Try Not to Die: At Grandma's House

De: Mark Tullius, Anthony Szpak

Narrado por: Joe Hempel

Try Not to Die: At Grandma’s House–Choose Wrong, and You Won’t Leave Alive

Surviving a car crash was just the beginning. Now, you are David, a newly orphaned teen trapped in Grandma’s isolated cottage in the Virginia mountains—and something in the house wants you dead.

Don’t be fooled by the lace doilies and cozy tea sets. Darkness lurks behind every door, and terrifying creatures prowl the halls. With your little sister Sam by your side, every choice you make could mean survival—or a gruesome death for both of you.

Two ways to experience the nightmare:

• Interactive Version: Make the choices that determine your fate. Choose wisely, or meet a horrific end.
• Survivor Version: Sit back and listen to the full story without making decisions—if you dare.

Do you have what it takes to escape? Or will Grandma’s house become your final resting place?

This thrilling audio experience will keep you on edge with pulse-pounding suspense, brutal twists, and an unforgettable horror adventure.

Download now and see if you can survive Grandma’s house—if you dare.

©2013 Mark Tullius and Anthony Szpak (P)2025 Mark Tullius and Anthony Szpak

Choose your Own Death!

If you enjoyed choose your own adventure books as a kid, you will love the Try Not to Die series. And, if you don't enjoy those types of books, you can read the survivor version and it's still a great read.

David and his younger (but oh so spunky) sister, Sam, are forced to go live with their grandparents in West Virginia after their parents die in a horrific car wreck. Their older brother was living with the grandparents when he died and they are both skeptical about going there to live with Grandpa Joe (ex-military) and Grandma Barb. But, something strange is definitely going on in the woods and it's going to be tough to just survive!

The book is interactive, giving you several options at the end of each chapter. You choose and then you either survive or DIE! Once you lose your life, you are able to go to the right choice and continue reading. I lost track of how many bad choices I made, but I definitely enjoyed my gruesome demise each time!

The narrator, Joe Hempel, is one of my favorites and he did his usual great job with this one. Even listening to the audiobook, it was easy to navigate through the book by virtue of the prompts. You will definitely enjoy the one I look forward to revisiting Grandma's house to see what happens next!

Wow!

This was a really fun book and the choose your own adventure bits worked well. I'm disabled and was hoping it would not be awkward. It was well written and the narrator is excellent. I plan to read more but Mark Tullius.

Lots of Fun!

Great choose your own path type story made to work on audio. Great story and narrator. Will definitely listen to more of these!

Safeish Nightmare Fuel For the Indecisive

I loved the 'chose your own adventure' style here and the story is cheesy far out stuff (in a good way). Plotwise there is a lot going on here including a bit of death in just the prologue but it almost jumps the shark. Relatable themes of grief are here but glossed over in service of the choose your own and weirdness. The narrator does a serviceable job with a chill vibe that is sometimes at odds with more tense scenes and makes stuff like a harrowing life or death choice in the first chapter feel a bit too routine, not a lot of voiceover range. The content is nightmarish and far out but sometimes maybe too much so betraying the 'grandma's house' prompt twisting it into a sort of 'Try Not to Die: Hellscape;' which in the end I appreciated and mean as a positive. This gives the story a climatic and even apocalyptic feel (even with the matter of fact narration) especially towards the end. There are 46 chapters so about that many choice options. Each choice is either wrong making you chose another or right advancing so there is not a lot of branching but I had fun. Sometimes the choices felt too cryptic where neither or the three options feels cleanly rational but at it's best a few are tough decisions I paused for a bit on. There are some bonus materials like a one hour run through without choices of a possible survivor outcome so in fact it took me about 3-4 hours through the book given some/many bad choices.

Fast-paced & Full Of Surprises!

Try Not to Die At Grandma’s House is a thrilling, fast-paced horror gamebook perfect for fans of slasher films or dark escape-room vibes. The audiobook format offers two reading modes: an interactive experience (choose-your-own-path) and a linear “survivor” option.

The story follows teenager David and younger sister Sam, who, after the sudden death of their parents, are sent to live with their grandparents in a remote house nestled deep in the Virginia mountains. The house holds dark secrets, and danger lurks around every corner. As David, the reader is forced to make critical decisions at the end of each short chapter, and there’s an urgent need to unravel what’s really happening in Grandma’s house. Only one narrow path of decisions leads to survival and escape!

A wrong choice leads to a sudden, often gory death, while correct choices edge the reader closer to uncovering the mystery of what’s going on at Grandma’s house and surviving. Only one path leads to freedom, which is revealed in the "survival" mode of the audiobook—it’s recommended to listen only after successfully completing the story via the interactive mode. No matter which route you take, the narrative is fast-paced and adrenaline-driven from start to finish. When making choices, it’s important to pay close attention to how the choices are worded and the small details—in some chapters hints of bad outcomes are given, while in others detours are designed to fool you!

The isolated house setting, surrounded by a high fence to keep out dangerous predators, immediately sets a horrifying tone for this atmospheric story. The house sits in the remote Virginia mountains, far from neighbors, towns, or any quick escape—and the remoteness intensifies the danger for David and Sam! A grandmother’s home usually evokes feelings of comfort and nostalgia, but by making it threatening instead, the book adds a layer of unsettling psychological tension right from the siblings’ arrival. The house itself has so many unsettling features that heighten the siblings’s anxiety—narrow hallways, locked doors, windows that need to remain shut, and creaking staircases, almost feeling like a maze where one wrong step could be fatal!

Despite the characters being young, readers should be aware of the graphic content in some of the stomach-churning, gruesome death scenes when wrong choices are made. The book is marketed as adult horror, though its storyline is similar to teen-oriented survival horror, so it’s also suitable for older YA to adult readers. If listening in the interactive mode, with well over a dozen ways to die, you’ll likely have multiple deaths before making it to the end. The final chapters are extremely fast-paced and filled with shocking reveals, pulse-pounding tension, and horrifying creatures that you won’t soon forget! The story has an open-ended conclusion, but this was likely intentional by the author to create anticipation for the sequel—and readers will be eager to read it immediately afterwards!

Narrator Performance:

Joe Hempel delivers the narration using an engaging and compelling voice that keeps listeners hooked from start to finish. His pacing is calm and deliberate, with well-placed pauses before choices, adding to the immersion. Hempel portrays protagonist David with a grounded, slightly weary tone—perfectly suited for a teenager who’s been forced into survival mode. For Sam, David’s younger sister, Hempel uses a more emotional, impulsive-sounding voice, accentuating her immaturity and reactive nature—and the sibling tension is palpable in many scenes without ever sounding overly dramatic. Once the siblings arrive at Grandma’s house, Hempel maintains a constant sense of tension and urgency in his tone and amplifies the emotional intensity of the characters (especially Sam) whenever they are presented with sudden dangers or tough decisions.

Hempel also does an amazing job giving each character a distinct, authentic-sounding voice that matches their age and personality. Hempel’s portrayal of Grandma Barb is especially compelling as he gives her a warm, nurturing-sounding voice with a sinister undertone that will make listeners question her motives. In contrast, Hempel’s performance of Grandpa Joe has an authoritative, intimidating tone, perfectly capturing the character’s military background and adding tension to the listening experience.

Hempel seamlessly shifts between narration and character dialogue, masterfully guiding listeners through the story and choices. His narration especially shines during death scenes. Even though many are sudden and gruesome, his calm, commanding voice manages to keep them vivid without being overly dramatic.