Nightshift
by Victoria Hancox
by Victoria Hancox
This is a non-FF horror-themed book which first saw print in 2019. I started it a while ago and enjoyed it at first, but then got put off by its one true path structure, and left it for what was meant to be a few days but turned out to be several weeks! I then got back to it a couple of days ago and was enjoying it again, but then got put off by a choice of direction with no information about either option, which is dull at the best of times, but quite frustrating when you know that your entirely random choice will later mean the difference between winning or losing! So I gave up, but thought I should still write something about it anyway, although this won't be a playthrough.
It has an interesting setting: you are a nurse (gender never specified) in a modern hospital on Earth, when you wake up in a break room and find one of your colleagues has been murdered, her throat slit. You soon find the murderer pursuing you, and you have to flee. The murderer is described in such a way as to create a real sense of peril, and if you manage to get away at the beginning, he stalks you around the hospital, so there is the prospect of unexpectedly bumping into him at any time.
The hospital is otherwise mostly deserted, and something has definitely happened -- or you're in some sort of parallel, supernatural world. It's a derelict ruin, full of monstrous surroundings. Early on, I hear an unpleasant sound which I investigate, and find that it's one of the patients who is quite beyond help... moving on, I find another murder victim, then one of the corridors is barred by a barrier made of human skins stitched together ... then my first proper encounter is with the incinerated corpse of a witch who was burned at the stake 500 years ago! After meeting her, I blunder into the murderer, who kills me.
It has an interesting setting: you are a nurse (gender never specified) in a modern hospital on Earth, when you wake up in a break room and find one of your colleagues has been murdered, her throat slit. You soon find the murderer pursuing you, and you have to flee. The murderer is described in such a way as to create a real sense of peril, and if you manage to get away at the beginning, he stalks you around the hospital, so there is the prospect of unexpectedly bumping into him at any time.
The hospital is otherwise mostly deserted, and something has definitely happened -- or you're in some sort of parallel, supernatural world. It's a derelict ruin, full of monstrous surroundings. Early on, I hear an unpleasant sound which I investigate, and find that it's one of the patients who is quite beyond help... moving on, I find another murder victim, then one of the corridors is barred by a barrier made of human skins stitched together ... then my first proper encounter is with the incinerated corpse of a witch who was burned at the stake 500 years ago! After meeting her, I blunder into the murderer, who kills me.
The whole description of events, encounters, and descriptions in general are very atmospheric and compelling, making it an enjoyable read. There are some nice instant death paragraphs, and one of the recurring puzzles involves finding and keeping tack of certain disembodied body parts that are lying around the place. There are no scores to keep track of or combat, it's just a matter of solving puzzles and choosing the right path. Unfortunately, while the puzzles are reasonable (although sometimes they require you to know some general knowledge that isn't in the book, which you could argue isn't fair but I didn't really mind), the necessity of choosing precisely the right path through the book or being killed became annoying after a while, and my patience with the book eventually dissipated entirely.
If you don't mind that sort of Ian-Livingstone-on-steroids approach to gamebooks, and you like horror, then this book will probably be right up your street. It had some positive attributes that I enjoyed about it, but ultimately I had to decide that it wasn't really for me.
(Back to FF for my next book!)