AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS
(Choose Your Own Adventure New Classics)
BY JACOPO DELLA QUERCIA
Interactive Story / Middle Grade Fantasy / Adaption / Horror
Publisher: CHOOSECO
Publication Date: September 16, 2025
Pages: 208 pages
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ABOUT THE BOOK: Something sinister is unfolding at the bottom of the world in this interactive book where YOU decide what happens next! Packed with twenty possible endings!
Choose Your Own Adventure books–the 4th bestselling children’s series of all time–are back and as much fun as you remember. Kids and adults agree, these are the books that get nine to twelve-year-olds reading.
YOU are the child of two brilliant scientists and you've just spent your summer as a counselor at Camp Starkweather in Antarctica. Your time at the bottom of the world is coming to an end when you receive an emergency distress call from another camp nearby, where your parents have spent the summer doing top-secret research. Will you answer the call and go out into the frozen wasteland to face unknown dangers? Or will you stay at Camp Starkweather and hope that the ancient unknowable horrors won't come and find you next?
Kids who love monsters and mystery will devour this thrilling adventure story of survival on the ice. With every choice, you’ll take charge of your fellow campers and bring everyone home safe and sound … or else doom them all to a terrible fate!
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BOOK REVIEW
I don't spend time on plot summary, so please read the synopsis above.
HALL WAYS REVIEW: In AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS (Choose Your Own Adventure New Classics), author Jacopo della Quercia provides a terrific diversion from the regular reading rotation! This adaptation of one of my favorite H.P. Lovecraft stories kept me turning pages, making bad choices that abruptly ended the story, and then trying again. I wanted more!
"Something sinister is unfolding at the bottom of the world. Will you heed the call?"
I am not sure I ever was a reader of the choose-your-own-adventure books, so I went into AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESSwith no expectations of how it would work. The first path I took cut the story dramatically and tragically short. As did the second. Repeat, repeat, repeat. I ended up reading every page to to find the most satisfying and complete conclusion (or did I? *flip, flip, flip*).
"From this moment on, you'll know the world is little more than a tiny island in an infinitely expanding sea of cosmic horror."
The map at the beginning and the accompanying comic-style illustrations are engaging and enhance the story, but della Quercia's well-written and imaginative descriptions stand alone, and readers will feel the coldness of not only Antarctica but the secrets it holds. And the Further Adventures section at the end of the book invites readers to expand their vocabulary and even try fan fiction.
There's a good dose of humor and sarcasm to counter the darkness of the story -- and that helps since there are logically some sad, grim, and gory endings. I'd expect nothing differently! The intended audience is ages nine to twelve; however, with the main character being in the midst of his gap year, and the horrors within the pages of AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS, I'd recommend the book for mature middle grade readers and older.
Lovecraft's original story has inspired and fascinated many to reimagine that world, and two of my favorites have been the movie THE THING and Texas author Joe Lansdale's short story collection, IN THE MAD MOUNTAINS. I'm adding Jacopo della Quercia's version to my list.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jacopa della Quercio is an award-winning educator, essayist, and novelist. His work has been featured on BBC America, Business Insider, CNN Money, Folger Magazine, The Huffington Post, Reader's Digest, Ripley's Believe It or Not!, Slate, and Princeton University's Electronic Bulletin of the Dante Society of America, among others. As a writer, Jacopo strives to present otherwise obscure scholarly subjects in a manner more easily accessible and enjoyable for all audiences: a practice he honed in the classroom. His novels are The Great Abraham Lincoln Pocket Watch Conspiracy and its sequel, License to Quill, with many more to follow!
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