Status Updates From Welcome to Horror Hospital ...

There we go, despite at first agreeing to a hospital visit at Frankenstein Memorial, I made it out of there with minimal horror inflicted! Actually...given that the morgue mixup scene was a dream, I endured NO true moments of horror. In this timeline I have no concrete reason to say the hospital is a chamber of madness, but I've read enough other endings over the years to know that isn't true.

Already the Frankenstein staff seems neglectful. I'm a kid with a seriously bleeding head wound! But I won't go traipsing these halls in search of help. If my initial instincts about this hospital are right, I'm safer lying low and doing my best NOT to be noticed. My body will start the healing process on its own.

Ordinarily I would fight Coach Duffy to my dying breath not to be remanded to Frankenstein Memorial Hospital for my head wound incurred during the soccer game. But...that's what I usually do when I reread this book, and I don't want to follow the same route as always. So at this initial juncture I'm going to purposely buck my instincts.

Not a bad Bill Schmidt cover! Lots of pervasive menace in this image.

I always loved the storyline that ends here. It caps some serious intense action with one of the relatively rare good endings in this book. If you're naturally terrified of hospitals as I am, it's such a relief and release. It's remarkable how consistent a decision maker I must be though. I end up here surprisingly often...despite two of the choices being pure luck!

That illustration of the nurse on this page...she oozes subtle menace! Nice job again, Bill Schmidt. It's a similar but not identical image to the nurse on the book's cover.

Ugh...another cognitive test that I'm too unwell to pass reliably. I'm going to have to guess if I want to be released from Frankenstein Memorial Hospital without an overnight stay. Here goes...

Here's the big moment: my head is too badly hurt to see straight. Do I guess Dr. Berns is holding up one finger or two? I'll roll the dice and say...

Be admitted as a patient to Frankenstein Memorial Hospital willingly? No, no, no. I'm resisting as hard as the text allows...

Ready to get into this one? I haven't read every Choose Your Own Nightmare, but this one is far and away my favorite. Bill Schmidt as illustrator is dynamite.