YA Bandersnatch [The Citadel of Whispers by Kazim Ali]

From Chooseco, the publishers of the Choose Your Own Adventure® gamebook series

YOU are Krishi, a Whisperer studying ancient, secret magic at the Citadel. A secret visitor arrives late one night with news of the encroaching attack by the powerful Narbolian empire, who are poised to possess all of the kingdom of Elaria. Will the decisions you make protect the many wondrous people of this rich, fantastic world?

I'm not a video game gamer. I watch cutscene movies and play GeoGuessr and other trivia/factoid based games. When the interactive Black Mirror: Bandersnatch episode/movie came out on Netflix a couple of years ago it was a gamechanger. Since then Netflix has released other interactive movies and episodes, though most have been a bit less dour and miles more family friendly. Again, not being a video game gamer, the idea of extensive decision maps inviting more interaction was something that I came into knowledge of after watching the cutscene movie for Detroit: Become Human. That the creators of Bandersnatch similarly mapped such an intricate decision tree was an effort to be applauded. Having enjoyed both video games (because really, Bandersnatch is quite literally a video game), the opportunity to read Kazim Ali's The Citadel of Whispers, a choose your own adventure book, was something I went for immediately.

I got to work, reading and mapping my decisions as I took them. Per my decision tree, though some ends double back on each other, there were 48 paths. Maybe more, again, depending on what is considered a new path. To be honest, that was the biggest effort in the read, keeping track of my decision pathways. The story wasn't difficult to get through, but maybe it also wasn't the most satisfying? 

Don't get me wrong, alternative endings are abundance galore personified. But the endings don't have the same degree of completion. A substantial quantity of endings are reached before any solution to the main conflict is met. In fact, I'd dare say there's no ending where the primary, overreaching conflict is fully resolved. And that's find, a lot of books with one pathway end in the same way. But having gone down all the paths, I was hoping I'd find a "true" pathway. Though I suppose that takes out the mystery of the journey. Feeling like we're getting into philosophy about choice here. Back to the review!

Because the story was, in my opinion, partially resolved, had I been judging the story alone I would have rated it 4 stars. But because this was a book to be enjoyed for structure, for the journey it took you on, I'm giving it 5 stars. I had a lot of fun tracking and working through the puzzle as it were. A maze in prose. Though I'd been aware of their being a thing, this was my first time reading a choose your own adventure book. I thoroughly enjoyed it. 5 stars. 

The Citadel of Whispers (ISBN: 9781937133924) was due for publication October 01, 2021.