Plot-Your-Own Horror Stories

(Plot-It-Yourself Horror Stories)


  This page is no longer being updated. For the new version, click here.

This series of Choose Your Own Adventure-style horror gamebooks was first published by Simon & Schuster's Wanderer imprint in the United States under the Plot-Your-Own Horror Stories label. About midway through the series, its name changed to Plot-It-Yourself Horror Stories. Some titles were available in Julian Messner library editions. Several of the books in the series were also published in England by Mathuen Children's Books' Magnet imprint, but in a different order and with different titles and covers; the British series title never changed; it was consistently Plot-Your-Own Horror Stories.

This page is as complete as my collection will allow. If you find any errors or have a spare copy of one of the British editions not yet pictured on this page, please send an e-mail to me at demiankatz@gmail.com.


 1. Craven House Horrors
British Title: Horror House
Author: Hilary Milton
Illustrator: Paul Frame
First Published: 1982
ISBN: 0-671-45631-8
Length: 116 pages
Number of Endings: 29
Library of Congress Summary: Trapped by a storm in a mysterious and frightening house, the reader is given several alternative choices to manipulate the plot and plan an escape.
My Thoughts: This is a rather disappointing book. Although the "old dark house" scenario is usually a fun horror premise, it is poorly handled here. The book is filled with so many inconsistencies and random events that it's more confusing than frightening. The author would have been better off choosing one storyline and exploring all of its possibilities rather than trying to cram a little of everything into the book and ending up with this plotless mess. The book isn't very satisfying from a gameplay perspective either; as I mentioned, there's no story consistency, and there are also an awful lot of choices where the reader chooses not what his or her character does, but rather what will actually happen next. You don't choose whether or not to enter the secret door, you actually choose what's behind it; you don't choose how to react to the bird, you actually choose what the bird will do next. Some might find this sort of thing interesting, as it is an uncommon feature for a gamebook, but I don't really like it, as it distances the reader from the story and diminishes suspense. Shockingly enough, you'd actually be better off skipping this adventure and reading a Give Yourself Goosebumps book instead!

 2. Nightmare Store
Author: Hilary Milton
Illustrator: Paul Frame
First Published: 1982
ISBN: 0-671-45630-X
Length: 121 pages
Number of Endings: 25
Library of Congress Summary: The reader, trapped after closing in the newest and largest department store in Atlanta, is given choices to make to remove himself from the night of terror.
My Thoughts: This book is something of an improvement over the previous volume even though it shares most of the same flaws. There are choices that affect outcomes rather than actions, but not quite so many, and while the story is full of random and senseless events and has nothing that could be described as a meaningful plot, at least the paths through it are longer and more satisfying than those in the last book. Some of the stories told in this volume are purely silly and ridiculous, but others have at least a little bit of atmosphere; in fact, when I was considerably younger, I recall being genuinely frightened by parts of the book. It's still far from being a great success, but it's not as hopelessly weak as its predecessor.

 3. Space Age Terrors!
Author: Hilary Milton
Illustrator: Paul Frame
First Published: 1983
ISBN: 0-671-49248-9
Length: 118 pages
Number of Endings: 29
Library of Congress Summary: The reader faces a choice of unknown horrors in the Vanguard Air, Rocket, and Space Museum after it closes, late one night.
My Thoughts: This book follows the series' trend of featuring random, unexplained and unrelated horrific events occurring without explanation or internal consistency. It didn't make for a satisfying read before, and it once again doesn't make for a satisfying read here. This book is made worse by the fact that its scenario is even goofier and more outlandish than those in the last two adventures. It's also brought down (though at the same time made somewhat unique) by its choices. Many choices ask you what you feel or what you think will happen, but most of the time the choice you pick has little or no bearing on what actually happens. It makes the book feel even more random and senseless than it otherwise would have, but it's a design strategy that might be quite interesting if used by a more skilled author.

 4. Horror Hotel!
British Title: Grand Hotel of Horror
Author: Hilary Milton
Illustrator: Paul Frame
First Published: 1983
ISBN: 0-671-49249-7
Length: 122 pages
Number of Endings: 28
Library of Congress Summary: Trapped in a historic hotel high on a cliff overlooking a river, the reader must make choices in order to remove himself from the horrors he finds there.
My Thoughts: The trends started in the previous volume are continued here. By now, the majority of the choices actually involve the outcome of the story rather than the actions of the protagonist, and at at least one point, the choice is simply "Turn to page x, or if you prefer, turn to page y." It doesn't get much more random than that! As I said before, this sort of randomness might not be so bad in the hands of a talented author, but the writing here is clumsy at best. Although the book gets off to a slightly more promising start than usual for the series, it swiftly degrades into an uninteresting mess. It was a good idea to provide the reader's character with a pamphlet to explain the history of the horrors that unfold during the story, but this history is included in the narrative in an awkward and heavy-handed manner. Even worse, too many unrelated threads are tossed into the storyline, ultimately drowning out any hope of a coherent or interesting plot emerging. Add this one to the "avoid" list with all the rest of the series so far.

  5. Escape from High Doom
Author: Hilary Milton
Illustrators: Paul Frame (interior and American cover), Dave Eastbury (British cover)
First Published: 1984 (American edition), 1985 (British edition)
ISBN: 0-671-52405-4 (American paperback edition), 0-671-53039-9 (American library-bound edition), 0-416-53390-6 (British paperback edition)
Length: 119 pages
Number of Endings: 30
Library of Congress Summary: The reader visits Noose City, a Texas ghost town famous for the ghosts of executed criminals, which reappear each year on the anniversaries of their deaths; the reader makes choices which determine the outcome of the plot.
My Thoughts: Well, the fact that the series title changed from Plot-Your-Own Horror Stories to Plot-It-Yourself Horror Stories with this title doesn't seem to mean that the contents are any different. Don't let the official Library of Congress summary fool you into thinking that this book has some sort of coherent plot; like the rest of the series, it's just a collection of random events held together by choices that frequently have little or no bearing on what actually happens next. In fact, the first choice in the book is another purely random one in which the only decision to make is which of two possible pages to turn to. Although things get a little better after that, the improvement is minimal. Some paths through this book are fairly lengthy, others are remarkably brief; whatever happens, it's not especially scary, it's definitely not very logical and, alas, it's not even remotely interesting. I hope that future books in the series get a little better than this, because I'm growing rather tired of making the same criticisms again and again!

 6. Fun House Terrors
Author: Hilary Milton
Illustrator: Paul Frame
First Published: 1984
ISBN: 0-671-52406-2 (American paperback edition), 0-671-53041-0 (American library-bound edition)
Length: 118 pages
Number of Endings: 27
Library of Congress Summary: The reader visits a seaside amusement park where the rides turn out to be more terrifying than amusing; the reader makes choices which determine the outcome of the plot.
My Thoughts: Argh! The true horror of this series is dealing with the same uninspired formula time after time after time! You're on vacation in a mundane place, but it's not mundane, it's evil, and after making lots of meaningless choices, the story ends, usually with your death and far too many periods of ellipsis. What was the author trying to do? Persuade children that going on vacation is bad? It certainly doesn't seem like any desire to tell a story or generate entertaining reading material went into the creation of these tedious tales. At least some of the artwork isn't bad. Still, I've said it before, and I'll say it again: avoid, avoid, avoid.

 7. Museum of the Living Dead
British Title: Dining with Dinosaurs
Author: Hilary Milton
Illustrator: Paul Frame
First Published: 1985
ISBN: 0-671-54447-0
Length: 120 pages
Number of Endings: 29
Library of Congress Summary: Trapped by a thunderstorm in a museum of prehistoric creatures that seem to come alive, the reader must find a way out of increasingly frightening situations.
My Thoughts: Well, I found this book marginally more interesting than the last few, but that's entirely because the subject matter was of more interest to me, not because of any improvement in the writing or game design. In fact, even the appealing subject matter is poorly handled here; I doubt the author knew much about prehistoric life or bothered to do any significant research, since the encounters with extinct species lack interesting descriptions or other details and overuse vague adjectives like "horrible" and "frightening." Outside of that, we've got the usual disregard for plot consistency and lots of choices for which the reader's decision has little or no impact on what actually happens. This really should have been much better.

 8. Dungeon Demons
Author: Hilary Milton
Illustrator: Paul Frame
First Published: 1985
ISBN: 0-671-54448-9
Length: 119 pages
Number of Endings: 29
Library of Congress Summary: The reader must find a way of excaping from Duncarney Castle where he/she is surrounded by evil ogres, black knights, witches, and many other unsavory characters.
My Thoughts: This book is more or less indistinguishable from the rest of the series. It starts off with what might reasonably be the beginning of a story with an actual plot, but then it puts the reader on his or her own and plods through a succession of random and mostly meaningless events until eventually coming to a less-than-thrilling end. The writing is even more cringe-inducing than usual here thanks to some awful pseudo-medieval dialogue, and there's also a rather sloppy tense problem during the introductory pages. It's a shame, really -- I started reading this series expecting it to be above average (due mainly to dim childhood memories of Nightmare Store), but it turned out to be one weak disappointment after another. Oh well; it's over now, and I'm not exactly sad to see it go.


Demian's Gamebook Web Page (c) 1998-2003 Demian Katz