Thriftin’ for Gamebooks: 7 Good and Great Titles

A gamebook: you can read it and play it.

Whenever I go to a thrift store or find a Little Free Library, I am on the prowl for playful, gamey fiction. While I haven’t found much, I have uncovered some surprisingly nice titles.

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Hide No More: The Masquerade Trope in Fantasy Fiction (And How Elatsoe Kills It)

When people recommended the young adult novel Elatsoe to me, it was never as a quirky take on a fantasy world. That’s what it is, though: a modern America with spirit summoners, vicious vampires, and fairy children as its typical citizens. Magic is a known factor that makes travel convenient, complicates crime scenes, causes fantastical global warming.

Rather, the book was introduced to me as a story about grief, healing, and ghosts that features a Native lead. This is also a true statement about what Elatsoe is. What interests me about the discrepancy is how people don’t see a need to mention the setting, bizarre though it may be. Seemingly nobody is saying, “Brace yourselves, because this story has kind of an unusual world…”

That must be because the setting’s not so weird after all. Not since approximately 2005.

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Review: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Pt. 2/2)

Pt. 7.5 of The Harry Potter Readstravaganza

Intro (Pt. 0)
Reviews:

Book 1  ·  2  ·  3  ·  4  ·  5  ·  6  ·  7 (pt. 1 + 2)
Book Covers:
Special Editions  ·  International (pt. 1 + 2)

Thank you for tuning in once more to read my words galore. I have a little something-something to show you before I go on. Something I missed.

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Review: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Pt. 1/2)

Pt. 7 of The Harry Potter Readstravaganza

Intro (Pt. 0)
Reviews:

Book 1  ·  2  ·  3  ·  4  ·  5  ·  6  ·  7 (pt. 1 + 2)
Book Covers:
Special Editions  ·  International (pt. 1 + 2)

When I opened this book, I had a strong feeling that I’d already seen the best this series has to offer. But I was wrong, because this book contains what I believe to be the best joke in the entire series.

This book is the first (and therefore only) one in the series where the characters are allowed to curse. The character who throws the first (and only) “bitch”: none other than Mrs. Weasley.

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Harry Potter International Book Covers: Part 2 (or: Harry Potter and the Seventy Fifty Billion Trillion MORE Book Covers)

Pt. 6.75 of The Harry Potter Readstravaganza

Intro (Pt. 0)
Reviews:

Book 1  ·  2  ·  3  ·  4  ·  5  ·  6  ·  7 (pt. 1 + 2)
Book Covers:
Special Editions  ·  International (pt. 1 + 2)

All these book covers were supposed to be a single post, but there’s just…so…..so durned many. If you missed our first batch of covers from around the world, go here first. Well, here we go!

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Harry Potter International Book Covers (or: Harry Potter and the Kajillion Book Covers)

Pt. 6.5 of The Harry Potter Readstravaganza

Intro (Pt. 0)
Reviews:

Book 1  ·  2  ·  3  ·  4  ·  5  ·  6  ·  7 (pt. 1 + 2)
Book Covers:
Special Editions  ·  International (pt. 1 + 2)

Not too long ago, I ranked Harry Potter Collector’s Edition covers from across time and space. There are some amazing, sumptuous covers for these books. And some bland ones, but that’s okay.

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Review: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Pt. 6 of The Harry Potter Readstravaganza

Intro (Pt. 0)
Reviews:

Book 1  ·  2  ·  3  ·  4  ·  5  ·  6  ·  7 (pt. 1 + 2)
Book Covers:
Special Editions  ·  International (pt. 1 + 2)

“That old man’s still not dead?”

Just one of my reactions to this epic tome.

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Review: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Harries to the rescue.

Pt. 5 of The Harry Potter Readstravaganza

Intro (Pt. 0)
Reviews:

Book 1  ·  2  ·  3  ·  4  ·  5  ·  6  ·  7 (pt. 1 + 2)
Book Covers:
Special Editions  ·  International (pt. 1 + 2)

It turns out that the first major consequence of Lord Voldemort’s return to power is the institution of the No Wizard Left Behind program.

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Harry Potter Special Edition Covers, Ranked

Harries, Harries, Harries.

Pt. 4.5 of The Harry Potter Readstravaganza

Intro (Pt. 0)
Reviews:

Book 1  ·  2  ·  3  ·  4  ·  5  ·  6  ·  7 (pt. 1 + 2)
Book Covers:
Special Editions  ·  International (pt. 1 + 2)

I’m still finishing Order of the Phoenix (it’s way too long). In the meantime, maybe this’ll wet your whistle.

It’s Harry time.

Continue reading “Harry Potter Special Edition Covers, Ranked”