There’s no getting away from this unputdownable thriller about teens being held captive in an escape room where the stakes are all too real. Perfect for spooky season!All they need to do is get out.Alissa, Sky, Miles and Mint are ready for a night of fun at the Escape Room.It’s simple.Choose their game.Get locked in a room.Find the clues.Solve the puzzles.And escape the room in 60 minutes.But … the puzzles.
And escape the room in 60 minutes.
But what happens if the Game Master has no intention of letting them go?
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Book #34 of 2021
Escape Room by Maren Stoffels
So while this may not be an edge of your seat wild ride of literary genius, it was a quick fun read to knock out the “locked-room mystery” prompt for an annual book reading challenge. I wouldn’t read it again but I don’t regret picking it up.
“Alissa, Sky, Cleo, and Miles just wanted something to do on a Friday night, so they signed up for an Escape Room. They have one hour to find clues, crack codes, and figure out puzzles. The Game Master told them they can always leave the game. But what if that’s not true? What if the Game Master has no intention of letting them out?”
When reading books for school, you’ll always encounter some interesting titles, but this year was extra special to be fair. My school is located in this community center, right next to the local library. So my teacher invited a librarian over to our class and she brought all kinds of books for us to read for literature class. Honestly, I would have been fine not knowing about the existence of some titles.. But yeah, of the fourty-something books I held in my hands that day, only two caught my attention and Escape Room was one of them.
This was a short book I could really speed through. It’s about 176 pages long, has large font and it has a certain tension that just makes you want to finish it in one sitting. It was definitely a book I appreciated for giving me some sort of headstart for this year’s Goodreads reading challenge, as it only took me two sprints to finish it. It certainly has an interesting premise, nice and exciting, and I liked the twists as I couldn’t figure them out beforehand (and I usually can). It wasn’t a super strong book, but it wasn’t bad either.
Something that really didn’t work for me was the writing style. The target demographic seems to be young adults, so basically 17, 18, 19 year olds. But the writing style felt a bit… childish? I am unsure how to properly describe this, but it kind of reminded me of the books I read when I was about 10 years old. Given I read more difficult books than my peers, the gap is still really big. For a story with so much tension and thrills, including a bloodthirsthy escape room, it really felt the sentence formation felt a bit two dimensional. The main characters are in their teens and you’d expect a bit more complexity. The story completely lacked this.
Before I conclude this review, I want to leave something here: It doesn’t matter what the writing style suggests, this is not a book for young children. Personally, I wouldn’t comfortably give this to anyone under 16, as it’s a bit too much to the horror and psychological thriller side for that.
So overall, an okay book. It has a ton of weak points, but I still enjoyed myself. I didn’t have to push myself to finish it – beside it being for a school assignment – and that says something. Some books are written fine, but lack a good plot. For Escape Room it’s completely the opposite and somehow it made me give it 3 stars instead of two.