Becky is planning on escaping Brightside by Mark Tullius and Dawna Gonzalez. Then, her neighbor is murdered. In this create your own adventure, you get to try to help her escape. Becky tries to investigate to find out who killed her neighbor and is still trying to escape.

This was my first choose your own adventure story. It was so fun except I kept picking the wrong choice. When you pick the wrong choice, it tells you which chapter to go back to to retry. I started randomly picking numbers instead of choosing what I thought was the best choice and did way better.

I did the choose your own adventure story and think I liked it more than I would've liked just listening to the story.

I listened to the audiobook narrated by Maxine Denis. Denis did a great job narrating and her voice worked well

Thank you NetGalley and Vincere Press for this audiobook.

<em>Time to make a decision...</em>

This is my first experience reading a choose your own adventure novel in audiobook format. And I have to admit that the idea is pretty fantastic. It's one thing to read them yourself, but as an audibook it's an entirely different experience. It's one that I think has a <em>lot</em> of potential. That said, <em>Try Not to Die: In Brightside</em> by Mark Tullius and Dawna Gonzales wasn't really all that great.

<b>Turn to Chapter 2</b>

As I said, I <em>love</em> the concept of a choose your own adventure in audiobook format. This was probably the single best thing about the whole story. Having the ability to listen to the story and have the main character make decisions based on my choices has always been something I've been intrigued by. It was truly wonderful to be able to do so simply by moving from chapter to chapter.

In its own way, the audiobook made it even easier to follow the process of jumping from chapter to chapter. As far as I'm concerned, this book could have been one of the most amazing I'd read this year if only the story was up to par.

<b>Try Again</b>

There are a lot of things that didn't really work well with this story. Perhaps part of it is that I did not read the original book by Tullius that built the world in which this book is set. That said, I do think this only plays a small role in my disappointment. Ultimately, the actual plot as well as the characters were not written very well. Everything is very matter of fact. The characters all have a goal and are working toward it, but there are a lot of weird things involved in order to make the events you have to choose between more dangerous.

The world-building is...okay. It's nothing mind-blowing, really. You've kind of just got some template for a dangerous escape novel in which the author kind of plugs in a bunch of mildly developed filler points and...voila. There's the book.

The characters, though, are probably the worst. I never once felt connected to any of them. There didn't seem to be any depth to a single character, or at least we never get enough time with anyone to unveil any of the potential depth they may have had. In the end all, even the main character, are very forgettable.

<b>Choosing Your Adventure</b>

Speaking of the main character, why were all the choices that furthered you along in the story awful? It almost felt as though the author were trying to discourage kind acts, since all the options to be kind and helpful resulted in her basically dying. Honestly, what the hell? I was <em>so</em> disappointed with this.

What's worse is that this really never felt like a choose your own adventure story. It was really more of a guess the option that won't get you killed kind of tale. This, admittedly, made me like the story a lot less than I might have if it actually had different endings that you could potentially reach.

In general, there was nothing <em>terrible </em>about the writing, but it was definitely subpar in a lot of ways. I think the only thing that the author could do a decent job at was action...but even that was very meh.

<b>Speaking of Meh</b>

I'm not sure if it was the characters, the writing, or just the narrator but I never once felt scared while reading this. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this supposed to be the kind of story that you feel scared while reading or listening to? Despite stakes being supposedly high, nothing ever felt that way. Not once. Which is <em>hilarious</em> because there are literally so many instances in which the main character dies if you make a bad choice.

The audio just needed <em>something</em> more to make me really feel like I was in the moment, to actually scare me. Maybe the voice should have been different. Maybe there should have been sound effects. Perhaps it would have been best to put in some creepy music. I'm not sure. But what they did do just didn't work for me.

So, at the end of the day this book wasn't terrible. But it's definitely not anything to get excited about, either.

<em>I was provided a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.</em>

This review will be live on the Reader Fox blog on October 2, 2020.

This was fun!
I loved choose your own adventure books as a child so an adult version was fab!
I love the authors writing style so even though I haven’t read brightside before listening I still thoroughly enjoyed and understood what was going on through the chapters.
My only gripe was I listen to audiobooks whilst at work and I had to keep changing chapters to follow my choices. Fine if I was home but at work it was a pain. My fault for choosing to listen whilst at work but I felt it was worth mentioning.
I’ve already picked up try not to die at grandmas house 😁

Rating: 2.5 rounded up to 3 /5 stars.

Opinions: In my opinion, Try Not to Die: In Brightside was precisely average. The plot was engaging, but not electrifying. The characters were consistent, but not relatable. The themes were existent, but not resonating. Although I had a blast flicking through the book to choose my own adventure, I did not gain anything from reading this nor am I counting down the days until the next book releases. There's not much else to say; Try Not to Die: In Brightside fell just short of my expectations.

My Favourite Thing: I appreciate Tullius' dedication and passion for his "Try Not to Die" series. As a writer myself, I understand how difficult writing choose-your-own-adventure stories can be. Despite this, he never confused paths, misplaced information, or forgot a character's mission! I definitely appreciate that, however uninterested in the book I was, he did an excellent job creating a credible and flowing story.

My Least Favourite Thing: That said, Tullius cheated in writing a choose-your-own-adventure book. Readers are supposed to choose a new path at every crossroad the author provides and end up at one of the multiple conclusions. Rather, Tullius provided two choices: the right one, which allowed you to continue the story, and the wrong one, which forced you to reread a chapter and choose the correct choice. There were no paths, only obstacles. This was irritating and very restricting, which is the opposite of the book's intent!

Total Rating: PG-12
Language: PG-13
Adult Content: PG
Violence: PG-13

Recommended For and Similar Reads: Try Not to Die: In Brightside is an intense and complex read for fans of choose-your-own adventure stories looking for a bit more structure in their books. If you've watched "Bandersnatch" or played Dungeons and Dragons, you should try Tullius' "Try Not to Die" series!

Brightside is a beautiful mountain town. It is also a prison. Special people are sent here and held. They are treated just fine if they work and proceed as they are supposed to. But those that don't are sent to the lodge and come back with their spirit broken. Becky has only been here for 10 days and already hates it. But she hears there might be an escape attempt and she must join in.

I haven't read a choose your adventure story like this in forever. I wasn't sure how it would work with the audiobook, but it was super easy. At the end of the chapter, the narrator tells you that you must make a decision. You then skip to whichever chapter you choose to learn your fate. I died way more times than I shall admit, but it was fun. The audiobook also gives the option to skip ahead if you just wanted to listen to the story, which I appreciated.

I will say that while I did not read the previous book, I had no problem following along. Probably would've been better if I had, but the action started so fast, you just learned to go with the flow. Overall, I thought this was fun.

I received a copy of this audio book from net galley in exchange for an honest review.

Let me be clear...I think I would have enjoyed this a lot more if I had read the first book in the series before listening to this audio book. I was a little confused during the story as I couldn't follow who certain characters were that I am assuming had been mentioned in the first book. That being said, I did enjoy this audio book and the choose your own adventure style of it. I think that is what made it enjoyable for me, being able to choose what happens next even if I made a mistake and chose the wrong path.

I really do think that the authors have great promise with this series and will be picking up the first book in the series just because I actually want to know what happened prior to the start of this audio book.

I listened to the audiobook version of this novel and all I can say is what a mess. I loved choose your own adventure type books as a kid, but this doesn’t work as an audio. The decisions are thrown at you too quickly with little explanation and the book moves on to the next chapter before you have time to make the selection. I like to put my phone down and listen to and audiobook without having to click every few minutes. This story kept me attached to my phone and unable to relax into the story.

The story itself was hard to understand. It seemed to leap straight into something I was meant to understand but wasn’t explained clearly enough. I didn’t get chance to engage with the protagonist and I didn’t know what was happening.

There were also some technical issues where phrases were repeated that appeared to be editing issues rather than intentional. It doesn’t take much effort to check your audiobook before releasing it for review and it’s disappointing that this hadn’t been done.

Choose your own adventure is a great idea, but this book simply doesn’t work.

I enjoyed the story and found the "choose your adventure" part to be an interactive twist on the audiobook experience. My biggest qualm with this story is that it was evidently second in the series and depended too much on the reader/listener knowing the background to make sense. Because I have not read the first book, I feel very disconnected from the protagonist,. I was blindsided and confused when she started telepathically communicated with other characters and the narration did nothing to help clarify these plot points. The protagonist's relationships also felt jarring and like the author focused too much on telling and not enough on showing. Still, the story and world were interesting and perhaps with the experience of the first book, my experience with this one would have been radically different.

An Interactive Book? Cool!

The idea is great. I remember reading these kinds of books when I was a teen. And being able to click a link or skip to another chapter instead of flipping pages is an awesome updated version.

The story follows Becky as she tries to escape a town that's riddled with "Boots" aka the bad guys. Her brother's in the town as well. The story and concept are great.

This is book two of a series and I am not sure if I needed to read book one before giving this a try. My only issue is that I would have like more story in the story. More back story but that could be my fault because that back story is probably in book one.

I like the fact that you get two versions, the interactive one and the regular version if picking your own adventure isn't your thing. This still gives you the opportunity to read the story and enjoy the Authors work.

Getting started was rough as the narrator's voice wasn't really engaged in the tale. I didnt pay close attention and ended up killing the main character on the first decision. While the story was interesting it left me wanting to know more about Brightside. Why are the really there? Other than dying, what are they trying to get away from? Just not thought out well, for me, but overall it was interesting.

What a fun book. I have not done a "Choose your Adventure" book in years, not since reading them when my kids were small. Tjisvwas such an interesting story and giving me options made it more dnjoyable.

I LOVED the premise having never tried an interactive book/ audiobook before!
This was really clever but quite difficult to follow. I listen to audiobooks while multi tasking which I would not recommend with this one!
The narrator was great and she really engaged me with the role and the decisions I had to make.
I feel the plot could have been stronger and there was more time to decide before it immediately started the next chapter.

I loved the choose your own adventure books as a kid and I was so happy to see an audiobook version. The story follows Becky as she tries to escape the town she's trapped in. She was sent there for being a 'though thief' aka telepathic, where the guards are as likely to kill you as keep you safe. She makes choices throughout the day that will hopefully lead to freedom. You face the guards, push other prisoners into letting you into their plans, and choose which route won't get you caught.

I had a great time with the different decisions, even though I died a lot lol. There's also a version at the end that takes you through the story with the right choices, but where's the fun in that? I'm excited for the next book and will be on the lookout!

I received this audiobook from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

The excerpt of the audiobook peaked my interest. The narrator is a sophomore on highschool who was brought to Brightside two weeks ago. She’s an outsider who silently observes all that is going on around her because Brightside and it’s people is not a normal town. We learn that people are dragged away in the night. Wrong thoughts will get you detained in the cabin and nurse Jenny, pleasant as she may seem carries a glock. All so interesting this I want to learn more.

I was a big fan of choose your own adventure style books as a child so I was immediately drawn to this book. It is definitely an adult version though with death as a theme! I enjoyed trying to make the right choices in order to stay alive - very cleaverly done.

In this fun little choose you own adventure audiobook, you step into the role of the main character. You are trying to escape with others from the seemingly perfect town of Brightside. The people of this town read thoughts and only talk out loud when they don’t want to look suspicious. Be careful because you never know who might be listening in on your silent conversations. You will be given a choice at the end of every chapter. Choose correctly and you might escape the town, choose incorrectly and you will die

I really enjoyed this audio book. I have not come across an audio book that is a choose your own adventure until this one. Its a wonderful concept that I really enjoyed.
I liked that to choose the next part of the story you just had to skip ahead to a new chapter and that could be done easily through the chapter listing for the book.
If you do happen to choose a chapter in the book where the protagonist does die, you can decide to try again and make a different choice and continue the story.

I really liked the narration, the voice fit the character really well and the pace of the reading was perfect for me. I did not need to speed up or slow down the pace of the book. everything was pronounced clearly too which was wonderful.

About the only thing that annoyed me a bit about this book is that its written in first person, therefore when you do make a choice that culminates in our charter's death, the death is described in first person, which annoyed me, as you can't describe your own death if your dead...this I know, is personal preference with reading.
I certainly would recommend this book to others as I found it to be unique and very entertaining.

This was fun! Trying to guess what I should do to not die! I haven't really seen a choose your adventure type book in along time but I remember them being really popular with my students in the late 90s. Brightside is some sort of compound made to look like a town. There are "boots" who are patrolling and keeping the "thought thieves" in line. There's "the cabin" that they are taken to if they don't behave. The mind readers are sent to be studied and controlled in Brightside but they are not taking it anymore. The residents plan their escape. And you need to make the right decisions to get them out.

The narrator hit a good balance. She changed her voice for different characters without making any of them sound completely ridiculous. She sounded like a believable teenage girl unsure of what she was doing or how far she was willing to go to escape. I loved that there was an option to skip ahead and just listen to the story without the choices if you want to. I didn't, but it was good to have it there.

I would love to recommend this to adults and young ones alike. There is obviously violence, since you are trying not to die and don't always succeed. So you may want to be careful who you recommend it to.

What a cool concept! This is my first choose-your-own-adventure in audio form. It starts off with a bang, with a serial killer in a small town. I definitely died my first go. There's a survivor version without choices later on in the book, too. It's a campy story, for sure, but it's fun!

2.5* which makes it an ok read for me. Due to the points that I’ve listed below. There’s a good story amongst it.
I am not the target audience for this book which is YA. What made me want to listen is the very novel interactive element where you choose the direction the story goes.
This is an audiobook version. It is the 2nd part of the story. It feels like a longer novel has been chopped into 3 segments, as it doesn’t have any backstory at all to make it easier to follow if you haven’t read book one and ends very abruptly. Therefore this really needs to be read in series order.
With the options I found it very confusing,stilted and frustrating. The options were given too quickly. I just seemed to be going round in circles, as there wasn’t any explanation that you need to make the correct choice to continue.
So I gave up with that and went for the regular no choice story which starts at chapter 55.
It was a good story once I’d gone for the basic option.