Book 8 for my 2026 goal of 36 books for the year! Still running a little behind but not catastrophically. As usual, my link to the book is through my bookshop.org affiliate account, which means I may earn a small commission if you buy from there.

Sometimes I end up reading a book just out of spite! In this case, it so happens that I follow author Cristin Bishara on Threads and a week ago she was lamenting that someone accused her of using AI to write her Choose Your Own Adventure book Cryptic Chronicles: Mothman (2025). This made me so irritated I immediately went out and ordered a copy.

For one thing, it makes me pretty angry to see talented authors getting their hard work accused of being AI generated, and so I wanted to show some support. It also happens that I’m a little behind in my reading goal for the year, so reading something short and light would help to get me back on track. Also, I have always had a great fondness for the Mothman legend, and The Mothman Prophecies (2002) is one of my favorite movies of all time!

Finally, I’ve been reading Choose Your Own Adventure books since the very first one, The Cave of Time, came out in 1979! Going back and visiting the series again was a nice bit of nostalgia for me.

I can’t imagine there are many people out there who are not familiar with Choose Your Own Adventure books, but just in case, let me give a little summary of the concept. The books, usually written in the second person to put the reader directly in the role of the protagonist, offer branching paths in the story, directing you to one page or another based on what decision you want to make. These choices can lead the story in wildly different directions, and can lead you to your doom! Mothman in particular leads to a lot of unhappy endings, as Bishara herself jokingly warned me on Threads:

I think I met six gruesome fates before I finally managed to get a positive ending, so she wasn’t exaggerating!

In the book, you play as a kid moving with his family into his grandfather’s old house in rural Appalachia. Your grandfather’s house is creepy, and as you work yourself up to explore its many secrets you quickly learn that he was investigating the Mothman and find yourself drawn into conspiracies, horrors, and danger!

I don’t want to share too many details about where the story can take you, so suffice to say it goes in a lot of wildly different, unexpected directions! It is fair to say that you will end up traveling through very different genres of horror and science fiction as you take new paths. Because of that, starting a new read-through never feels repetitive or tiresome.

Bishara clearly knows her Mothman lore. The book references not only John Keel’s 1975 book The Mothman Prophecies and the 2002 movie of the same name, it delves into the city of Point Pleasant and the Silver Bridge that are the epicenter of the Mothman mythology (as well as the Mothman statue and museum in the city). I smiled every time I recognized one of these references.

The book is of course short and quite quick to read — it is written for kids 9-12 — but I enjoyed every minute of it and was actually surprised how deeply I went through it! I think I hit most of the 19 possible endings of the book because curiosity kept me going back to try one other path that I was wondering about.

If you’re looking for a charming diversion, or a fun book for kids who like strange and unusual monsters and supernatural tales, Mothman is a great choice!