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Choose Your Own Adventure #99
Revenge of the Russian Ghost
The reader is visiting Russia on an exchange program when invited to a seance. At the seance, the spirit of Rasputin is contacted, and the reader is hurled back in time to the Russian Revolution--just before Rasputin's murder!
117 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1990
About the author
Jay Leibold
36 books4 followersPseudonym used by Jay Montavon. Author of fifteen books in the original Choose Your Own Adventure series, including the five-book "Secret of the Ninja" saga.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
October 5, 2024
A case can be made this is the type of gamebook Jay Leibold does best: historical but with a supernatural undercurrent. You are serving an internship in Russia with the Institute for Alternative Medicine, and have made friends with Ilya, a Soviet girl. As the story opens, Ilya presents a wild idea: attending a séance led by a spiritualist named Madame Kolodina. The goal is to coax Grigory Rasputin, the mad monk himself, from beyond the grave to find out if the legends about his healing powers are true. You reluctantly accompany Ilya to Madame Kolodina's place, but as you're about to enter, a man holding a shoebox clutches your arm and insists on speaking to you in private. This feels like a setup; should you ignore him and go inside for the séance, or bolt the scene with Ilya right now?
You are confused to find the same man upstairs in the house. He thrusts the shoebox on you, and this time you take it. As Madame Kolodina calls forth the ghost, the room tremors violently, furniture crashing all over. You and Ilya flee the house, but two groups of men follow, seemingly after the shoebox. You could leap into the River Neva, but that will spirit you back to this same region of Russia...in the year 1916. After arresting you for vagrancy, the police in 1916 discover the only thing in the shoebox is an old leather boot. What's going on here? In the holding cell you meet Paul—an affable gypsy—Fyodor—an anti-czar revolutionary—and an aloof monk named Iliodor. Which of them will you join up with? Iliodor is connected to Prince Yussupov, who you learn is planning to assassinate Rasputin, advisor to Czar Nicholas II. You sense the boot in your possession belongs to Rasputin and you need him alive to return to your own time, but can you change the course of history? Be careful meddling with Yussupov; he can be heartless. Go with Fyodor instead of Iliodor and you end up trying to gain an audience with Rasputin at the palace. Fyodor may try to use you as a weapon against Rasputin, which won't forward your goals. Leaving the jail with Paul the gypsy rather than Fyodor or Iliodor takes you into the gypsy camp, where you may meet Rasputin by coincidence. There's a powerful magnetism about him, but if you weather it, he might guide you home.
Maybe you ran with Ilya at first sight of the man with the shoebox, never entering Madame Kolodina's domain. That night a ghostlike figure bursts into your bedroom and demands you "Give me back my boot." Humoring him may seem best, but copping to the truth that you don't have the boot expands your options. The police arrive with suspicious speed and are more interested in ransacking Ilya's home than tracking down the ghost, or whatever it was. Things aren't adding up; should you go see Madame Kolodina after all? If not, the man with the shoebox contacts you for a meeting. What he has in the box is a boot Rasputin wore on the night of his murder in 1916, an object of lore that could make you and the man both wealthy if you sell it in America and split the cash. Is it wise to smuggle a Russian artifact out of the country? If you went and spoke with Madame Kolodina, you learn the real story of the ghost in your bedroom, and can end the mystery with minimal drama. You've had enough of ghosts, real and contrived.
Revenge of the Russian Ghost features good variety of vocabulary. There's also more depth of characterization than usual for Choose Your Own Adventure: Iliodor, Fyodor, and Paul each feel distinctive, so your choice who to go with has real meaning. The timeline in 1916 is absolutely fixed; you interact with historical personages, but are unable to perturb their fate. That lowers the stakes of the story, but it's really about getting you back to your own time, not altering history. I like several of Stephen Marchesi's illustrations, some of which do nice things with light; see the drawing opposite page one, for example. Revenge of the Russian Ghost isn't bad, but doesn't stand out. It's the quintessential average entry in the series.
You are confused to find the same man upstairs in the house. He thrusts the shoebox on you, and this time you take it. As Madame Kolodina calls forth the ghost, the room tremors violently, furniture crashing all over. You and Ilya flee the house, but two groups of men follow, seemingly after the shoebox. You could leap into the River Neva, but that will spirit you back to this same region of Russia...in the year 1916. After arresting you for vagrancy, the police in 1916 discover the only thing in the shoebox is an old leather boot. What's going on here? In the holding cell you meet Paul—an affable gypsy—Fyodor—an anti-czar revolutionary—and an aloof monk named Iliodor. Which of them will you join up with? Iliodor is connected to Prince Yussupov, who you learn is planning to assassinate Rasputin, advisor to Czar Nicholas II. You sense the boot in your possession belongs to Rasputin and you need him alive to return to your own time, but can you change the course of history? Be careful meddling with Yussupov; he can be heartless. Go with Fyodor instead of Iliodor and you end up trying to gain an audience with Rasputin at the palace. Fyodor may try to use you as a weapon against Rasputin, which won't forward your goals. Leaving the jail with Paul the gypsy rather than Fyodor or Iliodor takes you into the gypsy camp, where you may meet Rasputin by coincidence. There's a powerful magnetism about him, but if you weather it, he might guide you home.
Maybe you ran with Ilya at first sight of the man with the shoebox, never entering Madame Kolodina's domain. That night a ghostlike figure bursts into your bedroom and demands you "Give me back my boot." Humoring him may seem best, but copping to the truth that you don't have the boot expands your options. The police arrive with suspicious speed and are more interested in ransacking Ilya's home than tracking down the ghost, or whatever it was. Things aren't adding up; should you go see Madame Kolodina after all? If not, the man with the shoebox contacts you for a meeting. What he has in the box is a boot Rasputin wore on the night of his murder in 1916, an object of lore that could make you and the man both wealthy if you sell it in America and split the cash. Is it wise to smuggle a Russian artifact out of the country? If you went and spoke with Madame Kolodina, you learn the real story of the ghost in your bedroom, and can end the mystery with minimal drama. You've had enough of ghosts, real and contrived.
Revenge of the Russian Ghost features good variety of vocabulary. There's also more depth of characterization than usual for Choose Your Own Adventure: Iliodor, Fyodor, and Paul each feel distinctive, so your choice who to go with has real meaning. The timeline in 1916 is absolutely fixed; you interact with historical personages, but are unable to perturb their fate. That lowers the stakes of the story, but it's really about getting you back to your own time, not altering history. I like several of Stephen Marchesi's illustrations, some of which do nice things with light; see the drawing opposite page one, for example. Revenge of the Russian Ghost isn't bad, but doesn't stand out. It's the quintessential average entry in the series.
December 21, 2020
Well that was a fun reading experience! I never came across the choose your own adventure books as a kid so I’m bummed it took me this long to discover them. In regards to how well this particular book compares to the other choose your adventure books, I can’t say if it’s better or worse. The author did a good job at establishing the base of the story and I thought the choices were really cool. I ended up dying at my first go and it was great to go back and read all the possibilities! Definitely reading more books like this.
November 10, 2018
This was a great entry in the series. While visiting the Soviet Union (this book was published one year before the dissolution in 1991), you visit a medium and end up thrown back to the time of Rasputin and must find your way home. Leibold goes in-depth exploring the world of pre-revolution Russia, and does a great job building a cold and haunting atmosphere. This was a really memorable setting and the choices were pretty fun. Recommended!
February 5, 2025
Apparently, I took the shortest option of the story lol But the way Russia is described so stereotypically shows me there's no need to try a different scenario. The extra star is simply for the idea of choosing one's own adventure
browsed
August 18, 2024Overdue podcast 101220 “travels” figuratively to Russia to hang out with Rasputin.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews