History Literature / ChooseYourOwnAdventure

* TheFairFolk: Two of the books, ''The Mystery of the Highland Crest'' and ''Outlawsof Sherwood Forest'' portray fairies in a more traditional manner, showing how powerful and dangerous they could be.

* DarkerAndEdgier: ''Your Code Name is Jonah'' (reissued as Spy Trap) is a very cynical Cold War era entry into the series. You are in the role of a definitely adult government agent. Your antagonists are KGB (in other words, the Russians). The dialogue is very adult, including a memorable, very politically spiked conversation with the wife of a kidnapped scientist. She basically gives you a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech if you defend the government's policy concerning the military importance of the whalesong tapes. Your character basically brushes her off as a [[AnimalWrongsGroup pompous liberal windbag]]. Interestingly enough, in one of the endings, you are told by your boss, "If you have to let your conscience be your guide, you'll never make it as a spy!".

** Your character in ''Your Code Name is Jonah'' (a spy adventure) has a physical resemblance to Steve [=McQueen=]. His beady eyes, humorless, taciturn nature, and regular stone-faced expression might make you wonder if Paul Granger somehow got a hold of some {{Golgo13}} manga back in 1979.

%%* SecondPersonNarration

* AlternateEnding:
** In ''Space Patrol'', one of the endings has you sentenced to life in a prison colony on the moon. ''However'', a blurb after '''The End''' tells you "If you don't like this ending, turn to page 87."
--->''If you take this alternate ending, go on to the AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence listing.''
** In ''The Mystery of Chimney Rock'', after '''The End''', you are given the choice to look back at the house despite being warned not to, which sets up one of the {{Nonstandard Game Over}}s below.

* Unicorn: ''The Magic of the Unicorn'', set up in Renaissance era France, revolves about them in the search for a way to purify the water of your village's well [[spoiler: You may even become one there]].

* Constellations: In one ending of ''The First Olympics'' you may be transformed into one, the "Guardian of the Bull
[[note]]The constellation of Taurus[[/note]]".

* CruelTwistEnding: A staple of the series. It's not uncommon to turn to a page that looks like it will have a positive ending, until the word "however" shows up.

The ''Choose Your Own Adventure'' series is a famous and highly successful example of the {{Gamebook}} genre]] with 250 million copies in print. The series, begun in 1979, saw the peak of its fame in TheEighties, and after Bantam Books ceased publication of the books, was revived in 2007 under the independent company Chooseco.

* GenericDoomsdayVillain: The Evil Power Master from ''Prisoner of the Ant People'' and ''War With the Evil Power Master'' is a powerful tyrant whose nature and motives are as vague as his name.

The ''Choose Your Own Adventure'' series is a famous and highly successful example of the [[ChooseYourOwnAdventure gamebook genre]] with 250 million copies in print. The series, begun in 1979, saw the peak of its fame in TheEighties, and after Bantam Books ceased publication of the books, was revived in 2007 under the independent company Chooseco.

''Note: This is the entry for the actual ''Choose Your Own Adventure'' series. For the entire genre, also known as "gamebooks", click [[ChooseYourOwnAdventure here]].''

** One can't be blamed if they see Kay Mallett in ''Statue of Liberty Adventure'' as an Expy for Margaret of ''Comic/DennisTheMenace'' fame.
** Your character in ''Your Code Name is Jonah'' (a spy adventure) has a physical resemblance to Steve [=McQueen=]. His beady eyes, humorless, taciturn nature, and regular stone faced expression might make you wonder if Paul Granger somehow got a hold of some {{Golgo13}} manga back in 1979.

** In ''Hyperspace'', you can enter a parallel universe, with the option to stay or return once you learn what really happened. The scientist to brought you there offers to take you back, but you never do go back.

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: Many of the books are obviously products of TheEighties,at least in the original printing. For instance, ''Secret of the Pyramids'' has you taking a TWA flight[[labelnote:note]]The airline would be struggling soon and dead by 2001[[/labelnote]].

* BittersweetEnding: Some of the "good" endings merely consists in the protagonist surviving or stopping the BigBad temporarily, or implying that ''perhaps'' he/she will have success in the future. i.e., Louise Munro Foley's "Highland Crest" has the ending where the main character [[spoiler:''almost'' gets roped into a complot against [[IronLady Lady]] [[BigGood Sara]] and, though the SmugSnake in charge [[AssholeVictim becomes a victim of the crest's curse]] and Lady Sarah forgives the protagonist, the talk they have is rather bittersweet.]]

-->''If you take this alternate ending, go on to the AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence listing.''
** A similar blurb occurs in ''The Mystery of Chimney Rock'' during one of the endings in which you escape. After '''The End''' you are given the choice to look back at the house despite being warned not to, which sets up one of the {{Nonstandard Game Over}}s below.

* {{Animorphism}}: ''You Are A Shark''

* AuthorAvatar: The protagonist actually get to ''meet'' Edward Packard himself in ''Hyperspace''.

* DarkerAndEdgier:
** ''Your Code Name is Jonah'' (reissued as Spy Trap) is a very cynical Cold War era entry into the series. You are in the role of a definitely adult government agent. Your antagonists are KGB (in other words, the Russians). The dialogue is very adult, including a memorable, very politically spiked conversation with the wife of a kidnapped scientist. She basically gives you a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech if you defend the government's policy concerning the military importance of the whalesong tapes. Your character basically brushes her off as a [[AnimalWrongsGroup pompous liberal windbag]]. Interestingly enough, in one of the endings, you are told by your boss, "If you have to let your conscience be your guide, you'll never make it as a spy!".
* DeusExMachina[=/=]DiabolusExMachina: Both tropes tend to happen in many of the books of the series, leading the reader to different kind of good and bad endings that sometimes came out of nowhere. See also CruelTwistEnding above.
* DownerEnding: Lots of them per book.
* [[DroppedABridgeOnHim Dropped A Bridge On You]]
** In an ending of ''Statue of Liberty Adventure'' after hunting a hidden fortune and duping some gangsters you [[spoiler:slip at the top of a staircase and die immediately.]]

* EarnYourHappyEnding: Of course.

* GenderFlip: In the original release of ''The Treasure of the Onyx Dragon'' the POV character was a girl, while in the 2007 series' rerelease the POV character is changed to a boy.

* Myth/GreekMythology: ''The Throne of Zeus''. Also some elements of it in ''The First Olympics''.

* HaveANiceDeath[=/=]ItsAWonderfulFailure: See TheManyDeathsOfYou below. Your demise is described in all ''sorts'' of gruesome, gory detail.

* NonstandardGameOver: Several of the books, especially ''By Balloon to the Sahara'' as described above, have at least one resolution that ends with something other than '''The End'''. ''The Mystery of Chimney Rock'' probably plays this trope the straightest:

* OhCrap: Many of the illustrations, especially if you're about to die. Any of the books illustrated by Judith Mitchell are guaranteed to invoke this multiple times, even when you're ''not'' necessarily at a death ending.
** The illustration accompanying one such ending in the original publication of ''Journey Under the Sea'' is a [[http://johnnycompton.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/CYOA-Journey-Under-Sea-Shark.jpg nightmare-inducing classic.]]
* TheManyDeathsOfYou: You die. A LOT.
* ThePlague: ''Killer Virus''

* ThePowerOfRock: ''Rock and Roll Mystery''
* RandomEventsPlot: Some of the titles such as ''Supercomputer'' and ''Deadwood City''

** Also ActionGirl Jenny Mudge, who's your trusty sidekick in ''Who Killed Harlowe Thrombey?'' and later on, ''Ghost Hunter'', which serves as a sequel of sorts to the former book.

* SecondPersonNarration

* TakeOverTheWorld: The goal of Acorn in ''The Computer Takeover'', and [[spoiler: his creator, Cedric Barkham.]]

* VagueAge:
** Nera Vivaldi appears in a few contemporary settings as well as at least two which noticeably take place in the future. ''Space Vampire'' at least implies that she is in her fifties but that's not much of a change given that that story (as well as ''Third Planet From Altair'') is probably set a little farther than NextSundayAD.
** [[WildMassGuessing Perhaps she invented a time machine, too?]]

* [[IChooseToStay You Choose to Stay]]:
** One of the endings in ''Mystery Of The Maya'' has you becoming the ruler of the ancient Mayan kingdom until you die of old age. You have the option of going back to your old life, but you choose not to.
** One of the good endings of ''UFO 54-40'' has you choose to take an alien back to his home planet, even though it will take decades. (You get eternal youth out of the deal.)
** In ''Hyperspace'', you can enter a parallel universe, with the option to stay or return once you learn what really happened. The scientist to brought you there offers to take you back, but you never do go back.
* [[YouWillBeBeethoven You Will Be Genghis Khan]]: Wait! You ''don't want'' to be UsefulNotes/GenghisKhan! (from ''House of Danger'')

* [[ExcitedShowTitle Excited Story Title!]]: Quite a few, mostly using just one word: ''Kidnapped!'', ''Mayday!'', ''Hostage!'', ''Vanished!'', ''Hurricane!'', ''Stampede!'', ''Earthquake!'' Also ''The Mona Lisa Is Missing!'', ''Search The Amazon!'' and ''Sky Jam!'' among others.

[[caption-width-right:218:[-To confront the viking ghost, go to page 87. To flee the viking ghost, [[RailRoading go to page 87]].-] ]]

* SheatheYourSword: Played straight more often than not. Trying to take most threats head-on tends to end pretty badly for you. Justified in that "you" are usually a pre-teen kid, while the things that want to kill you, well, ''aren't''.

* EscapistCharacter: Not usually, since your character's just a generic kid in most books, but there are exceptions. ''You Are A Superstar'' is one of the more noticeable exceptions, though.