Create Your Own Midlife Crisis

by Marie Phillips

To run away to Brazil, turn to 34.
To get a tattoo, turn to 47.
To burn your house down, turn to 145.

Midway through our lives, we wonder how we ended up here and whether there's a way out. There must have been a crucial turning point, but there's no way to start again in the hope of a better result. Here's your chance to try all the roads not taken. But beware: all choices come at a cost ...

Yelpingly funny, horribly relatable, this is a compulsively readable book-as-game which - just like real life - you can never truly win.

Genres: Gamebooks, Humor, Choose Your Own Adventure

192 pages, Paperback

Published July 1, 2021

About the author

My novels are 'Gods Behaving Badly', 'The Table of Less Valued Knights' and 'Oh, I Do Like TO Be...' I also co-wrote the BBC Radio 4 series and book 'Warhorses of Letters', the BBC Radio 4 series 'Some Hay in a Manger', and was one of the contributors to the collection of spoof erotic essays, 'Fifty Shelves of Grey' (as Vanessa Parody). My most recent book is a choose your own adventure called Create Your Own Midlife Crisis. There's another author with the same name as me who writes books about cats. She isn't me, although I do like cats.

Reviews

[Jonna Feliz · Rating 2 out of 5]

You know those mobile apps targeted for teens and young adults where you're given the option to choose between going on a date with a gorgeous Italian exchange student or stay in and study for your exam tomorrow? And, of course, it's not real life so you end up choosing that date, and probably the rest of the more "daring" options. This is basically like those apps, but in the form of a book.

In this book, Marie Phillips does give you ways in order to make the worst decisions, which will give you further problems in life. Choose properly, you might just find yourself buying a ticket on a whim without even considering that you have not packed any luggage. Or you might find yourself stuck on a loophole between choices, and would have to go back to a few last options in order to get unstuck.

What I dislike most though is when there simply aren't proper options, and you are asked to toss a coin. This is when life plays its part. This is when you cannot make the decision. This is when you are asked to leave it up to fate—unless, of course, you're the kind of person who would deliberately go against fate.

But hey, if you're curious, bored, and have no phone at hand, this book might give you a bit of fun.

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NOTE: Thanks to Chronicle Prism and the author for providing me a digital review copy via Edelweiss+ in exchange for an honest review! Any quote used in this review is taken from the provided copy, and the final print of the book may differ.

[Anna Czernielewska · Rating 2 out of 5]

jak zaczęłam tak skończyłam, myślałam ze będę się lepiej bawić, albo strasznie nieodpracowana albo to ja jej nie zrozumiałam

[Nursebookie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was romp full of fun! There is no escaping one bad decision for the next and I enjoyed every moment of my decisions. Super fun book girlfriends and friends would love!

[Joy Stephenson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Firstly this is not a novel. It is a series of story trails, written as if you were the person undergoing the experience, where you read a passage and then are asked to decide your next action from those listed. You then go the page number by your response to find out what happens next, and then make another decision etc. The layout is the same as those children's adventure books where you choose your own route through the story.
This book starts with you in a tedious and pointless meeting at work and the first decision is how you react, which leads you in one direction. When you reach the end you can then go back to the beginning and take a different route. There seem to be no happy endings - I took routes which landed me in a South American prison, dying in old age after living years alone and running a chaotic dog-walking business (which OK isn't so bad.)
The first 'story' trail I followed was quite amusing but this book is one-joke (whatever decision you make will be the wrong one) and after a few trails it became boring. It's more like a magazine piece than a book.
A shame as I've loved the proper novels this author has written.

[Gracella · Rating 3 out of 5]

I always like the alternate ending or what-if scenario book. That’s what this book is. Reading this book is like playing a game. Fun and entertaining! Quite a distraction from life 😊

[Dixie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I couldn't resist this because I really like this author. It was clever and fun, though like all choose your own adventure books for adults, over too soon.

[Nathalie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Super fun! Only had one little crisis. Will have to try another option later.

[Abbey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ridiculously Delightful! A fun distraction from the everyday...

[Nadia (captnheweade) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Remember Netflix's Black Mirror: Bandersnatch? The movie where we can choose the course of action of the main character thus creating a multiple ending?

Well, this book is just like that, a "choose-your-own-adventure" book.
All the endings in this book (at least the one that I've read, I'm not sure I've read all lol) have one thing in common which is a depressing question of "how end up di I get here?"

Just like the title, I think the purpose of this book is to make you question the purpose of your life and ponder on the life crisis. I mean just like the blurb say "you can never really win in life" and ain't that the truth.
Even though "life crisis" sounds depressing, the story that are covered in this book are effortlessly funny and I found it quite soothing. I suppose humor is one way to handle life lol.

Overall, this is a light, fun, but hilariously depressing book.

Really good for a quick read or if you need distraction from life. Or is it? :p

Overall rating = 4.1/5

[Debra · Rating 2 out of 5]

Cool concept poorly executed with terrible writing full of cliches and little imagination. The 2 stars are for a few laughs and the concept (would be great to actually see someone do a choose your own adventure novel with some depth or wit on this topic)

[Jennith Chen · Rating 1 out of 5]

What would you do if you thought you could get away with it?

[Jill · Rating 5 out of 5]

You are stuck in the longest, most boring work meeting ever (since the one last week, and maybe the one the week before that). Do you tell your boss the meeting is pointless? Do you quit? Do you forget that you’re married and hit on Hot Rusell via text to see what happens? Or do you just get up and leave the office?

You are bored in your marriage. Do you try couples counseling? The swingers club down the street? Renovating the kitchen? Do you get divorced? Do you try a dating app? Do you decide to have another baby, even if you’d be raising her or him by yourself?

Should you fly off to Brazil on a moment’s notice? Should you buy a motorcycle? Should you go clubbing with your mother? Should you invest in cryptocurrency? Should you help the (seemingly) nice little old lady at the airport with her luggage? Should you try yoga?

So many choices!

Life is filled with decisions, but we don’t often get to find out the results of them immediately. That’s why Create Your Own Midlife Crisis is so helpful. You can just turn to the page you’re directed to and find out why your choices were wrong and what the terrible consequences are right away. And then you can start over and do it all again, with new and equally bad choices, and with more consequences that may be more bad or less bad than the last ones.

Maybe you’ll end up in jail. Maybe you’ll end up in the hospital. Maybe you’ll end up on a reality show where you pit your comedic catchphrase against the comedic catchphrases of other comedians. Or maybe you just end up with a regular marriage and a regular daughter and a regular job. And then you can ask yourself how you ended up there.

I loved Create Your Own Midlife Crisis. Author Marie Phillips has created a series of bad decisions that take you down hilarious pathways and into absurd new realities. This would be the perfect gift for your girlfriends on milestone birthdays, or anyone who suddenly becomes single or who tries to run away to Brazil or who gets fired or who decides to go clubbing after the age of 30. No matter what your midlife crisis looks like, this book will help you laugh about it, especially if there is a lot of wine involved while you’re reading it.

Egalleys for Create Your Own Midlife Crisis were provided by Chronicle Books through Edelweiss, with many thanks.

[Tanya Palmer · Rating 2 out of 5]

This could have been good. COULD have. I was a huge fan of choose your own adventure books as a kid. I'd go back to the beginning and read then again and again, making different choices. They were fun. This was just a farce. Maybe intentionally? Maybe not? Farce only works when you're sure the author isn't genuinely out to ridicule everything. This feels more like ridicule than farce. Extra star for the idea. I'd try another choose your own adventure for adults though. Just not by this author.

[Naomi Grace · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good fun read. Dating, Drugs, Divorce and more. Makes me so look forward to my own midlife Crisis haha.

There are 37 endings (and two loops) to find. Keep looking for that perfect one for you.

I think personally is it learning to ride a motorbike with my dad or helping my mum create a dating app haha.

[Laura (laurasnextchapter) Schoener · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just wanted to note that this is a fun read about different life choices you COULD make. It is meant to be light and fun and it is! I saw some negative reviews because it didn’t tell a story- this isn’t that type of book! This would be a great birthday gift or coffee table book!

[Kristen M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

How did I end up here? This is delicious and entertaining. Every reader their book. This is a choose-your-own-adventure book for female forty-somethings on the cusp of their very own mid-life crisis. Absolute debauchery and silliness for those in need of comic relief.

[Ajaki · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was quite funny but compaired to the same kind of books for kids this was quite waek.

[Stacie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Having loved the "Choose Your Own Adventure" books when I was a kid, I thought this might be a fun, silly read. Unfortunately its was not.

[M · Rating 3 out of 5]

An entertaining read, not one I'd recommend to others but a bit of a laugh and perfect to catch my up on my reading challenge

[Deb · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit of fun