The cover grabs you, the synopsis pulls you in and you want to know what happens. … This one fell a bit short for me. I was torn about this one… on the one hand, it was interesting enough to finish the book. On the other hand, the book felt longer than it was. Don’t get me wrong, 361 pages is a nice chunk, but it was repetitive for the most part. The characters don’t have any redeeming qualities. What I thought was interesting about this was it was very “Escape the Room” which is all the rage (I love “Escape the Room”!), but with a twist. While the story was entertaining, you will have to suspend disbelief a bit.

The story is told from multiple POVs which was interesting, but the characters are so unlikeable you don’t care what’s happening to them. Throughout their time in the elevator, it becomes clear this about revenge and isn’t your average escape the room. The first third of the book sets up the thrill of the team exercise, but the execution of the rest of the book didn’t quite fulfill its potential.

Sara Hall is nervous. Her interview at Stanhope didn’t go as well as she’d hoped, and the elevator ride back down to reality is harsh. Her MBA isn’t enough to get her in the door of a top investment banking firm like she was hoping. The school loans are huge. Her parents are not well, and their medical bills are mounting. And she’s so exhausted from waiting tables that she can hardly stand up. And then she meets Vincent.

She only met him briefly at Stanhope, but that was enough for him to see something in her. He asked her to come back and interview for his team. She passed the series of interviews and came to work a six-figure salaried job for Vincent. The pay was good and the perks were amazing, but it was a seven-day-a-week job. Long hours, always on call. Sara was okay with that. She was willing to put in the long hours. She was willing to get coffee for the team. This was her dream.

And then it all started to fall apart for her. Vincent, the incandescent leader of the team, was away more and more. Sam, Vincent’s second-in-command and Sara’s unofficial mentor, started to point out her mistakes and said he couldn’t protect her anymore. Jules and Sylvie never really cared for her, so they didn’t care if she sank or swam, as long as she didn’t take the team down with her. And then there was Lucy. Lucy was brilliant, but on the autism spectrum, so she didn’t really fit in with the team. But her ideas were so lucrative that Vincent protected her. But when she took her own life, Sara knew that there was something deeply wrong with Vincent and his team. Before she could do anything about it, though, she was killed, leaving only the four original teammates.

As Bonus Day got closer, they all wanted to know what they could do to maximize their payouts for the year. So when the text came through about their taking part in an escape room, they went. Despite missing out on personal obligations, they chose to enter the escape room for one more team-building exercise before they found out just how big their bonuses would be. But then something went wrong. And then everything went wrong. And then they were stuck together, wondering if maybe the escape room wasn’t they thought it was.

And they start to wonder if they’ll even get out alive.

Megan Goldin’s debut novel The Escape Room is as fascinating a thriller as I’ve read in a long time. I am not a binge reader. And yet, I could not pull myself away from this novel. I had to know how all the pieces came together. And it was amazing. I fell for this book hard!

If you love a good thriller, if you want to be grabbed and held tightly by a story, if you’re fascinated by the cutthroat world of investment finance, then you should definitely not let this one pass you by! Lock yourself into your own escape room and read this as soon as you can!

Galleys for The Escape Room were provided by St. Martin’s Press through NetGalley, with many thanks.

This financial thriller is pretty interesting! You get to learn a bit more about the crazy hours and job routine of a financial business employee in Wall Street, and at the same time you will be biting your nails waiting to know what really happened and how they all ended up in a escape room of sorts that take place inside an elevator. Would you be able to complete the tasks and escape the elevator?
In terms of narrative, I like the book structure alternating chapters that tell the story in Sara Hall’s perspective with chapters inside the Escape Room. I couldn’t put down the book because I wanted to know how it would all be connected.

’Welcome to the escape room. Your goal is simple. Get out alive.’

When a group of four competitive coworkers, at the top of their game in the lucrative world of finance, are summoned to a high rise building to participate in an escape room team-building exercise, it quickly becomes clear – when the elevator doors won’t open – that this is no ordinary competition: they’re caught in a dangerous game of survival.

THE ESCAPE ROOM is told via alternating timelines, which adds to the suspense as the narrative plays out, but I have to admit, though a fun read, it was a bit predictable. There were a couple of points in the novel that felt a bit far fetched, but I still really enjoyed the ending!


Thank you to St. Martins Press and NetGalley for an advanced copy, for an honest review.

I enjoyed this book. While I wasn't overwhelmed with the characters, the action kept you guessing and wanting to continue reading. I hadn't read Ms. Goldin before but I will definitely be keeping her on my radar. Especially when I'm looking for an absolutely unbelievable but compelling read.
I received a free copy of this book from Netgalley and the publisher and voluntarily chose to review it.

I received an ARC of this book for my honest review.
I enjoyed this book, edge of your seat read till the last page.

This book is filled with so much goodness it is hard for me to contain my excitement for this review but I'll try. No promises however. What do you get when you mix in an escape room, team building exercises and ambitious Wall Street employees? You get this gem of a book. Starting from the first page I felt the tension, the riches and the ambiance of a different world. There is murder, there are thrills, there are nail biting scenes and so much more. Oh my gosh this book.

“So pick a side, Sara, and don’t ever look back at the trail of people you’ve trampled into the ground. You don’t owe them a thing. Success is not for the squeamish.”

Sam, Jules, Sylvie and their boss Vincent have been summoned for an unusual “team-building” event late one Friday night for their investment banking firm Stanhope. Each of them would do anything asked of them by the firm, one of the most elite and competitive Wall Street organizations. None of them actually know anything but quickly realize as they enter an elevator in an empty building that they have been trapped. The only escape will come from solving the mysterious clues that appear in the darkened elevator. They must work together if they will ever escape. But even though they are co-workers, they each are cut-throat and distrustful of each other.

Conditions quickly deteriorate in the darkened elevator and they realize that their situation is much more dire than they first realized. Their predicament becomes even more puzzling when they answer the first clue, which is Sara Hall, their former co-worker.

The story alternates between the elevator and Sara’s experience working at Stanhope, At first an eager, hard-working new MBA grad, she quickly becomes entrenched in the exhausting life and demanding hours required of all Stanhope employees.

“My life revolved around the firm. I was fully indoctrinated. I talked the Stanhope jargon as if it were my mother tongue. Dissent was discouraged, no matter what our brochures said about diversity of opinion, and I tailored my thoughts to conform to the consensus of the firm.”

The describing life at the firm were fascinating. Stanhope demanded complete loyalty and cut-throat ideals. What Sara thought would be a challenging, prestigious job turned into a vicious cycle, requiring great personal and moral sacrifice.

"I was as despicable as the rest of them, really, when I think about it. I chased money as if my life depended upon it. I got high on the adrenaline rush of the deal and learned to block out the impact on the lives of ordinary folk struggling to hold it together.
When had making money taken precedence over the people I loved?"

The premise of ‘The Escape Room’ is very appealing and I read it in almost one sitting. Although the ending is a little far-fetched, the description of life as a Wall Street banker was both fascinating and dreadful. The story is very exciting and the action does not let up from beginning to end. Although Vincent, Sylvie, Sam and Jules became less and less sympathetic as the story went on, I was still rooting for them to solve the puzzle of the escape room.

I love the premise of the story and enjoyed the chapters describing life at the firm. Despite the somewhat rushed ending, I enjoyed this book and the writing was very brisk and engaging. Definitely grab this one if you like fast-paced thrillers!

Thank you to St Martin's Press and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

We enter the book with a security guard doing his nightly rounds of office building not yet open for business when he hears what sounds like gunfire. As the cops arrive and begin their investigation, the sound of the elevator arriving to the lobby grabs their attention. One problem, there shouldn't being anyone in the building.
The story then jumps back to 34 hours previously.
Four colleagues are all summoned to the lobby of the unopened building with the impression that it is for a mandatory team building exercise. No one is happy about this but due to possible job losses due to poor performance at their investment banking they aren't in a position to say no. The team enters the elevator on what they are led to believe is an escape room scenario. Once the doors close, the lights turn off and everything changes. Everyone here has secrets they have kept from each other and everyone else that can destroy each and every one of them.
This book is full of twists and turns told in alternating chapters between the past and the present. As we jump back and forth in time, we learn what events have led up to the 4 being trapped in the elevator and who is really responsible for their present circumstances. A study into the lengths people are willing to go to in order to preserve their secrets.
This is a really addictive read that has you piecing together little tidbits trying to figure out what is really going on and is sure to keep you up long into the night.

Linda's Book Obsession Reviews "The Escape Room" by Megan Goldin, St. Martin's Press, July 30, 2019

Megan Goldin, Author of "The Escape Room" has written an intense, captivating, riveting, intriguing, edgy and suspenseful novel.  The timeline for this story is in the present and goes to the past when it pertains to the events or characters in the story. The Genres for this story are Psychological Thriller, Mystery, and Suspense.  There are betrayals, lies and secrets and twist and turns. The author describes her dramatic characters as twisted, vengeful, greedy, ambitious, intelligent, dysfunctional, complex and complicated.

Four major players of a Wall Street top firm, that are used to manipulation, and deception are summoned to an emergency meeting. The company they work for is extremely wealthy and competitive.  Vincent is supposedly the leader, Sam, Sylvie and Jules all meet for what they think is a team exercise. They find themselves in a locked elevator, which they have to escape from.

 Clues are left for the characters. The first is letters when unscrambled spell Sara Hall. Who is Sara Hall???  "Once a shining star--- now gone but not forgotten".The lights go out, and the heat goes on. This is not a game of Escape, this is now a dangerous and deadly game, of who will live and who will die. More clues turn up and turn each character against each other. Who will get out alive?? 

This story is uber intense and extremely edgy! This Psychological thriller is suspenseful and scary at times. I would highly recommend this novel.  Pay attention to the clues, and the information that is given to you.

Sara Hall counts herself lucky to be hired by a highly prestigious finance firm and loves the work, if not the people she works with. When she accidentally uncovers company secrets that her coworkers would prefer to keep hidden, she finds her career in jeopardy.

I found The Escape Room to be a quick, entertaining read full of people I honestly enjoyed watching get what they had coming to them. I can’t say that I felt any empathy for most of the characters in the book. While not a fast-paced story, it did keep me intrigued and I had to keep reading to figure out who was up to what.

If you like puzzles, twists, and turns with your mystery, and enjoy seeing nasty people get their comeuppance, you should like this thriller.

Slight almost-spoiler alert:

I think that as an IT professional, I may not have been the best audience for this book. Some of the things that Sara manages to learn to an expert level in a short period of time seem too far-fetched for me, and even trying to engage in a little willful suspension of disbelief didn’t help. This definitely altered my perception of the story as a whole, but I don’t think most people outside of the industry would even notice.

This was a great book. I fully enjoyed myself. It had one of my top tropes in a mystery/thriller, a game.

I loved the plot of this book. The idea of a thriller set mostly around an escape room is amazing. I really wish that there was more of a game element than there actually was, considering that is what drew me to this book. In the end though, the story still kept me hooked despite what little 'clues' to escape the elevator was actually given.

Nothing really shocked me, I could see what was happening for the most part straight away, but honestly that's okay for me. I don't mind if there are no shocking twists as long as the story is compelling. Which it was.

Man, I seriously hope the Wall Street isn't really anything like this, but I am a little worried it is just a bit. It is a side of humanity that I just wish I could forget. Kudos to Goldin for creating believable characters.

The reason for the 4 and not 5 star rating is mainly that the writing style for me left it just a little lacking. It felt more like facts of an event being thrown at me instead of allowing me to be fully immersed. There were times when the time line felt off, but I couldn't pin point exactly why which threw me a few times.

I will definitely be picking up another book from this author!

I just finished a real great scary psychological thriller. I put off reading this because of all the hype, but the hype is so real! I really hope this gets optioned, because I will be taking the stairs from now on and everyone should feel thst, not just book lovers. I hope The Escape Room gets all the praise it deserves.

Let me introduce you to my favourite revenge thriller of 2019.

The Escape Room is balls-the-walls wild, while still being grounded and realistic. I think that's why I liked it so much - it was the perfect combination of over-the-top moments that exist just to be fun, mixed with a true-to-life high finance setting and realistic themes of suicide, loss, financial struggle and degrees of sexism.

The author took things that are honest and real, and that most readers will be able to find some thread of connection to, and kicked it up a notch with fantastical plot elements.

I only had two minor issues with the novel. One is loose ends. It was never totally explained why or who was behind what happened to Sara after she spoke to Vincent about the journal she'd discovered, and the aftermath of the elevator isn't discussed in a way that felt like I was getting closure. And two, the ending felt rushed. I read the last sentence of the last page and still tried to keep scrolling on my tablet. I just thought there should be more.

But other than that, this is a surprisingly original thriller. It's realistic when it comes to the setting and the environment and the behaviour of the characters, but it's fun and wild when it comes to the sinister aspects of the plot. All in, it's a really refreshing read that was satisfying and gave me a little buzz.

This is not really meant to be a mystery or even full of twists to knock your socks off. It's meant to be a coldblooded revenge thriller that demands blood.

It delivers.

Schadenfreude all the way around. And I ain't mad about it.

The Escape Room is...exactly that. You, the reader, are trapped in a boring book, with boring details about money, deals and pee. No one is interesting, no one is worth investing in, no one is worth caring about. There is no real winner.

Four annoying people are trapped in an elevator as part of a team building exercise. Everyone bitches about their life. Everyone complains about their high level, high stress, high paying job.

SNOOOOOZE.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I first want to say happy pub day to this gem - It’s officially out and I recommend everyone go snag a copy! As well as a thank you to @netgalley and @stmartinspress for a free advanced copy in exchange for my honest review!

This was such a quick read for me with quick chapters that exchanged between the present day of four colleagues attempting to survive/escape a work exercise and past day Sara Hall, who is a recent MBA graduate trying to get her big break on Wall Street. This book had me guessing who, what, when, where and how to the very last page! The flashbacks to the past really kept me intrigued to what in the world could’ve happened; It was a very engaging book. This book also covered a lot of topics that people face on a day to day basis such as women in the work force and how influential money could really be.

Thanks to St. Martin's Press for the free advanced copy in exchange for my honest review

Escape Rooms have become a very popular game for people to do. I haven’t personally tried one yet, but you are given a situation and need to find clues in order to make it out of the room before your time is up. Vincent, Sylvie, Same, and Jules find themselves in one when they are told to meet that night for a team-building exercise. When the elevator turns out to be an escape room, they begrudgingly try to find the clues and solve them but are convinced they can just let the clock run out instead. When they aren’t let out after the hour, they begin to panic. They are asked a question, how much do you trust each other?

We are brought into the world of investment banking and how everyone is out to help themselves. Sara Hall gets a job at a prestigious firm and finds out how grueling the schedules are and that she is pretty much on her own when it comes to friends within her team. We alternated between Sara’s timeline and the events within the elevator. Who would want to trap them in the elevator and why? They are forced to face everything they’ve done in their careers to try and figure it out. Secrets and betrayals come to light and all hell breaks loose within those confines.

I really liked seeing Sara’s story unfold. It really painted a picture of the struggles to climb the corporate ladder without stepping on anyone’s toes and putting a target on your back. The characters in this book are deplorable and you almost love to hate them, all but Lucy. She was the shining star among the cast of characters. I thought this was a fun suspense read with a good premise. I wish there was a little more with the escape room concept, but otherwise I thought the characters were well-developed and all in all I ended up finishing this book in the span of 6ish hours. Definitely recommend this if you’re looking for a new addictive suspense read!

I absolutely loved this book! It kept me up all night reading. The heroine has been told that she and other employees will be put in an escape room. Without giving anything away, suffice it to say, this is nothing like the escape rooms which have cropped up everywhere! You will not be able to quit reading this book. Kudos to Megan Goldin! Thank you to NetGalley and St.Martin’s Press for allowing me to read and review this book in exchange for an honest review.

After reading the synopsis, I was expecting a bang of a thriller. However, it was just okay. It was well paced and kept me intrigued.

This follows four individuals that work closely together at a Wall Street finance company. Their only ambition is to get rich and to rise the corporate ladder, with no care of others and at any cost. They are to do an escape room exercise like no other. After several clues, they start to question each other, as they never expected that everyone held secrets from each other.

This was a great story about money, greed, power and revenge.

Thank you to the Author, St. Martins Press and NetGalley for the eARC.

3.25 stars.

I decided I'm leaning more towards 3 than 4 and brought my rating from a 3.5 to a 3.25. I liked it, it held my attention for sure! But it was also a little sloppy. I wanted there to be more depth in the Elevator chapters. Also, not sure where the author is from but I don't think it's the US. If you're setting your book in the US with US characters, don't call bangs "fringe." Americans do not call the hair the grows over your forehead, a fringe. And the end was so rushed. The last few chapters are just word vomit as the hows come out. But also get ready for unanswered questions!