Rhi Axtell – Writer

Childhood for many in a confusing time. And for me, it was made more confusing when my mother bought me a particular Goosebumps book.

Now, being bought a Goosebumps book wasn’t unusual for me (and maybe my love of spooky began around the age I was reading them, but let’s not dive too deeply into dissecting my childhood today), but it was this particular book that was unusual.

The book was Escape from the Carnival of Horrors which is the first in a series called Give Yourself Goosebumps. Basically, it was a horror book for children, but it was also a choose your own adventure book. You moved from page to page, the page number changing depending on choices you made for your character during the story. I vaguely remember it being about the protagonist breaking into a carnival at night and it being filled with all kinds of creeps and ghoulish happenings.

I also remember being incredibly confused. I read through this book multiple times and something about my brain couldn’t not figure out where I was supposed to go. I’m pretty sure that I managed to reach every single ‘your character dies horribly’ ending, but never managed to actually reach the end.

In fact, recalling this right now, I am incredibly annoyed. I even remember cheating – I would reach a point in the game book where it would ask ‘Have you got Item X? Go to Page X’ and I would pretend I had that item to try and win… and still I don’t remember ever reaching a satisfying ending?

I will add that I loved the book – I am not someone who spends a lot of time on things (especially when I was a child) and I spent a lot of time flicking through the pages of this spooky story, not just out of frustration, but out of enjoyment too.

… I’m going to have to read this book again, aren’t I?

Yeah, okay. I’ll update you when I do.

See you tomorrow!