Party Favors by Jaime Clevenger

Party Favors by Jaime Clevenger

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


There are many story paths that can be followed down in this adult lesbian fiction choose your own adventure book. As of this point in time, I’ve completed 4 paths, and aborted on a fifth. As I put when I initially put a comment in this box – completing one story path way seemed to equal 11% of the book.

I initially had a rather significant problem with this book. A problem I probably would not have had if this had been a ‘normal’ book and not a ‘you’ book. That and I didn’t have enough information to be ‘you’ when I started – I knew that I had been split from my ‘girlfriend’ for a week and that I’d be seeing her at a fancy dress party (which I somehow worked out in my mind to mean a ‘come dressed as batman’ type of party, which was wrong (not that type of party)), and that I had thought that things had been going ‘too fast’. But I needed more information to be able to be ‘you’. How long have I been dating this woman? Two weeks? One week on, one week separated? Broke up because ‘too fast’, so it can’t be more than a couple of weeks, right? That was the second problem - the not enough information to be ‘you’. The first problem was how it was a ‘you’ book but ‘you’ kept doing things – thinking things and doing things that are counter to my nature. This, again, is ‘okay’ if this was a normal book, but harder to take when I’m supposed to be ‘you’.

What I had put in the box initially after 1 and a half paths followed: (view spoiler)[1) I don't have enough information to be 'you' - for instance, the 'you' has a girlfriend who she wants to take a break from but, at some point, also said 'I love you' to . . . so, how am I supposed to be seeing this relationship? Brand new that went too fast? Longer term? Something longer than a week, at least, since 'we've' been separated for a week by the start of this book; 2) things happen that might vaguely annoy me (or not) in an ordinary book, but here? Super distracting and very annoying. To the point I had to abort one whole pathway. The problem is directly connected to the fact that the 'you' keeps doing and thinking things that I would not - she's kind of anti-me. Which normally isn't much of an issue, but here I'm literally supposed to be the character in the story, hence the 'you' (doesn't help that there are enough similarities, in a way, between my RL and this character that it makes it harder to 'play a role'; but the actions and thoughts are such that things rubbed me wrong). To a large extent that was an issue with one of the pathways, but much lesser of an issue for the other pathway I went down (for whatever reason; only thing, really, that pissed me off on that pathway was attempting to offer money to the go-go dancer to come home with me . . . even after she had stressed that she wasn't 'working' right then and there - a comment that 'you' made twice - offering money. mmphs; gah, since I included that I have to include what was driving me batty about the other pathway - and why I had to abort it - trying to pick up women in front of my 'maybe is maybe isn't' girlfriend while she attempts to do the same . . . fuck no. Just . . . no).

Right, so, I'd give the pathway I went down, which frankly was too short (it ended right before the much talked about 'stage appearance' was going to occur, mmphs), a rating of ... hmm . . . 3.9. (hide spoiler)]
So – the long and short of it is that there are several story lines, several ‘pivot points’ that have stories that branch off of them, and my problem was twofold when I started the book – the you wasn’t acting like me and the path I chose didn’t give me an out. Jeannie, my ‘girlfriend’, tells me that we will attend this party (while we are standing at the entrance of said party, me dressed as batman while everyone else is dressed in fancy clothing), and ‘we’ will attempt to make each other jealous by openly flirting and potentially sleeping with other women. She then enters the party. My choices are now: a) go inside dressed like batman; b) try to find the party host and beg for a change of clothing. I chose a choice not given – c) leave. As in, I backed up to the previous pivot choice point (the only previous point – hence my impression that a huge amount of the book was now going to be closed to me) and choose to leave the party earlier – before Jeannie’s asinine suggestions.

Ran directly into someone from work and now I, the reader, am beginning to worry that none of these paths will work for me. But no, that was a nice path. Quite fun. The choices I made, the path I followed, was good enough, albeit short. So I initially gave the book a rating of 3.9 (okay, no I didn’t, I gave that one story path that rating – hence (apparently I’m using that word now a lot) my not actually rating the book when I initially put in my ‘words’ 2 or 3 days ago.

Two days after I completed my first successful path (and one aborted attempt); I dove back into the book. I shrugged and dove down the path I assumed would be closed to me, the ‘let’s make each other jealous’ path. And I completed three storylines down that direction – though I only went down the ‘beg for a change of clothing’ pivot point – and didn’t complete all the paths down that direction, and didn’t try any down the ‘enter the party dressed as batman’.

So I’ve ‘been with’ . . . potentially spoiler-y so (view spoiler)[1) go-go dancer fun time story; 2) Lara (well, one of the stories involving her); 3) Katherine; 4) Jeannie story lines (technically the Jeannie story is the ‘next morning’ story but it followed on the Katherine one in a ‘your story is done here or go to ‘next morning’’). (hide spoiler)]

Funny thing about GoodReads. After the first go through I’d have rated this book 3.9. After 5 go throughs I’d rate this book 4.5. An increase of 0.6 stars. Yet GoodReads still records that the same. As 4 stars. Because of their adamant refusal to have half stars. *shrugs* So . . . yet another 4 star book, eh? And fuck if it’s sitting on the same shelf as a book I rated 3.75 through 4.74 because obviously a book rated 3.75 stars is exactly the same level as a book rated 4.74 stars.

Rating: (3.9 + 4.6 + 4.6 + 4.4 = 17.5/4) = 4.375

March 1 2017




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