The Adventures of Whatley Tupper: A Choose Your Own Adventure

Rudolph Kerkhoven and Daniel Pitts

Whatley Tupper is an A-grade janitor at a B-grade university about to become entwined in C-grade fiction!

Will he tame the troglodyte murderer living in the disused network of campus tunnels? 

Will he join forces with the Denny's night manager to counter a renegade group of custodians? 

Will he inadvertently travel into a parallel universe that sounds suspiciously similar to another plot-line? 

Will he journey to Honduras to reunite with his deported love? 

Will he suffer amnesia and begin to question his own sexuality? 

Will he leave all this madness behind and book a relaxing Alaskan cruise? 

Or will he turn out to be nothing more than a figment in the imagination of his idol, Tom Selleck?

Yes, there is something in the air tonight... Adventure! Romance! Carbon Monoxide!

The choice is yours.

My Take:

When I was a kid, Choose Your Own Adventure(CYOA) books were big, and my favorite brand was the Goosebumps ones by R.L. Stine because the plot lines were significantly weirder and more twisted than your average CYOA.  I think that is why I ultimately enjoyed The Adventures of Whatley Tupper--because it was super weird.  Honestly, at first, I didn't care for it, in fact to put it bluntly, I thought it was dumb and I just didn't get it.  The first storyline I happened to pick my way through wasn't very zany, but quite straight forward with a neat and tidy little ending and felt a bit flat.  So I went back to the beginning and picked a completely different route and was happy to find myself reading about ridiculous alternate universes, Tom Selleck and Phil Collins obsessed custodians, and a long lost son named Whatlito with a Robin Hood complex.  The plot lines are ridiculous in the very best way.  The story lines are all fast paced and the flow of events is abrupt and awkward, but that is what makes it funny and entertaining.  I really love just plain old weird, off kilter stuff, and Whatley Tupper totally fits the bill.  After a while, I did get a little bit pooped out going back and forth looking for new story lines, but such is the nature of the awesome beast that is CYOA. Thankfully the authors provide a wonderful little cheat-sheet on their blog that helps you sort things out, if you want to take a peek.  Lastly, something I very much enjoyed was that after reading through several story lines, you start noticing that there a lot of inside jokes and references to the other story lines, which adds fun little layers of enjoyment to the reading experience.  I really enjoyed reading this book and rate it a 1, Pay Full Price, because for hours of disgustingly ridiculous fun, the book is a great price.

Do you agree with my review?  Do you think I'm totally off base?  Either way I'd love to hear from you, be sure to leave a comment and tell me how you feel!

The Adventures of Whatley Tupper is difficult to assign a content rating.  Some story lines are totally PG with a tiny bit of violence, and others are a little more provocative with strong language.  There was one particular storyline which elevated the overall book's rating from a PG-13 to an R.  It contained brief, but very strong language.

***FTC Disclosure:  This book was provided in exchange for an honest review, no other compensation was given, all opinions are my own***

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