YMMV / Choose Your Own Adventure

• Ass Pull: On a few occasions, the good and bad endings came out of nowhere.
• Complete Monster: See here.
• Escapist Character: 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.
• Esoteric Happy Ending: Some of the good endings merely consisted of the main character surviving, or stopping the Big Bad temporally. Others were way too open and ambiguous.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: The plot of the 2019 film Knives Out comes across as an unauthorized adaptation of Who Killed Harlowe Thrombey, complete with one "Harlan Thrombey" as the rich murder victim. The film's director has confirmed in interviews that the name at least is an intentional homage.
• Narm: Happens sometimes in some of the books, due to a poor choice of words for the endings, weird descriptions, and strange illustrations.
• Nightmare Fuel: Right this way!
• Surprisingly Improved Sequel: Both sequels to "The Cave of Time" are regarded as much better than the original by fans.
• Values Dissonance: In one of the endings for Your Code Name is Jonah (aka Spy Trap), you decide to quit your job as a spy saying "I want to study whales, not exploit them." Your boss responds by saying that "It's not done! It's unpatriotic". He eventually accepts your resignation but then concludes his fuming with the bottom line: "But don't think for a moment that being a spy is immoral. After all, we are the defenders of freedom." Today, it would be hard to not feel embarrassed for him. It must be remembered that in this 1979 book, you are in the role of an American government agent versus the Russians.
• What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?:
  • Despite being aimed at kids, the series had lots and lots of Family-Unfriendly Violence.
  • The premise of one of the books, Tattoo of Death, involves mature themes such as human trafficking. One ending even had an illustration showing your character having his chest blown through by a laser beam.

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