Help! You're trapped in the Hall of Science. And a mad Super Computer wants to keep you there forever.
Escaping is the ultimate challenge. Because in this book, there's only one way out. That's right. Make one mistake -- and you're cake!
The Hall of Science is filled with tools you can use to protect yourself against a terrifying T-rex, a rampaging robot arm, and other enemies. But look out! The giant mutated germ will make you sick. And the pendulum will hypnotize you... to death!
The choice is yours in this scary Goosebumps adventure. It's packed with over 20 super-spooky endings -- but only one way out!
Robert Lawrence Stine known as R. L. Stine and Jovial Bob Stine, is an American novelist and writer, well known for targeting younger audiences. Stine, who is often called the Stephen King of children's literature, is the author of dozens of popular horror fiction novellas, including the books in the Goosebumps, Rotten School, Mostly Ghostly, The Nightmare Room and Fear Street series.
R. L. Stine began his writing career when he was nine years old, and today he has achieved the position of the bestselling children's author in history. In the early 1990s, Stine was catapulted to fame when he wrote the unprecedented, bestselling Goosebumps® series, which sold more than 250 million copies and became a worldwide multimedia phenomenon. His other major series, Fear Street, has over 80 million copies sold.
Stine has received numerous awards of recognition, including several Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards and Disney Adventures Kids' Choice Awards, and he has been selected by kids as one of their favorite authors in the NEA's Read Across America program. He lives in New York, NY.
When I was a little girl, Into the Jaws of Doom is the only Give Yourself Goosebumps that I did not enjoy. Unlike the others, this book is unnecessarily complicated with its implementation of the dice roll and an inventory (that had items with dubious usefulness) in order to advance. While some might delight in the book's difficulty, I got frustrated that there was only one true ending. What I really liked in the other Give Yourself Goosebumps is the fact that there were many endings that could be considered the real one, depending on the choices one makes. Either a positive or negative outcome left me giggling delightedly and even more determined to unlock the other endings. Not so with this book. Although I have tried, my efforts turned out in vain. One unlucky dice roll, or one missing key inventory item and you are done for. I threw away this book in disgust and never tried it again.
Pick another book from the series. You'll be happier.
Definitely way too complicated and I hated the format of the pages. And when you get to where it says go right then left then left then right, you will get lost. It’s just not good. This is the first special edition so they tried something new but they quickly realized that it didn’t work and fixed the problem because the one after was GREAT. One that’s like this but did it right is #25 shop til you drop… dead
The storyline was okay, there was a bit of adventure. There weren't really any other human characters.
I liked: The Visible Man, learning how to use an abacus, finding certain items, and that if you lost, sometimes you are given a hint on what to do/need.
Apart from that, it wasn't so amazing. The dinosaur wasn't a huge part of the storyline (so could have had a more appropriate cover). The good ending seemed a bit weird. I didn't like how in order to actually win, you need to go into one part, then leave that place to go somewhere else, then return to the place you originally first went to. Just made it unnecessarily longer.
Unlike most books in the Give Yourself Goosebumps series, or Choose Your Own Adventure books in general, where there are multiple good or bad outcomes, Into The Jaws of Doom: The Ultimate Challenge Special Edition, has only one good ending and every other outcome leads to death, doom, mutilation, and just plain not fun things.
Make no mistake, this is Choose Your Own Adventure Hard mode.
While most of the Give Yourself Goosebumps books have 130-some branches (one page for each step in the adventure, give or take), dividing storylines, and the occasional branch where you may have picked an item on the way, this book has 238 branches, most of the pages are divided in half, and there is one constant storyline regardless of the choices you make. You also have to keep track of the items you picked up, some of the maps hidden in the book and where they are, and the rooms you visited previously by writing them down. The icing on the cake? Some of the events are decided by chance with a dice roll, and sometimes your character's (ie. YOUR) height and weight comes into play and will screw up your chances of survival depending on the traps. Whether you wear braces comes into play one time!
In short, this book is like a Choose Your Own Adventure book that has started a bizarre metamorphosis into a tabletop RPG and has already started to gain tiny traits of one.
And your enjoyment of this book will depend entirely on whether you want to deal with this sort of challenge.
In this Choose Your Own Adventure book, you are a nameless, blank slate of a kid taking a class trip to the Hall of Incredible Science, a science museum full of all sorts of dangerous gadgets that seem almost futuristic in their design. Unlike most of the Give Yourself Goosebumps stories where you have at least one buddy tagging along, usually an A-student with glasses or a dorky, slacker goofball, you're all by your lonesome because you got distracted by a video game in the computer lab when the field trip was over. Someone sends you a message over one of the computers that The Super Computer has taken over the building and, now that you now "know too much" just by reading this plea for help, the entire building and all of its technology is being infected by The Super Computer's intelligent A.I. and everything is trying to kill you.
When I say "everything is trying to kill you", I mean it. The computer controls everything in the museum and wants you dead. Locked in a giant building on its own is pretty spooky; giant bugs and moving T. Rex skeletons escaping the exhibits seeking your demise makes it even worse.
Some of the deaths are pretty gruesome (deaths include falling down elevator shafts, being electrocuted, poisoned by a snake bite, being drained of blood by a giant mosquito, and robot-inflicted murder), but the Goosebumps writing manages to keep it from being too horrible. Typical of Goosebumps fare, some of the deaths tastefully fade to black and/or have a Cryptkeeper-esque pun associated with them. For example, when your character gets strangled to death by a disembodied robot arm, the game over text includes the pun "ARMed and dangerous". I remember an electrocution scene using the phrase "Shocking!" somewhere in there too.
Somehow the Goosebumps puns seem less silly when they're paired up with a character with extremely low chances of survival who was only a victim of circumstance, but what can you do.
If you've read a Give Yourself Goosebumps before, you should know what to expect in terms of content and writing style. Since these are aimed mainly at children, the visuals are one step away from being too terrifying provided you don't dwell on them too long (having your blood completely drained out by a foot-long mosquito would be downright horrifying in real life) and the humor style, when it breaks up the suspense, is completely benign and goofy. This book just happens to have only one good ending and you have to work for it.
I will admit, I have yet to actually complete this book and get the good ending, but I have had fun attempting to make my way out and have gotten pretty far in previous attempts. This is one of those books where you spend an afternoon with a sheet of paper and a pair of dice trying to solve it. I appreciate it for what it was trying to do.
Think of it as a game more than a book, really. If you try to go into it with the same mindset of other Choose Your Own Adventure books, where you're going to try to hit the multiple endings or casually see if you can somehow get a good ending, this book might only serve to frustrate you. You have to play with the high stakes in mind.
THE the hall is full of deadly puzzles you will need to solve. (PAGE 8) THE SETTING OF THE STORY IS THE HALL OF THE INCREDIBLE SCIENCE. WERE THERE WAS A BOY THAT WAS THE MAIN CHARACTER. THE EVIL COMPUTER THE THING THAT PUT HIM THROUGH ALL THIS TROUBLE. THAT NIGHT HE WENT THROUGH MANY THINGS SUCH AS” GOING THROUGH THE HALL SEARCHING IN ROOMS FOR MAPS AND FIND THING AROUND THE AREA. THE EVIL COMPUTER LOCKED DOWN THE BUILDING PUTTING EVERYTHING IN HIS POWERS THE BOY WAS ABLE TO GET HELP FROM A PAL BUT HE DIDENT KNOW WHO OR WHERE HE WAS ON THE EARTH. AND THERES A ZILLON OF PEOPLE BUT THE EVIL COMPUTER EXSPECTS THE BOY TO BE IN THE MUSEAM.THE BOY WAS HAVING A BAD DAY RUNNING AND HIDING AROUND THE MUSEAMTO HIDE FROM DINUSUARS. Since he needed to run room to room he found an electric motor he flew a plane around to get around faster.
This book was really hard to read becaue, not like the other R.L. Stine books..you can give yourself goosebumps. You ever yelled at the T.V. or a book because the main character is so stupid...well take it upon yourself and choose your own destiny ...but it's not as easy as it sounds. I died plenty of times.
A super nostalgic and surprisingly difficult choose your own adventure. Definitely on "hard mode", even for adults. It was great to read it aloud with friends!