Shy

by Jacob Prytherch

Decide your own fate in this interactive novel.

The phone call is unexpected, and the dial tone that follows it is as ominous as the knell of a funerary bell. Your brother Kenji is lost, and you have five hours to find him. Every decision takes time, and your time is running out. Decide your fate, and his.

Shy is a mature interactive game book with a chilling Japanese horror theme. The story was designed for those who remember the books of old, and want a fresh challenge with an adult perspective. There are mysteries to solve, and secrets to uncover. There are no dice rolls. There are no character sheets. There is only the right decision, and the wrong decision. Choose wisely.

The Kindle edition is fully hyper-linked for ease of navigation.

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Main website - jakeprytherch.wix.com/main

232 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 2, 2014

About the author

Jacob Prytherch has been making up stories since he was a child, even when he should have been paying attention in school. His influences include Ray Bradbury, William Gibson, and Neil Gaiman. His first novel The Binary Man, published in 2012, has since gone on to be the #1 cyberpunk bestseller on amazon.co.uk on two occasions. He currently lives in Birmingham with his wife and two daughters.

Reviews

[Aimee · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved the idea of an interactive novel for adults and for the most part Jacob pulled it off well with Shy. My main criticism would be that it wasn't always as straightforward as 'to make this choice go to page X' and having to turn back to find certain numbers took me out of the story. I suppose it might have been better had I made notes throughout, but I'm not a huge fan of note-taking whilst reading. Regardless, this was a fantastic, fun, terrifying, chilling read and I'd highly recommend it for anyone who enjoyed those Choose Your Own Adventure books we used to read as kids!

[Holly Cook · Rating 4 out of 5]

The nostalgia effect of the choose your own adventure is pretty cool in itself. The adult twist of japanese myth and lots of death (including your own) makes it even more exciting than I remember these being.

After my own death three times, and my brother's death four times, and returning to the same page around 30 times, I finally saved us both (due to a little cheating).

For those who don't know what a choose your own adventure story is about, it contains lots of page jumping depending on the choices you make. The ebook makes this easier most of the time, but it is hard to go back to your previous page if you have forgotten which page it was in the excitement, one of the reasons it looses a star for me. The other is that the list of choices are a little complicated on the odd occasion.

Other than that, a well written and easy read, but be prapared to take notes, do some math and above all, make the right choice...