Name: The Escape Game
Series: Stand Alone (???)
Author: Marissa Meyer & Tamara Moss
Publisher: Hot Key Books
Format: Kindle
Genres: Young Adult, Mystery, Thriller
Spice Rating: 🌶️
Rating:
Synopsis: Goodreads
It’s all fun, puzzles and games until someone ends up dead…
Six months ago, season four of the hugely popular reality TV show THE ESCAPE GAME ended in horror when contestant Alicia Angelos was found murdered in the escape room on set. Now season five is underway, and new contestants are ready to put their skills to the test solving the show’s trickiest escape rooms.
There’s Adi, the cryptographer; Carter, the math whiz influencer; Beck, the escape room enthusiast and wannabe game master, and . . . Sierra Angelos, the girl who got away with her sister’s murder. Or so everyone believes. But Sierra’s not just here to win. She’s here for justice . . . and revenge.
As the contestants progress through the rounds, they begin uncovering clues that hint at the identity of Alicia’s true the stakes aren’t just high in this competition, they’re deadly. If these teens want to escape, win and survive, they must solve the biggest mystery of who killed Alicia Angelos?
Review:
Okay, I have already written this review once but apparently didn’t save it; so I’m pretty confident I’ll miss something this second time round!!
The Escape Game immediately caught my eye as it’s a mystery written by Marissa Meyer, which is a genre I am not used to seeing Marissa write in (I might be wrong, but she’s a fantasy author to me!). What I didn’t know originally, is that this is a co-authored book, I’ve not heard of Tamara Moss before, so not only is it a genre I’ve not read from Marissa, but a second author I’ve not read either! Bonus. I love me an escape room – our local provider hasn’t had a new one in a while, but has just started teasing a new one so I’m very excited for that – and I thought the idea of a reality tv show about escape rooms sounded excellent. Reminded me of old school The Crystal Maze or Jungle Run!
We are following four characters, a team on this show: Carter a Solve Specialist (known on the internet as Kick It Carter), Beck an escape room creator himself, Adi who though forced to ‘audition’ has an excellent wealth of knowledge of his own, and Sierra the only returning contestant from Season Four of the show. She’s also the sister, and number one suspect, of murdered Alicia Angelos who was killed on set in Season Four.
Crazy right? But these unlikely allies and working together to not only win the prize but also solve Alicia’s murder because Sierra convinces them that she did not kill her sister but believes someone on the show did and she wants to find out who…
I loved this – I really thought it was such an entertaining read and premise. But also the murder mystery and the thriller aspects kept me guessing! I felt pretty proud of myself as I solved a few of the escape room clues before reading about the answer in the book as well – plus the additions of the escape room drawerings in the book were a nice inclusion. The ending has me absolutely convinced there will be a sequel – and if there is, sign me up because I’m excited to pick it up.
This is a fun easy read, it is a good intro into thriller for someone who wants to dip their toes as it’s a YA thriller so not too high stakes (though don’t get me wrong, there were some moments where it was higher stakes than just winning some money!). The only reason I didn’t give the 5 star rating was because Adi’s arc just didn’t sit right with me, I didn’t like how that went… Aside from that one minor complaint, a fun time was had!
“I swear I am not a psychopath. My brain is ninety-five percent empathy and five percent confetti.”
Reading With Tyler 
Leave a comment