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I'm a big fan of "choose your own adventure" (coya) stories, so when I came across Jendia Gammon's new (2026) book in the ur-text series, it was an instant purchase.
But Dungeon Crawl at the Haunted Mall is no throw-back. It is very contemporary in its language and setting. It's all about a group of kids exploring an abandoned '80s shopping mall that is, as you may have guessed from the title, haunted. Gammon's prose milks the decade's theme in all the right ways. Descriptions of turquoise decor, pay phones, and leg warmers made me smile. But true to my advancing age, I stumbled over a character with an unexpected non-gendered pronoun. (It was good for me.)
The story has ten possible endings. The only flaw that I found was that my first several choices were very linear and led me to multiple dead ends. However, after experiencing a couple of the endings, I backed up and found most of the others. All of them were satisfying.
Tip: When I read a book like this, I use two bookmarks. One, as usual, to keep the place when I stop reading. The second one marks the place of my last decision branch. That way, if I suddenly hit a dead end, I can go back and try another option. (I also lightly check off my decisions at each branch.)
There is an overview map on the back cover. I think the first blue branch to the right is the long, multiple dead-end trail that I encountered. The map does a good job, I suppose, of conveying the gestalt of the book, but I didn't use it during my reading. (And it's probably not intended to be used, but I believe it's a new addition to the series.)
The illustrations are contemporary, but quite good, imaginative, and enhance the story. Also, the trim size of this book is larger than its predecessors, which makes the drawings more impactful than in older books in the series.
If you also enjoy coya books, or interactive fiction in general, I recommend you pick this up. I'm excited that there might be a retro-resurgence of the genre and that new books in the series are being published. Have a look at the website linked at the start of this paragraph or, of course, the Amazon.
P.S.: During lockdown, I wrote a short online non-linear game in a coya style: The Silver Ingot: A Las Vegas Adventure