I'm not done with the Choose-your-own-adventure stories. This one is called a "Do-over novel".

This one is written from the perspective of a woman. I suppose it could be a gay man, but "you" bear children in some of the scenarios...so, maybe, someday? Miracle of science?

You start out on the day of High School Graduation. You get a healthy chunk of money from Grandpa - do you go directly to college, or do you travel? If you go to college, do you study art or science? If you travel, do you go to California or Europe? And so on, and so on. Each scenario only lasts about 5-6 jumps before you've settled in for life and eventually die.

It's fun, I guess. I got a bit depressed while reading it. Most of the lives sounded much better than the one I'm currently living, making me feel like my end-scenario would have been one of those that made the reader go quickly back to the beginning and try again. The back of the book states (as polar opposites): "You may end up in an opulent mansion or homeless down by the river; happily married with your own corporation or alone and pecked to death by ducks in London [I got that ending once]; a Zen master in Japan or morbidly obese in a trailer park." Well, I don't like how obesity wound up in the same pole as "homeless by the river" and "being pecked to death by ducks"...but it's just a book, hmm?

I wonder if the author is particularly morbid in real life. The most interesting, poignant, beautiful, and disturbing sections of the stories seemed to revolve around "my" eventual death. "My" exits from the corporeal plane were varied (there is a God, there isn't a God, reincarnated as a human, reincarnated as a squid, etc.) and some were beautifully described. Once I wound up sailing away on a sea of pinks and reds. Once, I wound up meeting a bizarro St. Peter and being sent directly to the Skinning Room. Yeesh!

There seems to be a disproportionate number of endings in exotic locations (although some of them had "me" at Betty's Pies!), and a disproportionate number of death-by-car-accident. Also, "I" was quite...erm...promiscuous at the beginning of the book (not my choice, my character was written that way). Not that there's anything wrong with a healthy appetite, but screwing a mechanic for parts and labor...when I've GOT money in the bank...yeah.

Anyway! Reading this book at this particular point wasn't a great idea for me. I didn't need to see all of the paths that I could have taken (even though I know it's fiction...the world WAS that open at one point), and have my current path treated like something I'd better do-over. ( )

I took this book with me on a flight to Italy -- so, needless to say, I had plenty of time to "experience" the work. Unfortunately, as other reviewers have said, I wound up in situations that went from really bad to extremely awful to down-right terrible time and time again. I was intrigued by the premise -- and still am -- but wish that most of the plotlines weren't so depressing! Like another reader, I also gave up at one point and attempted to just read it through to the end. It was all right, but just not that interesting. ( )

Pretty Little Mistakes is exactly like those Choose Your Own Adventure Novels, only for adults! It's a lot of fun to read, and one life's story takes about 10 minutes to get through. I've been picking up this book off and on for about six months, and I am still not all the way through it. ( )

http://www.fnordinc.com/2008/06-21/ch... ( )

Unlike the other reviewer, I would go so far as to say buying this book was a "Pretty Little Mistake." This book is nothing but shallow and disappointing with very little adventure. ( )