Welcome to Horror Hospital

Choose Your Own Nightmare #16

by Laban Carrick Hill

You can't believe your bad luck. In your first game as soccer goalie, you broke your arm. Now you're stuck spending the night in the hospital.



You tell yourself that it's no big deal. So what if you're stuck in a room with a weird mumbling guy? And the TV doesn't work. And the food is gross.



That's just the beginning. Because this hospital isn't like any other. It doesn't help you get better--it makes you worse!

Genres: Gamebooks

87 pages, Paperback

First published July 7, 1997

Reviews

[Colton · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is another CYON written by Laban Carrick Hill, who has proven to be my favorite writer in the series, delivering lots of solid entries so far. This was surprisingly dark at times, which was appropriate for the story (hospitals are a real fear for many adults as well as children). Hill illustrates that most chilling of fears - losing control of your body to strangers who have the potential to harm you. The story is pretty simple; you get kicked in the head and are wheeled to a hospital with a less-than-stellar record. It seems some of their patients disappear forever. The writing is quality, doing its job and staying out of the way, though I would have liked to see a little more description of scenes. There seemed to be more happy endings than usual, but the bad endings are dark enough to make up for this fact. Especially chilling is a scene in which you receive an impromptu surgery from an escaped psychopath. All in all, a quite solid book I'd recommend.

[Víctor Hugo Magallón · Rating 3 out of 5]

Algo así como los Escalofríos de R. L. Stein, pero con finales alternativos. Es muy confortable leer este tipo de historias de hospital cuando uno esta en rehabilitación.

El Hospital del Terror es un relato de horror para niños y jóvenes, con la posibilidad de cambiar la estructura y el final de la historia.

RECOMENDABLE SI:
- Gustas del terror para niños.

- Te gustan las portadas con sexis enfermeras.

- Te gustan los relatos con finales alternativos.

[Nader Nate · Rating 3 out of 5]

6.5/10
it has Only 2 bad endings
2 bittersweet
5 Good ending

[Sarah Hayes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it read it in middle school

[Josiah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Author Laban Carrick Hill uses the gamebook format with excellent skill and creativity, and the story is surprisingly intense for its small size. Many young readers fear doctors anyway, and Welcome to Horror Hospital capitalizes on this. Of course, not many people would like being taken to a medieval-looking hospital and treated by a black-toothed doctor named Frank N. Stein who appears and acts none too trustworthy, but you do have the choice as to how strongly you resist. Push back hard enough at the points of decision and you will find avenues to escape, where you can convalesce in safety at home. If you are willing to take risks, however, you'll find storylines that make for suspenseful reading. If you're smart and have a modicum of luck, you'll have a good chance of reaching a positive ending.

I like the setup of this book. For some readers the story threads might seem a bit cluttered and confusing, but Welcome to Horror Hospital will bring a lot of excitement to young readers who like this kind of tense, personally involving narrative. It seemed to me that I felt a little bit more relief than usual when I reached a good End in this book. Maybe part of the reason for that, in addition to the convincingly frightening writing and scary plot, is the fact that You are allowed a lot of personal freedom in the story. Rarely do you not have a choice to attempt escape from the hospital if that is what you want to do. As a result, perhaps the peril in which You find yourself feels more real than in most other decision books.

This is one of the best entries in the Choose Your Own Nightmare series, and I probably give it two and a half stars.

[Betty · Rating 3 out of 5]

good reading for lower grades