marionette strings being puppeted by an arthritic veteran. And not like a combat veteran, like someone who just served soup in a submarine or whatever.
Furthermore, a big part of the juvenile feeling of this game stems from the overwhelming cues from the narrative that the author sees violence as a Bad Thing™. I'm a cop with a gun, but I can just run into fights between vampires and thralls with pinwheeling anime girl arms like, "Guys, stop it!!" I'm getting my throat torn out by The Big Bad and all four of my hot vampire squad, who allegedly like me, are my security detail on threat of Mommy getting mad, and are the BEST of the BEST, just stand around impotently while I'm being drained for my vampire heroin-steroid blood?
I just don't understand why our heroes aren't allowed to be vicious. In one scene, we're being attacked by a pack of thralls and everyone just sort of tells them to scram. It's 🧛♂️Unit Bravo🧛's ONLY JOB to keep us safe, but a thrall just gets to choke us out and bash us on the head to the point of unconsciousness because...? Why? How? Thralls move slowly, and these hottie baddies have super speed, super strength, etc etc etc. How the fuck did they get the jump on us? How were they ALLOWED to do this? How does the direct order to protect us, the player character, NOT supersede any directive not to harm people - which we don't know they have, by the way, I'm just making assumptions because 🧛♂️Unit Bravo🧛 is so shockingly ineffective.
There's such a weird reticence to do lethal harm to anyone or anything, ever. Without getting into the Guantanamo Bay of serial-killing supernaturals, it doesn't matter who has done what to whom, we're told not to see our sexy slay yummy vampire quartet as monsters, and monsters are people who kill, I guess, so they can never kill. I romanced the team leader, the alleged combat expert, and the one time he needed to protect me from a couple of thralls and the big bad, he literally collapses after a few roundhouse kicks to the thralls. I do indeed get kidnapped. During the climax, when I'm literally dying after being the villain's chew toy, rather than doing something kooky like actually attack the dude using my neck as a Big Gulp, the illustrious leader of 🧛♂️Unit Bravo🧛, who I happen to be romancing, tells the villain that they and their agency will kill me before they let him use me to roid him up and take out the Agency.
Let me reiterate: MY BOO, THE COMBAT EXPERT OF THIS TEAM OF PROFESSIONALS, WHO ALL ALLEGEDLY LIKE ME, TELL THE DUDE DRAINING MY LIFEBLOOD - A SERIAL KILLING VAMPIRE - THAT THEY WILL KILL! ME! BEFORE! ALLOWING HIM TO KILL ALL OF THEM. Because those are the only two options somehow. It's a given that he's going to be allowed to live, so the villain can either not slurp me up and I'll live, or he can slurp me up and I'll die - and that death won't even be at the villain's hands, but the Agency's. There's literally no other way. None. I can't think of a better solution, can you?
It's so batshit insane, pun intended (sort of. They do not turn into bats). This shying away from violence is a curious mindset to write a game about vampires and cops about, but it's the one we're stuck with.
Another of my many peccadilloes is that this is very much a product of its time. The clothing descriptions are comically mid-2000s. If the author wasn't shamelessly addicted to True Blood, Twilight, etc... well, there's no "if" here. They were. It's painfully clear.
One of the four romances is described with a fit straight out of a Jonas Brothers closet. We are supposed to find this person - wearing a waistcoat over a long t-shirt in skinny jeans and a beanie - to be the "charming one". Maybe it's because he was a dude in mine, but he just kind of comes off as a sex pest.
The way our protagonist was written is just... fine. Sometimes great, sometimes pulled right out of a CW show. I played as a guy, but I couldn't escape the feeling that I was supposed to be a petite young woman huffing and puffing with my hands on my hips, too sassy and skinny and perky and bitchy and button-nosed and sixteen NOT to be named, like. Alex, or something.
I'm going to play the next one. And I'm also going to play this one again, because I have hope that dating the Wild Card Bad Boy of 🧛♂️Unit Bravo🧛 may actually yield some blood in this vampire novel. But I'm not holding my breath. I just have to hold out hope that in the subsequent years since this first one was published, the author's frontal lobe finished developing, and maybe they got some experience living in the real world.
Also. I hate the name Unit Bravo. But that's just me.
edit: I wrote this review near the end of the book, but not yet finished. I thought to myself: Gee, there's just so much I've said already, I'm sure this will cover what little there is left.
WRONG.
The bad guy just skips away after leaving you with a fatal wound, and literally nobody pursues him. What is the meaning of this.
Another point to the juvenile author vibe: While you're bleeding out on the nasty floor of a warehouse, 🧛♂️Unit Bravo🧛 can't help you or even get near you because your blood is just too yummy. So they dump a fuckton of dirty rainwater all over your body to "wash the blood away". It would be one thing if it was done in a fashion of like, "This is risky, so we have to work quick, and we'll have to take care of the wounds after so they don't get infected," but it is instead painted as a sort of Hip Hip Hooray moment where, if it were a CW show, triumphant music would be playing, instead of like. Being fucking horrifying.
Can you imagine being on death's door after being tortured in a warehouse by a vampire, then having to free your own damn self, then watching your flaccid nothingburger vampire teammates NOT kill the guy torturing you and preparing to make you his meatpuppet, then throwing yourself at this villain when he's trounced all of your teammates BECAUSE he's been gulping down your roid blood after telling them to "trust you" only to be instantly swatted like a fly (oh my god that was fucking embarrassing, I'd honestly rather die after that), which brought you to death's aforementioned door, only for these airheads to go, "Blood too yummy :(" and risk you bleeding out in the time it takes to waterlog you with a deluge that's just going to give you a fucked up blood infection? Is the floor on a slant we don't know about, because if not, that's just going to spread all the blood. Oh my god. Are they stupid?
I have to bring up the "sacrificing yourself" bit again. I cannot bear it. It was framed as though you're going to pull some crazy, smart maneuver, like you knew you would get hurt, but you risked it to get the big bad after all. You even have a MacGuffin - this super strong vampire kryptonite - but not only does 🧛♂️Unit Bravo🧛 refuse to use it because that might mean DEATH and DEATH is MONSTROUS, it just never gets used! What was the point of it!! Why can't YOU take it from your fallen comrades and "sacrifice yourself" by actually using the ONE THING THAT COULD SAVE YOU before you just get swatted to the ground! I didn't even have a choice in the matter and I'm embarrassed. It never yields anything, only meant to lead up to some weird "you're the most brave wonderful human ever for throwing your shitty body at the villain for us" moment. I am a cop with a gun.
There's also such a weird emphasis on how "no human ever helps us" from the vampires, but like. They're employed and taken care of by humans. There's a whole giant agency that they're part of where humans protect them. This game is determined to make you the most specialest bestest human ever, but like. You don't do anything to deserve it. You're not ALLOWED to do anything to deserve it. Oi vey.
All of the people in this game have baby brains. Every single one. "Write what you know" is a powerful piece of advice I wish the author had taken. You can't just write government agencies based on vibes. I mean, you can, but you shouldn't.
** Approx. One Week & Six Playthroughs Later Edit:
I'm keeping my rating the same as before, and here's why: After six playthroughs, most of them wildly different, the majority of my gripes with this book remain the same.
Credentials:
2 A Romance Playthroughs, Sarcastic + People Detective
2 M Romance Playthroughs, Genuine + Science Detective
1 N Romance Playthrough, Friendly + Combat Detective
1 F Romance Playthrough, Intimidating + Combat Detective
The majority of my thoughts will come in my after-review of book 3, because most of what I want to say has to do with the series thus far (three books) as a whole. I will say, I was so relieved to discover that you COULD do well in this game, you don't HAVE to eat shit 24/7. Unfortunately, there's still sooooo much eating shit, and it's even worse if you're competent, because the people eating shit are 🧛♂️Unit Bravo🧛.
While I appreciate the variety of types of detective you can be, and that it matters in the text, there are definitely more satisfying types of detective than others. This game is the most fun if you try to be actually really smart OR actually really stupid. If you're not exceptional in either of these ways, you're just an embarrassment to yourself. With all of the really great attention paid to the type of character you're playing, and how that weaves into the text throughout the series, it is unbelievably cringe that we still get our dick sucked if we're a complete and total failure.
Especially that last chapter with Murphy. And the fight with the thralls if you go out to the bar with Tina. Weirdly, two of my playthroughs I went out, and two I stayed in the office, and I never failed a single encounter in the office, but both bar times I ate hot dogshit like I was being paid to. The detectives for those two bar scenes were very different, but what connected them was they weren't a smarty pants or a super dumb motherfucker, so. Let that be a lesson to me.
February 5, 2025
I LOVE IT WHEN A BOOK FORCES YOU TO BE FUCKING STUPID.
Oh my God, Detective, the evidence is right in front of you. I never wanted to bash my phone into my head more.
I did play through multiple times, did every romance (I DID THIS FOR EVERY FUCKING BOOK IN THIS STUPID FUCKING SERIES. WHAT A WASTE OF FUCKING TIME). Nat is boring, I love Farah, Morgan is fucking annoying, and Ava is even more fucking annoying.
Morgan, I hate. I fucked her, yes, that was fun, but then I IGNORE HER. I choose every cold/stoic option imagineable, ignoring her completely, choosing to go with other members of the team if I can. I’m joking and playful with everyone, but cold as fuck to her.
A pet rock is more interesting than Ava, and does just as much. Holy fuck. Holy fuck. Holy fuck. Dude, please just let me break up with her. I will pay you the 23 dollars I currently have in my bank account. I want to ditch her. Let me ditch her. Holy fuck.
LET ME BREAK UP WITH THEM IN THE FOURTH BOOK. NO MATTER WHAT. Whenever my Detective has thoughts about their RO (only Morgan and Ava), and feeling all these lovey feels, I’m like “NO, YOU DO NOT FEEL THAT,” and it pisses me off. Morgan and Ava literally just spare a glance, and nothing else, and Detective thinks she met her fucking soulmate. I’m LITERALLY IGNORING THEM, PLEASE! I’m giving them as much attention/affection as they do me.
Free me from this. I’ve give you a 5 if we can break up with ROs in the future :) I BEG OF YOU
Prose are nothing special, writing is bad, romance only 25% good, and that 25% is Farah.
Oh my God, Detective, the evidence is right in front of you. I never wanted to bash my phone into my head more.
I did play through multiple times, did every romance (I DID THIS FOR EVERY FUCKING BOOK IN THIS STUPID FUCKING SERIES. WHAT A WASTE OF FUCKING TIME). Nat is boring, I love Farah, Morgan is fucking annoying, and Ava is even more fucking annoying.
Morgan, I hate. I fucked her, yes, that was fun, but then I IGNORE HER. I choose every cold/stoic option imagineable, ignoring her completely, choosing to go with other members of the team if I can. I’m joking and playful with everyone, but cold as fuck to her.
A pet rock is more interesting than Ava, and does just as much. Holy fuck. Holy fuck. Holy fuck. Dude, please just let me break up with her. I will pay you the 23 dollars I currently have in my bank account. I want to ditch her. Let me ditch her. Holy fuck.
LET ME BREAK UP WITH THEM IN THE FOURTH BOOK. NO MATTER WHAT. Whenever my Detective has thoughts about their RO (only Morgan and Ava), and feeling all these lovey feels, I’m like “NO, YOU DO NOT FEEL THAT,” and it pisses me off. Morgan and Ava literally just spare a glance, and nothing else, and Detective thinks she met her fucking soulmate. I’m LITERALLY IGNORING THEM, PLEASE! I’m giving them as much attention/affection as they do me.
Free me from this. I’ve give you a 5 if we can break up with ROs in the future :) I BEG OF YOU
Prose are nothing special, writing is bad, romance only 25% good, and that 25% is Farah.
October 13, 2025
This book (and series) are just so reread-able and I find myself constantly thinking about it and wandering about the next one. I have reread this series as it currently sits at 3 books, many times. The more you play and get a sense for the plots, the more fun it is to go back and think, “but what if…?”.
I was team Adam my first play-throughs but curiosity for the other brooding one, Mason, has made him my favorite. His play-through just melts my heart EVERY👏🏻DAMN👏🏻TIME👏🏻 I still love my Adam but I need more books, and as you read through books 2 & 3, you’ll understand.
We have just become detective in our small town where nothing happens until the supernatural descends upon our little town. We learn more about our mother, the secret agent, who has been working with the Agency since before we were born. Her team are the main four potential love interests. I usually play with them all male because I enjoy the banter between them, but I have played with both. We also learn that we have always been connected to the supernatural world even though we didn’t know it. Too bad our mother wished for us to never have to know about it.
Our life and the small town of Wayhaven will never be the same, but I wouldn’t have it any other way 😜💋🧛🏼♂️
I was team Adam my first play-throughs but curiosity for the other brooding one, Mason, has made him my favorite. His play-through just melts my heart EVERY👏🏻DAMN👏🏻TIME👏🏻 I still love my Adam but I need more books, and as you read through books 2 & 3, you’ll understand.
We have just become detective in our small town where nothing happens until the supernatural descends upon our little town. We learn more about our mother, the secret agent, who has been working with the Agency since before we were born. Her team are the main four potential love interests. I usually play with them all male because I enjoy the banter between them, but I have played with both. We also learn that we have always been connected to the supernatural world even though we didn’t know it. Too bad our mother wished for us to never have to know about it.
Our life and the small town of Wayhaven will never be the same, but I wouldn’t have it any other way 😜💋🧛🏼♂️
February 13, 2024
My absolute favorite choose-your-own-adventure story, ever! Hell, probably one of my favorite stories in general.
I first played/read this back when it first released, and I've honestly lost track of how many times I've replayed it. I am obsessed - I joined the Patreon as soon as I realized Mishka had one so I could get all the inside scoops.
I've gone through all the routes, but Mason is always my favorite - I love a good tsundere LI with an enemies/dislike-to-lovers angle, and he's so spicy! If I had to rank the others from there, I'd pick Nate (so sweeeet) and then Adam (even if he is such a slow, slow, slow, slow burn...). I love Felix's character, but he's too goofy for anything but the friendship route for me.
Book 1 isn't as exciting on the romance side, but that changes in the next book. Just keep in mind this is the intro and there are a lot of elements to introduce. I enjoyed the cat-and-mouse type thing going on with Murphy, and I thought the blood thing was interesting. The Bobby route is my favorite, especially with him as the ex - it makes for some fun dialog in the later books.
Anyway, highly recommend to anyone that likes a good romance.
I first played/read this back when it first released, and I've honestly lost track of how many times I've replayed it. I am obsessed - I joined the Patreon as soon as I realized Mishka had one so I could get all the inside scoops.
I've gone through all the routes, but Mason is always my favorite - I love a good tsundere LI with an enemies/dislike-to-lovers angle, and he's so spicy! If I had to rank the others from there, I'd pick Nate (so sweeeet) and then Adam (even if he is such a slow, slow, slow, slow burn...). I love Felix's character, but he's too goofy for anything but the friendship route for me.
Book 1 isn't as exciting on the romance side, but that changes in the next book. Just keep in mind this is the intro and there are a lot of elements to introduce. I enjoyed the cat-and-mouse type thing going on with Murphy, and I thought the blood thing was interesting. The Bobby route is my favorite, especially with him as the ex - it makes for some fun dialog in the later books.
Anyway, highly recommend to anyone that likes a good romance.
January 13, 2025
Surprised to see this on goodreads as it’s an interactive novel, but hello, if it’s here it’s here.
This series found me exactly when I needed it, and filled me with an embarrassing amount of feelings. It’s not first-class, but the story is insanely enjoyable, varied and inclusive. There’s always something new every time I replay (which is like…6+ times by now).
You genuinely connect so much with the characters, as well as your own. All the love interests are so unique and amusing - I enjoy romancing them all (though kind of struggle seeing Felix/Farah in a romantic light).
Even though this includes my most hated trope of police-detective drama - I love it, it’s forever my guilty pleasure <3
This series found me exactly when I needed it, and filled me with an embarrassing amount of feelings. It’s not first-class, but the story is insanely enjoyable, varied and inclusive. There’s always something new every time I replay (which is like…6+ times by now).
You genuinely connect so much with the characters, as well as your own. All the love interests are so unique and amusing - I enjoy romancing them all (though kind of struggle seeing Felix/Farah in a romantic light).
Even though this includes my most hated trope of police-detective drama - I love it, it’s forever my guilty pleasure <3
September 26, 2025
This book reminds me a lot of Charlaine Harris' Southern Vampire series, not just because Wayhaven also has vampires but that it doesn't take itself too seriously. No drawn-out angst, no complicated lore, just light gothic fun that you actively participate in creating by making key decisions for the main character.
May 2, 2023
Started because two friends recommended it. Devoured it in two days. Easy read and good for inbetween breaks of your day.
Incredible concept with the choices you can make. Beautiful. Will re read to get the most paths.
Incredible concept with the choices you can make. Beautiful. Will re read to get the most paths.
June 5, 2023
Absolutely incredible interactive story. I was so hooked by the plot, that I was playing/reading any moment I could. I immediately bought the second part and can't wait to see what else is waiting for me in Wayhaven.
May 3, 2023
4.5, immediately I want to read book two.
June 9, 2023
4.5 stars, really liked it
Read
March 10, 2024i- uh, did not intend to rip through this the way i did but i should've fully expected it
March 10, 2024
Fantastic supernatural/mystery choose your own adventure style romance story.
March 11, 2024
Probably one of my favorite IF's of all time. Supernatural mystery romance? I'm in.
April 24, 2024
I love you Nate
January 19, 2025
4.5 stars
May 30, 2025
it was such a fun Gamebook when I read it.. one of the finest text choice games...cant-stop-reading type
July 16, 2025
I looooooove choose your own adventure stories, especially this type where you have an influence on what happens and can make your own character. I absolutely loved this.
October 10, 2025
this is a reread from like 2022ish but still love. this was a lot of people's introduction to IF
November 3, 2025
re-read it so many times for each route, best IF series out there fr
July 19, 2024
first playthrough: february, 2024 - adam/nate route
3,5 ⭐️ omg, it does have a goodreads page! funny as hell, loved my little gay & supernatural detective interactive fiction. tho simple as a story by itself, and its vampires don't truly feel like vampires, the gaming aspect makes up for the shortcomings. besides, i LOVE the characters' personalities and their found-family bond! totally recommended if you're up for playing a book.
second playthrough: july, 2024 - morgan route
2 ⭐️ well, that was stressful. dunno if the fault is on morgan herself or the fact that my main character also had a strong personality, but jesus christ, playing this got me tired. mason seemed interesting from afar, but actually focusing on them and getting glimpses inside their head left me with the impression that they only have two moods: grumpy and horny, both in a heartless manner. i would've dnf the first book if i had went for mason at my first playthrough... 🫠
3,5 ⭐️ omg, it does have a goodreads page! funny as hell, loved my little gay & supernatural detective interactive fiction. tho simple as a story by itself, and its vampires don't truly feel like vampires, the gaming aspect makes up for the shortcomings. besides, i LOVE the characters' personalities and their found-family bond! totally recommended if you're up for playing a book.
second playthrough: july, 2024 - morgan route
2 ⭐️ well, that was stressful. dunno if the fault is on morgan herself or the fact that my main character also had a strong personality, but jesus christ, playing this got me tired. mason seemed interesting from afar, but actually focusing on them and getting glimpses inside their head left me with the impression that they only have two moods: grumpy and horny, both in a heartless manner. i would've dnf the first book if i had went for mason at my first playthrough... 🫠
February 24, 2025
24-02-25 reread
Honestly I don't know how many times I have read this series but... Even if it doesn't really have the same sparkle each time, it's still damn addictive... Adam and Unit Bravo are an addition 😮💨
Honestly I don't know how many times I have read this series but... Even if it doesn't really have the same sparkle each time, it's still damn addictive... Adam and Unit Bravo are an addition 😮💨
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