What do you think?
Usborne Puzzle Adventures #13
The Vanishing Village
One of an action packed series of mystery and adventure stories interwoven with plenty of puzzles to solve, this book gives extra clues as well as complete answers at the back of the book.
48 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 1990
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
May 19, 2021
I read this about 27 years ago but as far as I can remember it was great and I keep yearning for it.
March 22, 2026
Review of this particular book:
Two friends find themselves in a mysterious village that disappears the next day! Turns out it's under a curse and they gotta break it.
Out of all the books in this series I've read, this is by far the most dry. There is very little action, and the villain has a passive role. Most of the book is spent researching and investigating old English ruins, and the puzzles follow suit.
Feels like you're some kind of history detective, with lots of code breaking, comparing old information to new information, following cryptic instructions, and examining maps. I can see why this was my least favourite as a kid, but as an adult I was much more into it.
As usual, the puzzles vary in quality/difficulty... some are tedious since they involve deciphering walls of text. Some have an annoying perspective, or don't feel very clear, but for the most part I think this had the best designed puzzles out of the three I had as a kid and I had a good time with it.
Review of the series in general:
I had a collection of some of these as a kid, and loved them! Reading them again now, it's obvious I didn't solve all the puzzles when I was young... some I struggled with even as an adult (and some I just outright got wrong).
That's one of the problems with these books... the difficulty is all over the place. About half of the puzzles I can solve within 30 seconds, a quarter I can solve after thinking about them for a couple minutes, and then there is a quarter where I need to get out some pen and paper to puzzle things out.
And if you get something wrong, welp, you've got it wrong forever! That's one of the advantages video games like Professor Layton has... it can tell you you're wrong without giving you the answer, so you can try again. For this reason, I advise checking the hints section before confirming your answer, just to make sure you didn't miss something.
Puzzle quality is also mixed. Most are fun, but there are some the feel unfair because you weren't given enough information, or the information given wasn't clear enough. Some puzzles would also really benefit by having physical components separate from the book (like maps and puzzles pieces), but I get why they didn't do that (budget).
The stories are all simple but entertaining enough for a kid... I certainly enjoyed them and re-read them even after going through the puzzles. It helps that so many of the pages are dense with fun details and jokes... though they have to be, because you often have to go back and check details on previous pages to solve puzzles.
But yeah! These tend to be a mixed bag and I don't know if people who didn't grew up with them would enjoy them, but I still think they're a good time for the most part and a fun diversion even as an adult.
Two friends find themselves in a mysterious village that disappears the next day! Turns out it's under a curse and they gotta break it.
Out of all the books in this series I've read, this is by far the most dry. There is very little action, and the villain has a passive role. Most of the book is spent researching and investigating old English ruins, and the puzzles follow suit.
Feels like you're some kind of history detective, with lots of code breaking, comparing old information to new information, following cryptic instructions, and examining maps. I can see why this was my least favourite as a kid, but as an adult I was much more into it.
As usual, the puzzles vary in quality/difficulty... some are tedious since they involve deciphering walls of text. Some have an annoying perspective, or don't feel very clear, but for the most part I think this had the best designed puzzles out of the three I had as a kid and I had a good time with it.
Review of the series in general:
I had a collection of some of these as a kid, and loved them! Reading them again now, it's obvious I didn't solve all the puzzles when I was young... some I struggled with even as an adult (and some I just outright got wrong).
That's one of the problems with these books... the difficulty is all over the place. About half of the puzzles I can solve within 30 seconds, a quarter I can solve after thinking about them for a couple minutes, and then there is a quarter where I need to get out some pen and paper to puzzle things out.
And if you get something wrong, welp, you've got it wrong forever! That's one of the advantages video games like Professor Layton has... it can tell you you're wrong without giving you the answer, so you can try again. For this reason, I advise checking the hints section before confirming your answer, just to make sure you didn't miss something.
Puzzle quality is also mixed. Most are fun, but there are some the feel unfair because you weren't given enough information, or the information given wasn't clear enough. Some puzzles would also really benefit by having physical components separate from the book (like maps and puzzles pieces), but I get why they didn't do that (budget).
The stories are all simple but entertaining enough for a kid... I certainly enjoyed them and re-read them even after going through the puzzles. It helps that so many of the pages are dense with fun details and jokes... though they have to be, because you often have to go back and check details on previous pages to solve puzzles.
But yeah! These tend to be a mixed bag and I don't know if people who didn't grew up with them would enjoy them, but I still think they're a good time for the most part and a fun diversion even as an adult.
December 26, 2014
I loved the Usborne Puzzle Adventure books when I was young and could happily while away hours working through them so I was excited to pick this up for free. But it was disappointingly difficult (I spent over an hour just decoding the sundial message on p. 17 and was clueless about navigating through the stones on p. 35 even with the decoded message) and I can't imagine kids being able to sail through this one. I did enjoy all the clever puns and sight gags though. But I think I'll go raid my childhood collection and see if I can do better rereading them!
December 20, 2011
Borrowed from a co-worker, had this laying around in the office. Started reading out of curiosity but end up getting hooked. Strangely, I got mad when people disturb me while I was solving the puzzles, even though I read this in office lol
December 21, 2016
My eight year old enjoyed hearing me read this and really liked figuring out the puzzles. Most he could do but some were a bit tricky. There is a mention of sorcery - someone using dark magic to make the village disappear but it is only mentioned not dwelt upon.
December 12, 2021
Another great entry to the Usborne Puzzle Adventures series. Tremendous fun.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews