Item - The Horror of High Ridge

This is a fairly effective horror gamebook. It's successfully atmospheric and has some interesting plot threads. It's also something of a sequel to House of Danger since it has Ricardo and Lisa in it.

More reviews by Demian

This sequel to House of Danger improves somewhat on its predecessor. For instance, while the former book had some chills, it was also hampered by a wandering, sometimes confusing series of plot possibilities. In this one, the premise is in place from the get-go: you and your friends are up in the mountains when suddenly you're caught between two factions of angry ghosts and have to decide whether you want to get away or find out how to put them to rest. It's a pretty effective horror story for CYOA.

That said, the book isn't without its share of problems. The plotting is tighter than in House of Danger, that's for sure (since it was written by someone not R. A. Montgomery), but at the same time I felt like I'd had my fill of the book sooner. This is mainly owing to some paths feeling like I was just bumping around in the dark until the author decided he'd reached a good stopping point. The Horror of High Ridge might also be a little too scary for younger readers. Some of the endings are pretty grisly, such as on pages 51 and 68.

If a scary and challenging CYOA book is what you're looking for, though, this one earns my recommendation.

More reviews by Fireguard

Reading other reviews, it looks decent. I'll think about it, because maybe it's like Ghost Hunter!

More reviews by Good

The Horror of High Ridge is among the more lauded original Choose Your Own Adventures. It was only Julius Goodman's second book in the series, but he takes the story unusual places. You are spending summer in the town of High Ridge with your friends Ricardo and Lisa, pursuing the possibility of unearthing your great-uncle's buried treasure. Something happened in High Ridge a century ago that no local will discuss, but the past becomes present when you hear a moaning outside your cabin. It's nighttime; should you, Ricardo, and Lisa investigate the moaning to see if it might lead to your great-uncle's fortune, or remain safe in the cabin?

Stay in the cabin, and a feathered arrow crashes through a window and embeds in the wall, barely missing you. The cabin no longer feels safe, but remain indoors with the lights off and you'll notice a red glow outside. Ricardo wants to check it out, but Lisa strongly desires to stay put. Convince her to go with you, and you witness a horrific show under the moonlight: a prospector and Indian kill each other with weapons, then vanish. You could seek a hiding place for the night; Mrs. Grundy gave you a library key. You might wind up in silent vigil until morning, craving answers you'll never see. If you left Lisa at the cabin when you and Ricardo went to check on the red glow, you may stumble onto a fight between phantom prospectors and Indians slaughtering each other, or cross paths with Lisa, who followed you. Meet the right Indian ghost, and he'll tell you how this night of death connects to a tragedy a hundred years ago. Perhaps at first when you were in your cabin, you made a break for your jeep instead of determining to stay the night. Driving for the town limits, you're blocked by a rockslide. Abandon the jeep to leave town on foot, and you run into the sheriff. Should you go back with him into High Ridge, or continue to flee the ghosts? Maybe you turned around on your own and headed back to town when you ditched the jeep. Ricardo swears he saw Indians as you drove out of town; can you stay alive long enough for the ghosts to vanish in the morning sun?

If you left your cabin before the arrow shattered your window, you head into the moonlit night with little idea what you're getting into. You could visit Mr. Phillip, Town Ridge's historian, but may be too late to prevent his murder by an Indian ghost. Every moment out and about exposes you to spirits with homicide on their minds. Climb the church tower to get a birdseye view, and a peaceful ghost tells you what happened a century ago that led to this night of bloodshed. He suggests you, Ricardo, and Lisa are capable of putting the ghosts to rest permanently, but can you find the Indian chief he spoke of? Perhaps the wooden Indian statue at the library holds the secret. If you stayed focused earlier on following the moaning, you meet Chief Walking Eagle, a ghost who implores you to end this insanity that has periodically seized High Ridge the past hundred years. You dig at the holy site where the chief said you'd find the relics to set the ghosts at rest, but what if they attack right now? Fail to obtain the relics in time, and you know someday the ghosts will return, again killing each other and innocent bystanders living in High Ridge. If you were too frightened to help the chief from the first, you can attempt to survive this night on your own...but cowardly adventurers rarely meet a happy end.

What does this book get right? The atmosphere. Running from house to house beneath the gypsum moon, murderers everywhere who won't think twice about slashing you with cold steel, is a creepy feeling most Choose Your Own Adventures don't dare try for. Some death endings in these pages are shocking in their brutality, which I approve; too many books in this series aren't intense enough to capture young readers. The Horror of High Ridge never reaches its potential, though. Parts of the narrative don't make sense, and too many endings are cop-outs where the story stops in the middle of the action without any resolution. That's poor planning, and mars what should have been an all-time great gamebook. Still, this is a read I enjoy.

More reviews by KenJenningsJeopardy74

An interesting premise marks the beginning of a good book. The characters were more developed than usual for this kind of gamebook, and provided for some memorable banter. What really stands out, though, is the difficulty that has to be overcome to merely survive, let alone to learn the legend and stop the curse.

More reviews by Waluigi Freak 99

This is definitely one of the scarier Choose Your Own Adventures. Ghosts committing suicide! Ghosts beheading each other! Ghosts killing you! But there is a way to stop the horror. You and your two friends can solve the mystery. I wouldn't recommend trying to leave town in the story - as far as I remember, all choices to do so lead to death. Here's a hint - try to head for the library when possible.

I really love reading and re-reading this book. There is a definite atmosphere of creepy dread, and it's fun exploring all the different choices.

More reviews by yunakitty