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Nightshift: Choose your path and face the consequence
BONUS The hardback edition also has all the puzzles solutions and hidden passages!
Do you prefer your gamebooks to have less dice and more gore?
Welcome to the Nightshift!
Normally, you turn up at the hospital at 9PM and prepare to face whatever comes through the door. You’ve patched up gunshot wounds, plated broken bones and drained abscesses. Sometimes, you’ve spent the entire night watching TV, feeling bored and just willing the phone to ring. Waiting for something to happen. But what if something did happen? What would you do if your ordinary routine just turned upside down? In this adventure, you are not a hero. You’re just a hospital worker who’s plunged into an interactive battle against demons, witches and time itself. You're caught in the middle of a nightmare but will you be able to use your wits and survive? There’s a difference with this adventure though. There's no dice to throw and no battles to fight. You won't get through by being lucky and you definitely have no spells or swords. What will get you through is what you already have—knowledge, skills, memory and a pencil—the best advice is that you make notes of all the evidence and hints you find! You just might make it out if you can piece together the clues and figure out the puzzles.
Will you survive the Nightshift?
Do you prefer your gamebooks to have less dice and more gore?
Welcome to the Nightshift!
Normally, you turn up at the hospital at 9PM and prepare to face whatever comes through the door. You’ve patched up gunshot wounds, plated broken bones and drained abscesses. Sometimes, you’ve spent the entire night watching TV, feeling bored and just willing the phone to ring. Waiting for something to happen. But what if something did happen? What would you do if your ordinary routine just turned upside down? In this adventure, you are not a hero. You’re just a hospital worker who’s plunged into an interactive battle against demons, witches and time itself. You're caught in the middle of a nightmare but will you be able to use your wits and survive? There’s a difference with this adventure though. There's no dice to throw and no battles to fight. You won't get through by being lucky and you definitely have no spells or swords. What will get you through is what you already have—knowledge, skills, memory and a pencil—the best advice is that you make notes of all the evidence and hints you find! You just might make it out if you can piece together the clues and figure out the puzzles.
Will you survive the Nightshift?
- GenresGamebooks
203 pages, Hardcover
Published July 20, 2021
5 people are currently reading
56 people want to read
About the author
Victoria Hancox
20 books16 followersLiving in Berlin but still a Mancunian at heart!
Victoria Hancox has worked as a nurse, science teacher and now, is finally getting paid as a writer, albeit for e-learning content. This is a far cry from her early stabs at novels with the escapades of Charlie the hamster. These days she prefers to immerse herself in the world of interactive gamebooks, revisiting her misspent youth, where she cheated with dice, never died in battle and was always lucky.
When not at a desk, this (almost) lifelong vegetarian is usually cooking and eating, although she now has to fight off Frank the cat, especially when it comes to cheese and bread!
Victoria Hancox has worked as a nurse, science teacher and now, is finally getting paid as a writer, albeit for e-learning content. This is a far cry from her early stabs at novels with the escapades of Charlie the hamster. These days she prefers to immerse herself in the world of interactive gamebooks, revisiting her misspent youth, where she cheated with dice, never died in battle and was always lucky.
When not at a desk, this (almost) lifelong vegetarian is usually cooking and eating, although she now has to fight off Frank the cat, especially when it comes to cheese and bread!
Ratings & Reviews
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Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 10, 2023
I’ll start with the prefix that I prefer to read books for relaxation - even gamebooks and thus rarely take notes, pay attention to die-rolling and I cheat as much as I can. I disregard mechanics, but I do appreciate them as I read-play.
TL;DR: This is a challenging, well-written gamebook with a great atmosphere!
As Dane Berrett pointed out in his review, there are strong “Silent Hill” vibes here! Whether intentional or not, I felt them as well! I even had some of the music tracks playing in my head while read-playing.
Here are some objective things about the book:
+ Item hunting/collection
+ Multiple puzzles - you will need to pay attention, take notes and consult with an alphabet index (not included in the book). They are mandatory.
+ Since the adventure takes place in a hospital and from the viewpoint of a medical worker, there will be a lot of hospital and medical scenes which can be technical in description and oh, boy - usually gory and disturbing.
+ There are a lot of gory AND disturbing scenes in the book!
+ Other themes in the book: witchcraft + terror + horror + unease
+ There are pinches of dark and/or quirky humor sprinkled here and there
+ There are choices based on traversing locations - some of them are “blind/leaps of fate”
+ There are multiple possibilities for death - most of them can be avoided by careful play.
Here’s what I liked about the book.
+ Atmosphere!!! The text is very well-written and the themes mentioned above are beautifully woven together. For me this was the major factor that got me past the things I did not like. The author even published a “behind the scenes” post in her blog with details on the theme elements she used and why she chose to do so. Very cool!
+ Because of the many themes and general suspense, there is a pleasant surprise factor even when reaching a fatal ending. I intentionally went through all of these endings because they were so well-described!
+ Challenge! The author has stated that she loves puzzles and challenges. I was intimidated by the puzzles, but I was intrigued at how she posed the challenge - the protagonist’s context and that she gradually needs to struggle to understand what is the final goal and how to reach it.
+ The cat!!! Reach him and you will see what I mean
+ The illustrations of the Bulgarian edition - well, it’s worth mentioning that to me the picture of the final badie is the LEAST impressive one. All of the others fit perfectly into the context and they are suitably gruesome.
+ The personality of the protagonist. You are essentially playing as the author - that’s why thoughts and actions are coherent across the adventure … with 2 exceptions
+ The final boss battle -
Things I disliked:
- Too many puzzles! There’s even a math puzzle here which is mandatory.
I have choice words for the puzzles that require alphabet indexing and summing.
The movement in the hospital was too blind for me. Thank God that the author published the floor plan on her Facebook profile - it was only then that I was able to find out how moving and getting to specific rooms was actually possible.
TL;DR: This is a challenging, well-written gamebook with a great atmosphere!
As Dane Berrett pointed out in his review, there are strong “Silent Hill” vibes here! Whether intentional or not, I felt them as well! I even had some of the music tracks playing in my head while read-playing.
Here are some objective things about the book:
+ Item hunting/collection
+ Multiple puzzles - you will need to pay attention, take notes and consult with an alphabet index (not included in the book). They are mandatory.
+ Since the adventure takes place in a hospital and from the viewpoint of a medical worker, there will be a lot of hospital and medical scenes which can be technical in description and oh, boy - usually gory and disturbing.
+ There are a lot of gory AND disturbing scenes in the book!
+ Other themes in the book: witchcraft + terror + horror + unease
+ There are pinches of dark and/or quirky humor sprinkled here and there
+ There are choices based on traversing locations - some of them are “blind/leaps of fate”
+ There are multiple possibilities for death - most of them can be avoided by careful play.
Here’s what I liked about the book.
+ Atmosphere!!! The text is very well-written and the themes mentioned above are beautifully woven together. For me this was the major factor that got me past the things I did not like. The author even published a “behind the scenes” post in her blog with details on the theme elements she used and why she chose to do so. Very cool!
+ Because of the many themes and general suspense, there is a pleasant surprise factor even when reaching a fatal ending. I intentionally went through all of these endings because they were so well-described!
+ Challenge! The author has stated that she loves puzzles and challenges. I was intimidated by the puzzles, but I was intrigued at how she posed the challenge - the protagonist’s context and that she gradually needs to struggle to understand what is the final goal and how to reach it.
+ The cat!!! Reach him and you will see what I mean
+ The illustrations of the Bulgarian edition - well, it’s worth mentioning that to me the picture of the final badie is the LEAST impressive one. All of the others fit perfectly into the context and they are suitably gruesome.
+ The personality of the protagonist. You are essentially playing as the author - that’s why thoughts and actions are coherent across the adventure … with 2 exceptions
+ The final boss battle -
Things I disliked:
- Too many puzzles! There’s even a math puzzle here which is mandatory.
I have choice words for the puzzles that require alphabet indexing and summing.
The movement in the hospital was too blind for me. Thank God that the author published the floor plan on her Facebook profile - it was only then that I was able to find out how moving and getting to specific rooms was actually possible.
August 29, 2023
First time reading a Horror CYOA in this style, and I really did enjoy it!
It's very well written, and the atmosphere is brilliant, heck there are even maps on the author's website and Facebook!
I very much view this as a silent Hill and RE love child and would recommend it.
The only thing is, that I might not give this to someone just starting to get into cyoa books, BUT another book the author has done called The Phantom Self and then come back to this book.
Booktube Review
https://youtu.be/Kew8hAC7Dk4
It's very well written, and the atmosphere is brilliant, heck there are even maps on the author's website and Facebook!
I very much view this as a silent Hill and RE love child and would recommend it.
The only thing is, that I might not give this to someone just starting to get into cyoa books, BUT another book the author has done called The Phantom Self and then come back to this book.
Booktube Review
https://youtu.be/Kew8hAC7Dk4
April 26, 2024
Fun gamebook. Requires pen and paper to track items and to work out some puzzles.
February 29, 2024
Welp I've died twice, so far! Having a blast with this one! Removed one star for some editing/spelling issues, but still loved it. Absolutely thrilled that these are being made for adults because Choose-Your-Own Adventure books rocked my world as a kid. Fun!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews