Official Review: Pathogens by James Schannep

[CataclysmicKnight]

[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Pathogens" by James Schannep.]

---

4 out of 4 stars

---

Share This Review

---

If I could take everything I love and put it into one book, it would combine into Pathogens by James Schannep. Zombies, hilarious pop culture references and humor, action, danger and choosing ("clicking") your own adventure make for one awesome book with at least a dozen solid storylines. Spoiler alert: it's fantastic, and totally worthy of 4 out of 4 stars.

Pathogens takes place in the same world as Infected, another of Schannep's "click your own adventure" books. In this one, you get to choose between 6 people to play as, each with varying personalities, abilities and goals. Lucas, for example, is a Kendo instructor who is teaching when the apocalypse begins, and must protect himself, the children and Master Hanzo, his sensei. Hefty is an inmate, and sees the infection spread in his own prison before escaping. While each character has the same general goal - survival - they go about it in totally different ways.

The really cool thing about choosing between these characters is that not only do you get to experience different areas and events, you get to see varying sides of the same events, and some characters even cross paths, but you're experiencing them as different characters with different outlooks and thoughts. As one character, for example, you can choose to sleep in a particular spot and then wake up being shot to death, while as another character you come across the same shop, seeing someone dead inside. Some of the survivors even end up teaming up at the end! These stories are each rather long, even if you know exactly how to get through it - in fully exploring Rosie, for example, I found 60+ total sections with over 15 deaths. My cooper playthrough took over 35 sections to complete, not including the numerous times I died.

Speaking of which, you're going to die many, many times. I died at least 2-3 times as each survivor before finding a successful ending for them. Luckily, it's easy to come back - each choice you make (often between two choices, but sometimes only one or even 3 or more!) brings you to a new section, and each section has a title. At the back of the book (where you end up when you die) is a list of (almost) all the sections in alphabetical order - you can just choose one you want to revisit and make new choices from there!

These types of books are rather easy to mess up - because there are so many routes to the same sections, it's easy to not realize a reader doesn't have certain information or simply didn't do certain things that are mentioned. It's clear James did some very thorough testing with the book, as I saw the majority of the 350ish possible sections and never had an issue. I made sure to play through each character numerous times (not including the times I had to go back after dying), and I loved every bit of it. Not only are you rewarded with some rather wildly different stories in doing so, there's even (at least) one absolutely awesome easter egg to find.

Fellow gamers, zombie lovers and apocalypse fans will get a major kick out of the book. I laughed so hard at some of the references (Master Hanzo tells Lucas "it's dangerous to go alone, take this" and hands him a sword at one point!) that it's obvious it was created by someone who loves these things as well. Once again, I'm giving the book 4 out of 4 stars and I'd even give it 100/100 if we rated that way instead. The book has sold me on wanting to read every click your own adventure book James has written, and I can count on one hand how many times I've thought that about an author. The book does have some foul language, violence/gore and some extremely mild adult content, but otherwise I recommend it to absolutely everyone!

******
Pathogens
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon

Like CataclysmicKnight's review? Post a comment saying so!

[Kourtney Bradley]

I always enjoy reading the reviews you've given! They are always well written and convincing! Congrats to the author for receiving such a great rating!

[Booky_BettyC]

Great review! I have read his book Infected and I really enjoyed it. This book sounds like it might even be better! I can't wait to read it.

[HelloMaggie]

Yesssssss. I haven't chosen my own adventure since I was a kid! I love the engaging style of your review-- it makes me wanna dive in right away.

[TrishaAnn92]

I have never heard of a Click your own book before. Reading your awesome review though has made me want to check it out!

[lane_vespertine]

While I might not be as enthusiastic about the subject material as you are, I feel like your review is making me want to give it a go.
Very well done!

[AA1495]

Glad you enjoyed reading the book so much. Congrats to the author for the great review! Thank you for the insightful review!