Scholastic, $3.99, ISBN 0-590-93500-3
Horror, 1997

Pirates! Sea monsters! Treasures!

Well, if you are looking for a grand old time with horrors of the sea, you may end up being disappointed with The Twisted Tale of Tiki Island, as it offers more of the same old, same old that players of the Give Yourself Goosebumps series will be familiar with by now.

You and your cousin Gina have returned to Tiki Island for your vacation. You had a blast last year, but this year, things have changed. Your friend, the tour guide Kala, is all gloom and doom this year, muttering about a curse that has been causing people in this island to vanish. Well, this is a joke, right? At any rate, you are here to have fun, so woo-hoo… oh wait, while snorkeling the two of you attract a shark. Yikes!

Will you follow Gina into a cave? Do that and you find yourself up against, depending on your choice, actual skeletons of pirates animated and out for new blood, or thieves masquerading as skeletal pirates. There are also sea monsters, et cetera, of course. If you pick up what seems like a gleaming spearhead on the sea floor to protect yourself, you will find yourself the recipient of the curse and the target of people as well as monsters who want the Tiki Eye for themselves!

The second arc ties in better with the curse Kala mentioned, if you are into a more cohesive story line for your campaigns – taking the first route leaves many of the things brought up in the early passages hanging without any closure. In the end, it doesn’t really matter, as both arcs are almost criminally underdeveloped. Things tend to become random rather than falling into place in an organic manner. Nothing really stands out or sticks to your mind here.

By the end of it all, you may have a decent time here and there, but you may wish as well that you have gone someplace more interesting in the first place.