“One of my favorite books of the year.” –Lee Child “Cancel all your plans and call in sick; once you start reading, you’ll be caught in your own escape room–the only key to freedom is turning the last page!” –Kirkus Reviews (starred) “A sleek, well-crafted ride.” –The New York Times In Megan Goldin’s unforgettable debut, The Escape Room, four young Wall Street rising stars discover the price … The Escape Room, four young Wall Street rising stars discover the price of ambition when an escape room challenge turns into a lethal game of revenge.
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 in order to survive?
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I received this book as an ARC.. this is my honest opinion…It was a great read that kept me on the edge of my seat trying to figure out what happened and who did what! It was full of suspense that kept building up.. twist and turns that I didn’t even see coming.. I’m still like WOW did that just happen! It was truly an awesome book that I’m so glad I got the chance read!
Escape rooms seem to be all the rage these days! Well, this Escape Room is outrageous! How hard can it be to escape an elevator? Right? Just take this elevator ride and it all becomes clear how difficult it really is. It’s a “ride” that took me into the dark side of the financial district in NY and the “behind-the-scenes” of the cut-throat business of this fictional company called Stanhope & Sons. It’s eat or be eaten in this story. Each person for themselves.
An escape room sounds like the perfect corporate team-building activity to bring colleagues together for the betterment of the company. This team-building event takes place in an elevator from which the four co-workers, Vincent, Sylvie, Jules and Sam find themselves trapped in. It’s their “mission” (which they have no option to refuse) to figure out the clues that are hidden in the elevator in order to escape. They have no idea what’s in store for them!
This story alternates between two POVs. The first, of course, is the group stuck in the elevator. The second is Sara, a co-worker who is the last to be hired by the company. The gaps in the story are filled in as the group in the elevator find themselves learning things about each other that they don’t want revealed. Sara’s part of the story is what happens that leads up to the team-building event. It works well by weaving the stories together and how each character affects the others. It’s not always a good thing especially trapped in an inescapable elevator.
The characters, Vincent, Jules, Sylvie and Sam are perfect for this story. Greedy, vindictive, snooty and mean. They aren’t welcoming or someone I’d personally want anything to do with. I found myself not caring if they “escaped” at all. Then there is Sara. She’s been dealt a rough way to go but she tries her best and I wanted her to succeed. She is the good to the bad in the book.
The whole book had me trying to figure out why these four were called to the Escape Room. What was the point? I had to keep turning the pages to know what was the reason. Each person had no clue what they were doing in there and why. What is the motive? Oh, the secrets that come out! Suspicions abound!
“That he was the architect of some twisted Machiavellian plot to lock them together in the tiny claustrophobic space-an escape room from which they’d been unable to escape.”
This book is a captivating scenario that would be a worst nightmare of being trapped in a pitch black elevator. It’s an unimaginable elevator ride! I will probably never think of an elevator the same way again. BUT…..I’m thinking there might be more to this ride? I would love if there is.
I want to thank St. Martin’s Press for a copy of this book, Netgalley for an ARC of this book and Ms. Goldin for writing this book!
Working for Stanhope and Sons on Wall Street seems like the dream job for Sara as she will finally be able to take care of her parents. But working on Wall Street isn’t easy, especially when you feel shut out most of the time by your team. But she’s going to make the best of it, she needs to as her father’s bills are mounting.
Told in alternating viewpoints of Sara’s past and the present with the team in an elevator, The Escape Room tells the story of the cutthroat world of Wall Street, and the lengths some people go to keep their secrets buried.
No one wants to be stuck in an elevator (I’ve had it happen, and it sucks), especially under these conditions. You get an inside look at what really happens in big companies such as this. The characters are great, each of them especially unique in either how good or evil they really are. I found that once I started reading I didn’t want to put the book down. A clever story and a fun read.
This book was amazing! The high finance world of investment banking is the backdrop for the story, where the characters are competitive with others in the firm, and each other. Vincent, Jules, Sam and Sylvie are “invited” to participate in an escape room exercise for work. They soon realize getting out isn’t as easy as they think and then the trouble begins. Lies and secrets begin to come out as they try to figure out who has trapped them and how to get out. Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for my ARC of this fantastic book!
I found this a fascinating read. It details the tumulous and sometimes ruthless world of Wall Street finance. The storyline is one that I have never come across before and the details in the story are so vivid. It shows the very worst side of those who are infatuated with greed and power, and also the power of revenge. I highly recommend this book. Reviewed by: Jamie Gillespie
This story has given me a unique view into Wall Street and the people whose jobs seem to be making lots of money and getting ahead in the firm. The characters here could be described as very intense and veritable workaholics. The interactions between the characters are very interesting especially in the elevator. The story includes information about banking and is business heavy at times which is not one of my primary interests. This book is defined as a thriller but it just wasn’t my kind of thriller. I’m sure readers who like big business and Wall Street will want to read this book.
Thanks to St Martins Press for the ARC. This book was good and kept me intrigued and then the last 3/4, It was edge of your seat to see all the pieces come together. This would make a fantastic movie!
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book in return for an honest review.
On Wall Street, the means are ruthless ambitious, greed is rampant and money is the end. When a team of four money-loving and power-hungry financial analysts are lured to an elevator for an escape room outing, how will it end? Quite horribly, I’m afraid.
The story is told from two perspectives and two timelines. First, we hear from Sara Hall, past and present, and from her four teammates presently locked in an elevator. To start, Sara succeeds at snagging a coveted position at Stanhope, the financial giant that can make you millions. Sara is run ragged by the incessant work, but reaps the rewards. There are riches to be made, but at what cost? When Sara’s only friend at Stanhope commits suicide, there are questions about it really being a suicide. A little more digging, and Sara finds out just how powerful her teammates are, and that they will stop at nothing to ruin Sara’s life.
We then cut back and forth between Sara and her teammates. Can they put aside their rivalry to work their way out of the elevator? Unfortunately, suspicion and distrust rule the event, and some devastating secrets are revealed.
The book started well enough and kept me engaged almost to the end. At the end, things got a little fantastical. I won’t give away any spoilers, but some of the machinations are so wild to make the pieces all fit together, that they become unbelievable. Really, who knows anyone who can make contact lenses to match someone’s iris pattern for an iris-reader? Still, it was definitely an entertaining book, even if simplistic and kind of predictable, but still a fun escape from everyday. None of the characters are likable, so there is no hero to root for, but if you can suspend belief for a while it’s an entertaining read.
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I am going back and forth on my review for this book. Is it 3 stars or is it 4? Is it 4 because it kept me reading and I actually enjoyed it? Or is it a 3 because I found some parts needlessly tedious and the “clues” simple and predictable?
I’m sticking with 4 because, in the end, I did enjoy the read. Four people that you hate almost at first introduction get stuck in an elevator “Escape Room”. Now, you know before they even enter that someone doesn’t fair well in an elevator. We get a peak at how that ends for them before it even starts. Then we get a little story telling about these people and their past. This is where the “clues” get obvious, though maybe they were obvious and easy for me only because I am reading the background in tandem (and because I do a lot of puzzles and mystery boxes myself).
While Jules, Vincent, Sam, and Sylvie are trapped in a box we get to see them from the point of view of Sara from the time she meets them until, well, the end. I loved the pacing of most of the book. Going back and forth helped that along. Sometimes it just became bogged down in details I didn’t need. Yes, I got it, his wife spends a lot of money. Yes, that guy is a real jerk. Which was in such contrast to the end of the book, which just whipped us through may years of plotting and planning that I would have liked to know more about. Get why it was kept until the end, but I already figured who was behind all of this, so it was a waste. Move that along to earlier in the story and let us know more about that, the interesting part, than about how many horrible things the other characters have done. I was already convinced.
But I couldn’t stop reading. I knew what was going to happen to these people, I knew who was doing it to them, and I wanted to see how they got there. That is, in my estimation, the real measure of a good story. I still wanted to go on the journey.
I decided to read this book because it sounded like a taut psychological thriller and it had so many stellar reviews. I read it just for entertainment value and still it fell short. The first third of the book had my attention, setting up for the thrill of the escape room challenge that we knew was going to happen.
Sara Hall, our main protagonist, is a newly minted MBA who supposedly was an incredible student with amazing recommendations from professors, those she had interned with, etc and yet she was having trouble finding a job. After failing one interview with the firm of Stanhope and Sons she meets another member of the firm, Vincent, in an elevator (get the red herring right here) as she is leaving and he gives her a second chance at interviews. She lands the job, supposedly among the best of the best. She now has an income that can help her pay down her student loans and help with her parents medical bills. However it doesn’t take long before she realizes that the other members of the loosely labeled team aren’t too happy to see her.
Vincent introduces her to the rest of the group: Jules is an alcoholic as well as a workaholic, they all are. Sylvie is a beautiful former model who is ruthless and angry, having had her modeling career cut short because of a horrific accident. Sam is constantly struggling to make enough money to keep his wife happy. Lucy is a brilliant mathematical wizard whom many of the others turn to when they need advise. Lucy is on the autism spectrum and is socially very withdrawn and awkward, she is the butt of many jokes but Vincent is the one who hired her and knows how valuable she is.
Anyway, back to our story . . . .the novel goes back and forth from the POV of the four members of the team who are trapped in the elevator to Sara Hall who details how everything came to this point.
Midway through the book I really felt that the tension unraveled and a lot of what happens in the escape room is predictable although completely unbelievable. What will four characters with no redeeming qualities do when trapped together with little water, no food and in darkness??? There are clues that they find or are displayed on a monitor which make little sense and do nothing to help them out of this situation. Considering these are supposed brilliant people they are pretty slow to realize that this is not an ordinary escape room experience.
I’m giving this book 3 stars strictly for entertainment value and for keeping me turning pages for the first third of the book. The writing at many times seemed repetitive with lots of side stories that were introduced but never really completed. The ending was explanatory but you really have to suspend all believability here.
I received a copy of this novel from the publisher through NetGalley.
A sinister story of greed and selfishness. Sarah sets out to take revenge on the firm and the people who destroyed her life. The author tells a warning story about what happens when reaching for the glass ceiling becomes all consuming and destructive. It can leave you trapped or dead.
Megan Goldin combines the premise of Faust with some elements of the movie “Wall Street” and even a touch of “She-Devil” in her latest novel The Escape Room. Her protagonist, Sara Hall, covets the sumptuous lifestyle of the financial sector’s elite and sees her entry into that world as an escape from her current life of subsistence. Sara has the right combination of desperation, ambition and naivete to be a willing victim of a system that encourages a lack of empathy and flexible ethical limits. When an opportunity arises at Stanhope in NY, she immediately immerses herself in the competitive culture of the firm, with its grueling hours and back-stabbing colleagues. The chapters in the novel alternate between Sara’s experiences as a new hire and a future in which the other members of her team find themselves trapped in an “escape room” situation that proves to be much more than a game. How these two scenarios tie in together is skillfully revealed as the story unfolds. The Escape Room addresses issues of sexual harassment, income inequality and gender discrimination in the workplace. It also raises the question of how far a person would compromise his/her values in order to wrest some of the riches that are so esteemed in our culture. Despite some plot elements that stretch credulity and some well-worn stereotypes, Goldin’s novel is a fast-paced and gripping read. This would be a great pick for a captivating beach read this summer.
Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an ARC of this book in exchange for an objective review.
4 coworkers get a text for a team building exercise. They find themselves at an escape room but instead of a room it’s in an elevator. . As the 4 of them are trapped in the elevator, secrets and lots of them are exposed. How well do you really know your coworkers? As the secrets come out, that is when the story gets exciting! I enjoyed this thriller of a book but I do wish the coworkers knew who put them together in the elevator! I received an advanced readers copy and all opinions are my own.
YIKES!! What a twisted tale! The Escape Room by Megan Goldin is a mystery/thriller that had me thinking twice about getting into the elevator when I went to the doctor yesterday. Ms. Goldin has produced a book that is well-written, even though it’s part 3rd person and part 1st person, it totally works in this story. The characters are such a variety and your feelings for them will change throughout the story.
Sarah is a business school grad that is having a hard time finding a job. When she lands a job in NYC, she’s happy that she’ll be able to help her parents with all the medical bills from her father’s long illness. Her story is loaded with drama, a few bits of humor, murder and edge of your seat suspense. I enjoyed reading The Escape Room and would happily read more from Megan Goldin in the future. Even if it does mean I’ll have no nails by the end of the book.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book that I received from NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
4.5 Stars
This was a thriller that totally had me hooked. The shark-like personalities of some in the financial world. How corrupt the industry could be and the intense addiction that money could be. Long work days, stressful work trips and lack of trust led to a tense work environment, and The Escape Room is a tale of how it can lead to revenge in many ways and the karma that could come back to bite them.
Told from 1st and 3rd person perspectives, the story lays out a derails web connect past and present for multiple characters and their roles in what led them to their present circumstances. This was a thrill to read and would even make a great movie that I would SO watch.
I’ll admit it was a bit confusing at first. With so many players in the beginning I want sure where the story was heading but once the pieces started to line up, it all started making sense. It also wasn’t your typical “escape room” story. I’ve watched to many versions of those in the movies and figured this would be just like those; which I love and figured this would be a great escape from reading my usual genre, romance. I got way more that I bargained for.
Intense! I didn’t know what to expect from this story. I was unsure about it at the beginning. But before long, it pulled me into the world of finance and Wall Street. The characters are complex and well=written. The story has many twists and turns and left me wondering what could be next. Every time I thought I had it figured out, it took a new twist. A great read, a captivating story.
An excellent story. I was caught up in the story line from the beginning and did not want to put this book down. The intrinsic meanness and greed of the “Circle” made me wish for revenge, along with the main character. Don’t miss this one, the inventiveness and conclusion is brilliantly done. This book is added to my list of top reads.
This should be made into a movie!
The story opens in the present, where Miguel, a security guard, working the night shift is guarding a luxury office tower. His partner didn’t come to work, so Miguel is working alone. He’s not concerned because there has never been any activity to be concerned about. While he is busy listening to music with headphones. When he went to search for another song, he heard a scream and it was enough to make him go investigate.
Then the story flashes back to the past, where Sara Hall, a graduate in finance, who had been looking for work steadily, and getting turned down. For income, she worked as a waitress. After an especially bad interview and on her way out, she bumped into Vincent de Vries on the elevator, while still holding her resume, Vincent had taken a peek at it and struck up a conversation. As the elevator doors opened, Vincent had Sara’s resume and she had his card.
Soon after, Sara received a call to go for an interview at the prestigious Stanhope and Sons, where Vincent was the Senior Vice President. Following many interviews, Sara receives a call that she was hired. Sara is over the moon, because that means she can afford to pay for her father’s medical bills. Sara, soon discovers that Stanhope and Sons require a lot of their employees, it’s a high stress job with grueling hours, and she’s not exactly welcomed into the group she is to work with. There is an undercurrent with each member, who are very guarded about their personal life, despite Sara’s attempts to make friends, she is kept at a distance.
One of the team members, is Lucy Marshall, a genius, but considered awkward by her colleagues because she doesn’t fit the criteria that Stanhope and Sons require of their employees. Sara on a rare day off, ends up at the zoo and goes into the snow leopard exhibit, where she notices Lucy drawing on a sketch pad. Barely having said two words to one another at work, they strike up a conversation, that eventually leads to a friendship.
Except, Lucy is very adamant that their friendship remains a secret from the other team members.
There are lots of secrets that are guarded where does the line begin and end to know who is friend and who is foe?
Excellent engrossing story, that I highly recommend!
Thanks to NetGalley via St. Martin’s Press for giving me an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.
I was reluctant to read this book – ambitious Wall Street bankers and financiers – an escape room setting. It just did not really appeal to me. So I hesitantly put one toe in the water…then splash! I was all in by the end of the Prologue. Six pages! After that I did NOT want to put it down!
Vincent, Sylvie, Sam and Jules are living their dream. Financiers on Wall Street they make mega bucks. They are cold and ruthless. Masters of deception and intimidation. Their work is their life.
All four are “ordered” to a mandatory meeting on a Friday evening at an isolated office building under construction. Vincent knows they will be doing an escape room scenario as a team-building exercise. He thinks they will be fighting for their jobs, when in actuality they are fighting for their lives.
The four have worked together for years. They think they know each other’s secrets and lies. But now all the dirty secrets will truly come out when the elevator becomes their escape room. With no cellphone coverage they are truly isolated; their only hope lies in the clues provided within the elevator.
Hunger. Thirst. Heat. Cold. Fear. Anger. Desperation. All niceties melt away like the sweat running down their bodies. Their true characters emerge.
A story of deception and revenge, it kept me guessing. Who was behind it all? Suspenseful. Intriguing. Nail-biting.
The chapters alternate between the point of view of those trapped in the elevator and the story of Sara Hall, a former workmate of theirs. What is the link?
Megan Goldin is sure to be a big name in the publishing world with the release of this book.
Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for providing a review copy of the book.
Rcvd an ARC at no cost to author..(netgalley) When I read the blurb I was super excited I mean this was a new concept, but unfortunately it didn’t keep my excitement. I found it dragging and it couldn’t keep my interest all that much, I was a expecting a thriller and didn’t feel like I got that. Don’t get me wrong I didn’t hate it and I would still recommend you giving it a try but don’t expect a whole lot. I didn’t care about the characters they were not the greatest of people.