Gnome Cave

by James Rolfe, Robyn Schelenz (Editor), Marieke Douma (Illustrator)

Thirty years ago, Dante and his friends dared to ride the notorious Gnome Cave, a theme park attraction known for its cheerful gnomes and infamous for its terrifying finale—a dragon so dreaded it led to the ride’s closure. When Dante’s own fear stopped his group from confronting the beast, their adventure ended prematurely, leaving him with a lifetime of regret. Determined to rewrite the past, Dante reunites his old friends to explore the now abandoned park and finally finish the ride. But what has been lurking in the shadows for decades is far more sinister than childhood nightmares. Dante’s redemption may cost his friends more than they ever imagined. Growing up doesn't mean outgrowing the fear. From the imagination of filmmaker James Rolfe (the Angry Video Game Nerd), this is a story that will take you back to the past... in a different kind of way.

Genres: Horror

98 pages, Hardcover

Published September 18, 2025

About the author

James D. Rolfe is an American YouTuber, filmmaker, and actor. He is best known for creating and starring in the comedic retrogaming web series Angry Video Game Nerd (AVGN). His spin-off projects include reviews of retro films, television series, and board games. He is considered a pioneer of internet gaming videos and is noted for his widespread influence on YouTube content after AVGN premiered on the site in 2006.

Reviews

[Joel · Rating 1 out of 5]

Looks like this is the first review so I'll start by saying ily James you are the goat. I grew up watching AVGN videos and I would turn the volume on my ipod touch way down so my Mom couldn’t hear the swearing. To this day I still love watching the classic episodes and quote them all the time. One of the biggest regrets of my life was not meeting you at the premier of the AVGN movie at PAX East. You seem like a swell guy and I’m glad you have been so successful and are in a position to keep doing what you love.

Anyway this book was a shit load of fuck. It’s donkey diarrhea coming out of my dick. I’d rather wipe my ass with a dead porcupine. I’d rather drink my own urine. This book is bad. It’s so bad it sucks. It sucks so bad it fucks and I don’t like it.

[Zee ❄️ · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Well, nothing lasts forever.” This was a fun, creepy, kind of depressing mine cart ride of a short story. I went in blind, with low expectations, since I thought this was a kids book in the vein of Goosebumps or R.L. Stein, and I primarily read adult fantasy and horror. This is not a kids book. Amazon says 12-18 but honestly no 12 year old will get anything from this book. It’s chock full of existential dread, grief, and the misery of late adulthood mixed with the nostalgia of a simpler time. As an older millennial and a fantasy horror reader I was pleasantly surprised. It’s way darker than I anticipated and I loved it. The whole book is pretty dark. Some moments did give me IT vibes with flashbacks of the group as kids for context but mostly focusing on the adults. I did not predict what was going to happen and I usually can. I had a great time- highly recommend for a quick and easy horror story that will keep you feeling unsettled and contemplating life after.

[Jon Von · Rating 2 out of 5]

I get it if people want to make fun of James Rolfe, but he seems like he's a pretty normal guy. He kind of invented the modern internet review format of video games by accident. It was the combination of a certain amount of talent and hard work. I have certainly seen all his AVGN videos, some multiple times, and his movie. He made a good career as a dookie humorist (Shitsmith? Perveyor of yelling"ASSS!"), But he's basically retired now, and good for him. He doesn't owe us anything, he doesn't HAVE to write a shitty R.L. Stine kids book about a haunted theme park ride cave. But he did it because enough people asked. Is it a rough draft of a dumb piece of shit? Sure. Does it read like a homework assignment in a creative writing class? OK. But he didn't HAVE to do it.

How funny is it that a guy whose tagline is taking you back to the past writes a book that's as anti-nostalgia as this? I like the ending where the woman tries to hide the evidence for no reason for like fifteen pages. That was the first time it got interesting. I've read worse. I would go so far as to call it a competent trash baby thriller; it's fine. The writing is arguably better than you think, but the whole thing could have been thirty pages.

[Mansour S منصور السدحان · Rating 5 out of 5]

ok, I totally enjoyed this book. I can relate to Dante in his ever so chase of the past and nostalgia, it’s all me! I love (and be intimidated by) the contrast in the story between the state of the gang’s past worryless adventurous carefree teenage years and the stalemate aging bland (and many times sad) present time. I love the time capsule state of the ride and how each character experience it (I’m a sucker for all things time capsule and search the net for such places!). The abandoned ride exploration reminds me of an amazing level in the pc game Max Pyne 2 where you explore a spooky ride! and don’t we all want to get close to the displays and animatronics on a dark ride? I totally love James’s philosophical take on time, memory and events and how they’re connected. I liked how James vividly illustrates the setting with words. Totally love the ending! Overall, great book and I totally enjoyed it and it got me thinking about stuff, and huge potential for a great movie!

that being said, here’s my critique:
(it’s my personal opinion)

while Dante’s sudden madness is maybe somewhat explained by some dark energy within the cave, I think he’s mental state and his psyche could’ve been explored more in the book. obviously without hinting at him being a later antagonist in the story.

Dante’s explanation for murdering his mates as a needed sacrifice isn’t logical for they didn’t refuse to get in the cart. there isn’t a narrative about them getting done with the ride while Dante hopelessly begging them to get in the ride.

why did they split apart far enough for Dante to get to each without the rest noticing anything? there isn’t a reason for them to split apart all of a sudden.

why didn’t Cait call 911 when it was clearly an emergency beyond a trespassing violation and her life is in jeopardy?

Cait’s reasoning for not reporting the incident to the police is somewhat weak. (but maybe she was panicked at the moment) there is enough evidence that Dante did it (fingerprints on murder items, blood of each victim on his shirt, bloody footprints tracing events, Dante’s cause of death…etc)

I think this final point of criticism explains all of the said points above: it’s short! I think James should’ve made it longer and included enough pages to explore and build more aspects supporting the narrative. it sort of feels like a great tv episode that gets slightly betrayed by the lack of running time, great potential being lost due to lack of time or in this case: pages.

the following items might be an influence or maybe not! :

The Office UK: the bit about dwarves and gnomes and the difference between them!

Disney’s Submarine Voyage abandoned sea dragon! (google it if you haven’t seen it!)

Jumanji 1995: they have to complete what they started ages ago like the promise the gang made regarding the ride!

Blackadder Goes Forth: the final scene in the final episode of a peaceful meadow that once have been a deadly battleground in WW1!

Roy Jay!! : how events can be lost and only survive as memories and if those memories gotten lost, things are lost forever!
“no, Roy was real and not an ai time demon thingamajig!…or was he?..!”

Dungeons & Dragons 1980s cartoon

Norman Bates and his late mother!

and lastly, there is a Twilight-Zone-esque feel to the philosophical subjects in the novel! I totally think James can write a couple of great TZ episodes!


finally, I wish James would write more novels. he has a great sense of storytelling which is not surprising given that he’s initially a movie maker. and as James said it himself novels cost nothing and most movies start their lives as novels.

[Tor Domay · Rating 3 out of 5]

For James Rolfe's debut as an author, it has all the key ingredients one who is familiar with him might come to expect. He makes it clear through the gate that this is based on his concept for a feature film, and it shows. Just shy of one hundred pages, the pacing is fast and to the point, ultimately delivering an intriguing story that addresses the dangers of nostalgia. With a little more time to let us actually get to know the characters on a deeper level, this could have been an astounding piece, but alas.

[Ben · Rating 3 out of 5]

James Rolfe has written a book and he's gunna take you back to the past...

A short little romp of an old gang of friends revisiting an amusement park they visited as kids before things start to take a turn for the worse. The premise is fun and for the most part, you can feel Rolfe's flavor of corny 80s esc horror.

My main criticisms are the characters, the book is super short so we don't get an awful lot of time to learn about them at all which is fine but the lead character Dante... it feels like a bait and switch.
I sympathised with him in the beginning but as the chapters roll past he just grows more and more pathetic but in a manor in which I didn't want to read anymore about him. He has real man child energy about him which shines more so when compared to Cait, she is interesting from the start as she seems to be the only character who has had stuff happen to her in the last 30 years.

Its B-movie esc story, full of that Rolfe charm and cheese but just had me wanting in more areas and pushing away in others.
The kicker comes towards the very end where it just gets a little depressing, the passing of time "Nothing last forever" becomes the overarching theme for me. It's enjoyable don't get me wrong but it feels like the more interesting angle for the story and left me wishing the story was told through a slightly different lens.

Decent story telling overall and a nice little quick pallet cleanser in-between other reads.

Side note and showing my bias towards the author, I discovered James Rolfe when I was around 13, that decision to binge AVGN secured my purchase of his book when I would be 31... it's just weird man, especially with how reflective the book gets towards the end in highlighting the passage of time. I'm glad you're still making things James.

[Gianfranco Nerdi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think I enjoyed this book, and its two plot twists...the writing isn't bad, but also probably nothing to write home about; the biggest issue here are the two main plot holes (but you can probably find more, if you're so inclined), if you can call them that. The protagonists seem to exhibit the same dumb behavior you'd find in a cheap horror movie; it just does not make sense to accept D.'s final invitation and also, why does it take the guy a couple of sentences to convince them to do it? I mean, this part should have been more fleshed out, just like the main characters' backstory. Because it really makes no sense why anybody would accept even the initial invitation, after all those years.
This was supposed to be a screenplay for a short movie, but even as a screenplay, I find it to be rather short. I wish James all the best, though, and I hope his next book is at least 400 pages long. (I'm not really complaining, though; it was good to read something different (and short!) for a change, once in a while.)

[Gabriel · Rating 2 out of 5]

he’s gonna take you back to the past

2.5 stars
You know, the fact this at one point was a screenplay is very telling. It moves way too fast for its own good, James really should have added at minimum a hundred or so pages to this, it’s not Goosebumps this is very clearly an adult book. So why it reads so quickly is the biggest mystery of all, I will say James is very good at mystery and exploring psychological aspects in his stories. I think that’s where this book shines, flaws and all, it’s nowhere near his best work, mostly because it’s prose and the way it’s written is so quick you barely have time to register what you’re reading let alone care about any of it. But I think the reveal near the end is where the book lost me, it could have worked if there was some sort of buildup or mystery, but it just kind of happens. And also it’s from a style of horror that James himself has never been a huge fan of, so it’s even odder he chose that direction. This should have been more of a Legend of The Blue Hole or Cinemaphobia and less of a Deader The Better. True Rolfe fans will know what I’m referring to. I wanted more of a Stephen King “adults going back to face their childhood trauma” kind of story, which is what this seemed to be setting up. But unfortunately it doesn’t do that, I did like the ending somewhat I suppose. I do think James understands the dark side of nostalgia way more than he used to, which is deserving of praise. I don’t know if this would have worked better as a movie or not? Who knows?

[Arthur Beer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've seen people speculate that this book was written by AI but like, cmon. If we don't maintain some level of trust between author and reader, we'll ruin our own enjoyment of literature before AI has a chance (and it will). Middle-aged Gen X ennui and longing for the simpler past represented by 80s-90s kitsch? The "DUN DUN DUNNNN"-ass plot twists? The multiple sentences in a row that all communicate the exact same idea but in different words? This is pure James Rolfe.

There were some fun little tricks Rolfe employed. I like how we initially see the protagonist (named, rather unoriginally, Dante) as a very sympathetic character, until his actions get increasingly sinister and you wonder if Rolfe knows this presumed Author Avatar is coming off as kind of a creep, and then he goes full throttle and you realize that was the intent all along.

The aforementioned plot twists are hit or miss. The first big one really got me good and was very fun, the final one felt like a lesser Twilight Zone ending. Also, there were some little AVGN references, namely the dragon plot line's similarity to that short film James made about a big dragon statue that scared him as a child, and a groan-worthy, but cute, gag in the reveal of the second chapter's title. If you're a big James Rolfe fan (who isn't!?) I'd give this a go, but you can probably skip it if you're looking for an adult horror novel.

[Zachary Musgrove · Rating 4 out of 5]

The fears of being stuck in the past

I have been a fan of James Rolfe for more than a decade now, starting with AVGN, and watching nearly every video he has uploaded to YouTube. The man is a huge inspiration to me, so once I saw that he released Gnome Cave, I remembered his video from several years back about this screenplay he wanted to make. I was excited to finally get that story as it intrigued me, and it didn't disappoint.

I'll start with that I've seen people complain that was a little too descriptive with writing some of the scenes, but I found the descriptions quite well done as I could easily visualize the world he built, which will only make it better for if and when someone decides to translate this into a movie.

There was something melancholic to the story, James has always battled with the idea of characters being stuck in the past. It reminded me a lot of his series Board James, which in a sense, I felt the story of Dante was a little recycled (without spoiling anything) from Board James. Did it hurt the book? No. Did it make me want to watch Board James again? Yes. And then the danger of getting stuck in the past. It's a comforting cycle, to look back and say the past was great, ignoring the possibilities of making an even better future for yourself instead and I see it reflected in a ton of his fans. We all have gathered together for nostalgia for better or worse.

It's a sad story, but worth a read. Was the dragon real, or was it a figment of their imagination? Or is the dragon a metaphor for our own inner demons?

I can agree with some of the other reviewers that the book felt a little rushed at times, mainly that we could have had more time to develop the characters. Cait seemed to have the most interesting backstory to her, it would have been nice to see more with her. But did it really hurt the story? I don't personally think so. I enjoyed it from start to finish, and I'm hoping to see more short stories from James in the future!

[Peter Derk · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm giving this 5 stars to start because I feel like there's some pretty unfair ratings going on here.

For those not in the know, James Rolfe is also known as The Angry Video Game Nerd, a pioneer in the online video/YouTuber kind of realm. Which isn't exactly riding a horse across scorched earth, but, you know, the term "pioneer" is losing some of its sheen until we start shooting for other planets.

James is the driving creative force behind a lot of videos, movies, I'd call many of them, as well as other projects, including a memoir he published in the last couple years.

Gnome Cave is something he wrote as a screenplay, but once he found out that making movies sucks and should never be done because every moment of it is miserable hard work and for what? For people to tell you it doesn't look as good as an Avenger or a League of Justice.

So, James decided to go ahead and turn it into a book instead. Which I endorse! I think a lot of folks should be doing this. Many of us have ideas for movies or other things, but we don't have the resources to make them. But in 2025, we all have the resources to make a book. As the maker of many books, and being a total dumdum, I KNOW WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT HERE.

Gnome Cave is short. It's a quick read, and I think that's by design. James himself said that it can probably be read in one sitting, just like a movie is usually watched in one sitting.

I do think this is the future for books. We can all cry about TikTokification of attention spans, or, damn it, we can start writing books that manage to tell a story in a little less time. Or, we can do both. Write a long one, write a shorty.

Also, I like when a person newer to writing books writes a short one. Sort of like...I've been watching a bunch of randomly selected horror films this year, and first let me say that it's a mistake. You might think you're going to uncover hidden gems, and you won't. It's just like lifting up a rock: No gems, couple bugs.

One of my biggest peeves with some of the movies I've seen this month is that SO MANY of them way, WAY overstay their welcome. They've got maybe 45 minutes of story stretched into a 90-minute movie by things like establishing shots of houses, and then watching someone exit a car and walk into those houses. Does this serve any purpose? Nooooooope!

A movie that's so-so at 45 minutes becomes interminable stretched to 90.

I think the shortness of Gnome Cave is perfect. It knows about how much story it's got, and it doesn't overstay its welcome.

Anyway, I think people are being exceptionally hard on Gnome Cave for reasons I don't totally understand. I don't know what people were expecting, The Stand? The thousand-page Stephen King epic that is a complete classic of the genre, a defining work in a career that has more hits than a couple rounds of Street Fighter II?

James Rolfe isn't a highly experienced novelist. It's his first goddamn novel!

And I found it mostly charming, breezy to read, and I guess I wasn't terrified, but I rarely am.

It really does feel like people are reading this and whining that it's not perfect. But, like, who gives a shit?

I don't know, sometimes I think this happens when an outsider to the book world brings people to books. It can be a super rewarding thing, and it can also bring in people who might read one book in 5 years. And I suppose if you read one book in 5 years, and it was Gnome Cave, I could forgive you for being disappointed, sort of the way it'd be if someone saw one movie every five years, and they selected Midsommar. Sorry, bro, bad choice.

Shots: fired.

And, I mean, the antidote to those ills is reading a few more books. You don't have to go nuts and read like 12 books a year, one every month, or more realistically, 1 every month until March, then 9 in the last 3 weeks of the year because my god what was I thinking?

If you read 4 books in a year, and one is just okay, it really doesn't sting all that bad, you know?

That's kind of my answer to the haters here: read some more stuff. Your disappointment about one book being totally serviceable and achieving its modest goals will vanish.

[Ben Haskett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mourning the recent death of his mother and hoping to find comfort in nostalgia, forty-something Dante invites his childhood friends back to their hometown so they can revisit a local amusement park ride: the titular Gnome Cave. Unfortunately, the ride and the rest of Pinewood Park have been shut down for more than 30 years. The animatronic characters within the cave, somewhat creepy even when they were new, have been moldering in a damp environment for long enough that the paint has begun to boil off their faces. Bits of them have chipped away like soggy bread, some deteriorating to not much more than metal skeletons. What brought the quartet back is the fabled dragon at the end of the ride, a creature reportedly so scary that most kids (main characters included) opt to take the safer path the ride offers to a bright and cheery exit. And decades of rot likely hasn't done that dragon any favors. When the gang arrives to finally face the animatronic beast, things go sideways. The aim, I gather, is to be scary in the vein of Stephen King or R.L. Stine, and the author comes close in a few passages, but it doesn't quite stick the landing. The abrupt gore will raise eyebrows, the motivations behind it will cock heads, and the stinger at the end is sure to elicit only groans.

While I have no insights into the book's inspiration, any fan of fiction could probably spot ghosts of popular movies and books.  It takes place in a town that might as well be Derry, in a dilapidated theme park that might as well be HorrorLand, led by a guy who's equal parts Juno Kaplan and Elijah Prince.  But that's not necessarily bad. There's some interesting snippets of author voice in there, the occasional impressively detailed environment, and even a few literary tricks, resulting in a decent self-published work from a first-time fiction writer.  Rolfe's workmanlike prose gets the job done. I might not recommend Gnome Cave to someone who wasn't already a fan of Rolfe's work, but I'll definitely keep an eye out for any of his future writings. There's honestly a lot of potential here.  

A filmmaker at heart, Rolfe (better known by his online persona The Angry Video Game Nerd) explains in the introduction that he's wanted to tell this story for years, but having experienced firsthand the production of a feature length film and all the soul-sucking bureaucracy that comes with it, he's settled for writing his story down in the hopes that someone with better connections will read it and seek their own film adaptation. I'm pleased that the author found a way to get his idea out there, but if I could communicate one thing to him, it would be this: It's not an auspicious start for a reader to crack open a new book and learn that the author isn't particularly passionate about writing, and that readers aren't necessarily his target audience. To quote Ace Ventura, "Leave that part out from now on." Lean in.

One other thought: The internet is a strange and mostly awful place. I was reminded shortly after this book released that there's a little community of extremely online individuals who dislike Rolfe for vague reasons that would only make sense to other extremely online individuals, who get a kick out of dunking on everything from his videos to his receding hairline. Gnome Cave is no exception, and a day after the book released there was a smattering of 1-star reviews, very few of which were verified (the book is only available on Amazon, btw), some accusing him of using AI to write it, others ironically complaining about the length, others focusing on teeny tiny portions and basing their whole review off of it. I guess I don't have a point, except that that just sucks. If you look at websites like Kirkus, you'll see that a great many of their sponsored reviews come from desperate, self-published authors willing to pay hundreds of dollars just to be seen and heard by literally anyone; for someone to pluck their perhaps-not-very-good book out of the literary ocean and critique it. I wonder how many of them would gladly opt for that obscurity over a squad of hecklers eager to chuck tomatoes at them for even trying.

[Stephen Landis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Picked up this book the moment I heard it came out. I had followed James Rolfe's "Angry Video Game Nerd" show back in the day and was curious to see what he came up with.

TL:DR- A contemporary horror story with themes and messages that end up being a bit of a thinker but unfortunately suffers from several mistakes and a plot hole caused by "author's first book" syndrome.

The Story: The plot follows four childhood friends; Adam, Bruce, Cait, and Dante, as they reunite to revisit an old amusement park from their childhood in the 90's. Now approaching their forties in the post-pandemic world, they gather at Dante's invitation to recreate one of their happiest childhood moments... And without spoiling anything further, this is a horror novel so of course things go wrong. And contrary to what the cover may suggest, the horror is not "rogue animatronics run amok" as has become somewhat cliche by this point.

The positive: Gnome Cave is a horror novel about the comforting poison of nostalgia and how memory can be a funny, fickle thing. How we often remember things differently then how they actually were. In hindsight it's not particularly surprisingly that James decided to tackle these themes given that the whole schtick of the Angry Video Game Nerd series was going through the impressive video game library of the 80's and 90's and playing through games with busted controls, poor translations, ridiculous difficulties, or were otherwise not very good. Occasionally he would do a dive on some of the classics from the era like Contra or the first Metal Gear game, but for the most part the show was focused on the stinkers that are mostly carried by nostalgia.

And while how he executes these themes of nostalgia and memory in Gnome Cave is not perfect (we'll get to that in a second), the execution is good enough that it communicates the ideas he's trying to get across.

And lastly, I have to mention the opening foreword from James. As pretentious as it may sound to even acknowledge it, it's nice to see a creative that doesn't have their head clearly and completely up their own ass after roughly a decade of pretentious Hollywood twats, corporate drama, and badly written slop that makes ChatGPT look like Hemmingway by comparison.

The Negative: Even ignoring the difference between script writing and book writing and risking being "that guy", I can kind of see why this script was rejected James.

If you asked me to sum up what's wrong with the book in two words, the first would probably be "pacing" and the second would be "inconsistent." We spend so little time getting the group back to the abandoned amusement park that it's actually impressive that the author managed to maintain a coherent story while doing it. Then afterwards, we spend way too long following the events of the sole survivor of the incident to reiterate the point that the main antagonist already made during his big villain speech. We spent so many years following the sole survivor afterwards, we risked turning this contemporary novel into a science fiction one and we generated a plot hole that could have been skipped if we had simply ended the story with the survivor leaving the park.

The other suggestion I would make is that to focus on the psychological horror of the main antagonist's descent into madness and maybe tease it out a bit more. Watch them slowly unravel as they search for the rest of the group, maybe introduce what each of the four friends had been doing that way instead of give them about a page each of reintroduction when they receive their invitation to better obscure who the antagonist is until the big reveal. In addition to making up the word count lost by cutting the epilogue, this would give the twist betrayal a bit more punch.

[Anthony Volk · Rating 1 out of 5]

Love James rolfe, hate this book.

Listen I love James Rolfe probably more than 90 percent of the world. Im in that top percent that will watch/read anything this guy puts out as soon as its released. That being said this book is truly awful grade school level writing.

I gave it a chance I really did, I dont want to hate something that one of my favourite creators has put out, I want to be able to give this a five star review and say it was the best book I have ever read in my life. That however is not the case, in fact its the opposite, I would say this book is one of the most unfinished excuses for a short story I have ever read. Thats another thing this book was marketed as a full novel by james, this book is 90 pages james thats not a novel, thats pushing it for a short story even.

I feel like this book was written in the span of maybe a month. I know it wasnt as he made a Video detailing the synopsis 4 years ago, but the book itself is nothing its an idea, a pitch, not a novel.
The characters have the depth of a childrens swimming pool with people who are supposed to be long lost childhood friends having the equivalent of "hi how are ya" type of conversations. James Rolfe knows how to write and detail locals and inanimate objects, but people and how they converse in real life seem to be a mystery to him.

The horror in this book is laughable I think I may have been more scared reading a goosebumps book in my childhood. No joke the horror comes halfway through the book and lasts about a page and a half. No mystery no intrigue just it happens and then the story drags to a finish. He tries leaving some mystery as to what happened but it all feels so rushed you wont even care.

I would say read this book only if you are a huge James rolfe fan. This book gives some weird insight into a guy who seems to be out of touch with the real world and what normal people are like. He acted in his reveal video like this was going to be some cool atmospheric horror book, what we got was a rushed sloppy half baked goosebumps knock off. I literally laughed at the end of the book and said to myself "really well that was a waste of time"

I still think James is a very creative person who can do great things. This however was not one of them and probably should have been looked over by an editor prior to release.

[Hunter · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've been a fan of James Rolfe for as long as I can remember and I can comfortably call him one of my heroes. I used to watch his videos on the making of his home movies over and over again in complete awe. Seeing his work just makes you want to go out and make something. Even if it didn't turn out great, Avgn Movie as the biggest example, you can still see he gave it his all. Gnome Cave is another example. Watching his video announcing the book and even his horror premise idea was intriguing and you can see the passion oozing from him. And I enjoy the book overall, but it has issues.

After finishing it, I can't really hate it because this is his first time doing something like this. If he had been well established as an author by this point, I would be more critical. But as it is, it's just an average passable book. This is more like something you would pick as a Goosebumps book, which I think was the point. Just a short thrill that doesn't require too much of a commitment, a story that he needed to get out there. The sign of a good artist.

James throws out great ideas; the importance of friendship, conquering your fears, trying to live in the past. All stuff I'm very intrigued by but he doesn't do much with it. And the character of Dante has such a rushed character shift that it just left me scratching my head. In fact, the whole book felt rushed too. He didn't give enough time for characters to develop, just rushed through scenes.

The big thing I was disappointed with was that I really wished this would have been made into a movie. After seeing the Avgn movie, I realized that James needs to stick to low budget stuff. The videos he's made on YouTube show how talented he is with the smallest budgets. Even the Mr. Bucket episode, which is supposed to be a joke, was very well shot and executed. When I was reading descriptions from here, I can see the shots so clearly in my head. It would have that feel that he's known for, but it doesn't look like he's going to do it.

Anyway, it's not a terrible book, but it's not something I'll be re-reading anytime soon. I can tell James really tried and I was never bored reading it so that's something. But if he writes another book, I'll give it a shot.

[Castle · Rating 2 out of 5]

So, I’ve always been a huge fan of James Rolfe. He pioneered the YouTube scene with his AVGN series and his awesome videos. He posted a video about his new book and like others, excited to read it.

The book is about four characters named Dante, Bruce, Adam and Cait. Dante is depressed with his current life as an adult and decides to feel nostalgic about his early years. He decides to revisit a theme park called, Pinewood Park.

The park had this old ride called, Gnome Cave. After the death of Dante’s mother, he decides to gather his old friends to revisit the old theme park.

This is where the book goes off the rails, literally. One by one each character gets killed off, mysteriously. This was surprising to me. The book seeks to imply that Dante killed Bruce and Adam. Cait lives, but James, the author, wants to keep us guessing if Cait was the one that actually killed everyone, or was it was some external force.

The has a lousy ending that Cait decides to revisit the park, but finds that it has been replaced by a shopping center and a Chinese restaurant. Inside the restaurant she finds a picture of a dragon and the book ends. So…is the book implying that she was the killer? Is she herself, the dragon? Was the dragon controlling everyone? Was it a figment of her imagination? Did Dante do it all? It’s not clear. I was originally going to give this book a 3 out of 5. But the ending wasn’t for me.

2/5

Sorry James.

[George · Rating 1 out of 5]

It’s fascinating that a guy mainly known for talking about video games and feces is obsessed with Meshes of the Afternoon to the point he has to shoehorn “but who was phone” creepypasta style plot twists into all his work. Also, he has to be the only person this histrionic about the pandemic to have stayed a liberal. He approaches the pandemic in this in a way I can only compare to those NYC socialists turned conservatives that act like they were locked inside their apartments by men in white suits like they’re in China. He has a somewhat economical prose style that would be alright if the plot wasn’t so inane. I think the last quarter of the book is some sort of attempt to create a dream-sequence snap back horror moment you see in some Jimmy favorites like The Descent and Requiem for a Dream, but it’s synthesized with this tacked on Poe style guilt narrative that seems to exist solely as a crutch. This character does shady things I suppose, but the gesturing towards ambiguity only serves to put duct tape on the leaky hole of human psychology on display here.

[Elsie Creighton · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you’re reading this “book” (short story), it is because you’re a fan of James Rolfe. That affects the way in which I review it. It has many issues such as amateur misuses of words at times and a lack of characters to be truly invested in. This isn’t a spoiler, the plot involves a group of people who were friends in their youth reuniting years later. But all except the protagonist hardly remember each other so there are no dynamics at play between personalities. It feels more like four random adults rather than people who ever had a connection. The story builds gradually enough for about the first 60% and then begins to rush. There are many ways to fix it. BUT if you’re familiar with James’ short films like The Head Returns, you can imagine what to expect from him and he delivers adequate entertainment for his audience. He’s obviously not Norman Mailer but I was not upset to spend a few bucks on a copy. I hope he continues in literature.

[Alex · Rating 2 out of 5]

James Rolfe’s (aka The AVGN) first fiction book. This is basically James turning a script for a potential amateur film into a book. As such, characters are barely described beyond the bare minimum (like are they overweight). The idea being you’re suppose to cast the characters in your head. So don’t expect Brandon Sanderson writing here. Thankfully it is a short book, I finished it in under 2 hours. I enjoyed the themes of nostalgia and dangerous it can be, especially as it relates to 80’s, who tend to make their childhood nostalgia their entirely identity. I enjoyed it. The only major flaw that I had to knock points off for was the ending really drags on. The epilogue takes up a couple of chapters that could’ve just been one chapter. If you’re not a James Rolfe fan, you can pass on this. Even if you are a fan, your mileage may vary. Like I said, I was digging the story for what it was until the ending. A couple more rewrites could have ironed out the kinks

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Dragon, Gnomes, and Toxic Nostalgia! The

He’s gonna take you back to the past…

In James’ first foray into literature we get a peek into nostalgia gone awry.

This was a lot of fun from one of my favorite content creators and I finished it in one afternoon. Reading it immediately brought me back to the kind of pulp horror books I would see as a kid from the 80s/90s.

A lot to unpack from this - what is the dragon in all of our lives? What things are we trying to reconcile under the surface from our youth? Can we ever truly get these things back? The answers can lead one down a deep, dark, cavern in a minecart if you aren’t careful…

If you enjoy fun, nostalgic (yes this is a major theme here!) horror then this is for you. Eagerly looking forward, as always, to what James has in store next.

[Michael Medlen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Interesting read. Always good to support author James Rolfe. I could see this book being made into a horror movie. The cover reminded me of Goosebumps a little....

However, it is clear Rolfe lacks focus as an author. His book switches perspectives without any real depth being given to any of the characters, and the horror is a little baffling. What exactly are we supposed to take away from this ending?

Rolfe lacks the skill of filling into details and painting the images he is describing, a clear reflection of his lack of writing experience. He may write scripts and direct, but his prose is sparse and leaves the reader wanting more in detail.

Perhaps I am asking for more literariness from this author, he also happens to have a sizable following on YouTube and will probably make some kind of royalty from his book sales. It may not be much, but some of us authors make ZERO bucks for our efforts, and I am not afraid to admit I do not have any qualms about ripping another author's efforts to shreds.

But is it so much to ask that these artists earn their acceptance into publishing houses, when some writers have to rely on themselves and independently publish books without the assistance of proofreaders and editors...

👎

[Randall · Rating 4 out of 5]

Originally written as a screenplay for a movie, but eventually turned into a book, this is a story about a man who drags his old friends back to a place from their childhood to get closure on something they failed to do the first time. Through the premise and most of the story, I couldn't help but think of the 2013 British film The World's End, but instead of a 12-stop pub crawl, it's an abandoned theme park ride. I know James has his own inspiration, such as his own YouTube series Board James (which he has brought up), but they're both about attachment to childhood. They go in their own directions from there, but I also wanted to mention that this is less than 100 pages long. It feels too short to be a movie. Maybe an hour-long TV special or something, unless James cut things out.

I should mention I love The World's End and consider it underrated.

[N.J. Franco · Rating 4 out of 5]

Was better than expected

The initial reviews were pretty atrocious, to the point that I almost didn't want to read it, but I decided to use my Kindle Unlimited subscription and see just how bad it could really be.

Honestly, I have to disagree with many of the naysayers. Unlike many of the initial reviewers, I feel there was plenty of show vs tell writing, and I didn't find the POV jumping too confusing (except one time, but I eventually figured it out).

I also found the story in general very relatable, as a nerd myself who actually just turned 40 earlier this week and is constantly reflecting on the present and longing for the nostalgia of the past.

I really hope James writes more books in the future, because I'd love to read them.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've always been a big fan of Rolfe and probably always will be one. I unironically enjoyed "A Movie-Making Nerd" but "Gnome Cave" is proof that he should stick to AVGN videos instead of writing short-form horror novellas. The build-up is pretty good and the "twist" middle did catch me off-guard; unfortunately, once the big revelation is unveiled, Rolfe pretty much sputters out and can't think of anything interesting to do for the rest of the book. Some books have an anticlimactic ending, but this one has an anticlimactic second *and* third act, somehow. That the book *has* to skip ahead 30 years in the final chapter kinda lets you know the author had no clue how to end this thing — although the final gag at a Chinese restaurant *is* a pretty funny way to bring things to a close.

[Roger Terry · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good debut novella from James Rolfe. He has the chops of a good storyteller, but I would have loved a little more "show not tell" within the prose. You can tell the story was originally written for the screen, his transitions later on in the story are a clear indication of that. I understood what he was trying to do and the images still entered my mind. But it did not translate well to the page and muddied up the story's flow, which could have been fixed with a little more editing. Great characters that get you invested, wish there was more to their backstories. Something he could dive deeper into when a film is made. A good story, overall. Plenty of nostalgia, gore, and animatronic Elves with sinister smiles. Definitely worth a read.

[Dani Missmenace00 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. James did a really good job telling a simple yet creepy and thrilling story. I was worried that it would be too short and feel incomplete but honestly I was pretty happy with the pacing and flow of it all. My only complaint is that there are a few moments where the wording or sentence structures are a little weird.
It has the vibe of a classic campy horror story and I would recommend reading it in one sitting on a dark and stormy night to get the best experience out of it.

[Sam Creamer · Rating 3 out of 5]

For his first book James did a pretty good job. It was on the short side and could have been fleshed out more, but that’s something that’ll come with experience if he chooses to write more.

The main characters arc reminded me of his Board James character, and if you’re a fan of his other work you can definitely notice his other influences in here.

All-in-all, don’t go in with too high of expectations and just enjoy it for what it is. He has potential as a writer if he chooses to continue down this path, and I will be buying whatever book he puts out next.

[Samuel Small · Rating 5 out of 5]

A promising debut novel. I found this to be a quick read and very enjoyable. You can definitely read this in James' voice, and the similes and metaphors feel like something taken straight out of one of his reviews. I particularly like two characters who foil each other: one who is obsessed with the past and the other who is trying to run from it. I'm looking forward to seeing James grow as an author. Hopefully he'll give us his next film idea in book form too.

[Joshua Nunley · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Angry Video Game Nerd becomes the Angry Goosebumps Nerd. Sorta. For a first attempt at writing a novel, James Rolfe tells you in that in the introduction and that he originally intended for this to be made into a movie. You can tell it was originally written as a script, but I still had fun with this. The book is only around 80 something pages. A quick read for spooky season.

[DanoXmas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Can't help but feel that finishing "Tuesdays with Morrie" right before this was the perfect accidental appetizer; similar but very different meditations on life and how we value time/the past.

If James wants to start pumping out pulpy novellas for movie ideas he's not able to film I'm 100% down, this was a fun beach read.