The Escape Room: A Novel

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for a free copy of this ebook in exchange for an honest review.

I first read this book in June 2019 while recovering from personal trauma. At the time, I was desperately trying to use books as a form of escape and I had completely forgotten to write and submit a review for NetGalley. So here am, almost exactly four years later, rereading the same book and finally writing a review.

Synopsis:
“Welcome to the escape room. Your goal is simple. Get out alive. In the lucrative world of finance, Vincent, Jules, Sylvie, and Sam are at the top of their game.
They've mastered the art of the deal and celebrate their success in style-but a life of extreme luxury always comes at a cost. Invited to participate in an escape room challenge as a team-building exercise, the ferociously competitive co-workers crowd into the elevator of a high-rise building, eager to prove themselves. But when the lights go off and the doors stay shut, it quickly becomes clear that this is no ordinary competition: they're caught in a dangerous game of survival. Trapped in the dark, the colleagues must put aside their bitter rivalries and work together to solve cryptic clues to break free. But as the game begins to reveal the team's darkest secrets, they realize there's a price to be paid for the terrible deeds they committed in their ruthless climb up the corporate ladder. As tempers fray, and the clues turn deadly, they must solve one final chilling puzzle: which one of them will kill to survive?”

I went into this book with so much anticipation. I love a good locked room mystery, secrets, and deadly games. Soon into reading this book, I realized that as much as an elevator helps encapsulate the feeling of claustrophobia, it’s not the best setting for an “escape room.” There just wasn’t enough in that space for the character to interact with, to seem plausible.

I found that Sara’s POV was the most interesting part of this story, but for a book called “escape room” and for the synopsis to say it’s a “dangerous game of survival” and a “competition,” I found all of that to be VERY misleading. I’m my opinion, this was just a bunch of corporate gossip and manipulations, not the fast-paced deadly game of a book, that the synopsis eludes to.

Overall, I rated it three stars both times I read this story. It was fine, but I just wanted what was promised.

I wonder if I would have given it 4 stars if had skipped the Prologue. I knew how it would end. Also, to me this book was just not believable. Not the fact that they were so cut throat, the fact that one person set the "escape room" scenario up. Characters were very well developed and the current fad of escape rooms was relevant.

Bor-ing...

I received an advance copy of this novel from the publisher, St. Martin's Press, through Netgalley.

I read The Escape Room in about 24 hours! I was very intrigued by the concept of this book. The idea of being mislead to believe you're participating in a typical escape room challenge, only to discover it's very real, was a terrifying one. Other reviewers have noted that most of the characters were very unlikeable, which was very true, but I also felt like that was kind of the point. It was still compulsively readable, allowing the reader into the cutthroat world of the upper echelons of Wall Street.

#popsugarreadingchallenge2019 (prompt #39)
#escaperoombook

I enjoyed this book until the end. I found Sara a compelling character. I grew to care about her and especially enjoyed her chapters. It did feel sometimes not like a thriller but an insight into what it’s like working in a high powered job on Wall Street but I didn’t mind that. I still found it interesting. The elevator scenes were tense especially since I’m very claustrophobic and can’t tolerate elevators. This whole experience was reading about my worst fear come to life!! Still, the fear made it even more gripping and hard to put down.

For me, this book might have been a five star until the end. I’m very good at suspending disbelief but even I just couldn’t buy into the turn of events. The ending left me cold because it was so convoluted. But still, overall this book was worth the read. I’ll definitely be checking this author’s other books out.