they thought it was a game, but they never signed a waiver….for <b>MURRRRRDERRRR</b>!!!!!

<img src="https://media1.tenor.com/images/f80e769af5bd2ac67c53c68739ef8d6c/tenor.gif"/>

this is what a christopher pike novel looks like when it grows up.

this is <i>Saw</i> in an elevator.

if you think either of those comments are made disparagingly, let’s never be friends.

this book is pure freaking fun: it grabs your attention from the outset and keeps you locked in for the duration of the ride, action flipping between past and present, frequently switching character POV so you’re always slightly off-balance, distracting you with new information so you don’t squint too closely or follow one lead too far along the path to discovery, muddying the waters beat after beat until ta-DAAAA all is revealed and even though you’ve figured out some bits along the way, the final scene’ll surprise everyone, including those orchestrating this overly elaborate revenge scheme.

will this book win all the literary awards and go down in history for being the most astonishing, challenging, upsetting, and profoundly moving book anyone has ever written?

dude, no. but if you’ve been watching the news, getting sick of seeing shitty people get away with shitty things, do you want challenging and upsetting or do you want to see some smug, entitled monsters get their comeuppance for once?

it’s four competitive people with big ambitions, shaky moral compasses, career-ending secrets and a lot to lose, trapped in an elevator, with a gun.

popcorn me.

Oh the simple joys of a financial thriller, they are all here for us to enjoy. The overbearing company, the high priced drones out for money and power, the brilliant thinker who doesn't quite fit in, the deaths that may or may not have had help, the egotistic pride of the entitled, all mix together to provide an exciting ride. Top it all off with the newest form of entertainment, the escape room puzzle, and you have a great read.
Sara Hall is a new graduate in financial management. She isn't a friend or relative of the members of the firm she wants to work for, but she has hope. Her hope is realized and she joins a tight working group. Vincent is her manager. He leads the crew of Sylvie, Sam, Jules and Lucy. Sara joins them but only makes friends with Lucy. Lucy doesn't fit in, and that leads to her death. Lucy does leave information but not proof for Sara. The other four circle the wagons and push Sara out, destroying her life in the process. But someone is out for revenge for Lucy and for Sara and maybe for the other hundreds of lives these four and their company have damaged.
I really enjoyed reading this story. Sara came alive for me in a way many victims don't. I highly recommend this book. I read the copy of the book for this review on NetGalley.

The Escape Room delivers on everything I want from a thriller: it was compulsively readable, with some tried & true tropes, but enough twists to keep me guessing, and most importantly of all: characters I could invest in.

The book is told in two alternating "POVs": in third person and real time, four Wall Street strategists enter an elevator in an abandoned building to engage in a mandatory escape room--or so they think. (There's trope one, which introduced a delightful sense of dread, as a reader, helped along by the book's prologue which indicates a grim ending)

Then, we get 1st person flashbacks from Sara Hall, a former member of the team, who takes us from the very beginning of her career at Stanhope up to... spoilers! Contrasting Sara's rise at the company to the situation unfolding with her four colleagues in the elevator gradually builds the tension and mystery to a fever pitch--I hit about the 60% mark on my Kindle and raced through to the end, desperate to finish. (I even snuck a few chapters at work in my desperation)

Sara is essentially our protagonist, as she's our outsider to the big, bad world of finance, and it's her story that directly impacts what's going on in the elevator. She has to fight hard to get her foot in the door at Stanhope, and through her eyes we experience the high-stakes world there--a world I found fascinating and infuriating. I won't share more for fear of spoilers, but I can say that Sara's story was simultaneously what I expected and a huge surprise--I found her compelling to follow, and several twists were just gut-wrenching for me. I cared about Sara, as well as Lucy, who is her only friend on the team/at work. (Lucy is, in fact, my favorite character) Still high-key mad at Kevin--if you've read it, you'll understand why.

The third person elevator sections jump between the four protagonists, so you get backstory on each of them and a glimpse "inside their head" at appropriate intervals. They feel like real people--enough details are given to engender sympathy, but there's also just enough in their heads, interactions, and then in Sara's chapters to give good reason to their being trapped in an elevator by an unseen force.

Was I shocked by the ending? Not really--it's pretty clearly telegraphed shortly past the mid-point, but to me the key to a 5-star thriller isn't a shocking ending but a satisfying reading experience--because I was emotionally engaged with the protagonist and by the initial twist (at the midpoint), the book had me all the way through. I wanted to see the story come to it's logical conclusion, and so even though the last few chapters lean on the side of over-the-top kitsch/bonkers, I enjoyed the reading experience. I also really loved Megan Goldin's writing style and was super disappointed to find this is her US debut, and thus her only book available in print! I hope St. Martin's snaps her up for more books (or publishes her 2017 Australian release?) because I would put this author on my auto-buy list.

WOW! What an amazing story.. it had me guessing until the last page.. The characters are great! So ruthless, greedy and cutthroat! This book villainies them but also makes you feel sorry for them at the same time.. what a combination. I couldn't put it down. Highly recommend!!!!

Personally, I have never done an escape room. I do not have any desire to do one. I couldn’t take being stuck in a room with 4-5 other people and need to decipher clues to get out. Nope, not for me. BK, on the other hand, has done one. He said it was exciting to do.

So, when I saw that the plot of The Escape Room centered around an escape room in an elevator, I got interested. Talk about the ultimate escape room. Think about it. You are crammed into a small space. There is no way out. No water. No nothing. No thank you. That is one of my phobias, being stuck in an elevator. Even reading the scenes when they were stuck in an elevator freaked me out.

I liked that Sara’s chapters of the book were written in the first person. I got a better sense of how she was as a person. I understood what drove her to take that position on Wall Street and what kept her there. I am not going to go much into her story from that point on because I will be giving away some major spoilers.

The escape room plotline was very well written. Each person in that elevator deserved to be there. I wouldn’t go as far to say that they were bad people but I will say that money doesn’t bring out the best in people. The longer that they were in the elevator, the more I got to know their demons. I will say that each person showed up in Sara’s POV too. Not going to say how but they were a major part of everything that happened to her.

The storyline with Lucy broke my heart. I couldn’t believe what she was put through. I don’t think I truly understood what she went through until it was brought up (by a clue) in the elevator. Let’s just say that it was a despicable thing to do to a coworker.

I am not sure if I agreed or liked how The Escape Room ended. I will admit that the whole plan to get those people into the elevator was well thought out and executed. As was getting that money. But I didn’t agree with the mastermind not knowing what happened after that person left the country. There was no closure. Only a scene in the water and a sense of a job well done by the mastermind.

I would give The Escape Room an Adult rating. There is no sex (there is mention of sexual situations). There is language. There is violence. There are triggers. They would be sexual assault and assault.

I would reread The Escape Room. I would also recommend this book to family and friends.

Told from multiple character's points of view, The Escape Room is a "can't put down" book. With some of the characters trying to navigate the Escape Room, others provide both the back and future story. It's full of twists, turns, and puzzles. Some characters are so heart-wrenching familiar and others -- you really hope they get what's coming to them. :-) I really enjoyed this book and thought the ending was very fitting and wonderful.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC. What is more terrifying than being caught in an elevator? Add a few greedy finance executives and you've got the basis of a plot that will keep you guessing. I found it a bit slow at times and it was very hard to relate to any of these individuals but nevertheless it provided an entertaining read!

I really wanted to like this book. It starts off with an prologue designed to hook you and keep you reading. And it did! But as the book went on, I didn't buy in. The characters trapped in the elevator are all certainly unlikable, which was the design. But I didn't buy the metamorphosis of the main character into a computer hacker genius capable of trapping these people into an elevator. It is a shame because the first 70% of the book was really intriguing. But in the end, it was just too far fetched. I won't be able to recommend it.

Think 'The Escape Room' meets 'ATM'.
A character-driven suspense novel that seriously had me turning pages quicker than these four* turned on themselves!

I LOVED this one! The story follows *four high-flying investment bankers who meet up for what is meant to be a team-building exercise in a locked elevator and soon find themselves trying to escape for a whole different reason. *DUN, DUN*
This had a whodunnit/what-TF-happened type feel and I was here for it! THE ESCAPE ROOM is definitely more character-driven and I've found that I've come to love this style of thriller more this year, as well as the multiple POVs and flashbacks that were in this one. It was a mix of a thriller with its happenings in white-collar crime and it had me by the neck! Though at times it felt a bit lengthy, I can't say I was disappointed by the time I reached that sweet, sweet ending.

AND of course, *TW for sexual assault*

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.

This was a fun weekend read suspense/thriller. A little white-collar shady characters who you have to hate but wait one of the protagonists (Sarah) is one of them and you kind of like her. Duel timelines where one is over YEARS the other is over not even 48 hours adds to the mystery and the suspense. Seeing the characters through Sarah's eyes (the over years timeline) really helps you understand how they ended up in the 48 hour timeline and why you hope they don't meet a happy end.


It was a bit of a 'fluffy' suspense book to me but that is NOT a bad thing. It was a great weekend read. I don't think I will ever look at an elevator or an escape room the same way again. If I say too much more it would be spoilery so if you need a fun easy and good thriller this is a good one to read!

Thanks Netgalley for the ARC!

A solid escape read, The Escape Room does a lot of great things including building tension, expansion of character yarns, and a climax that, while a bit obvious, is nevertheless satisfying.

See full review on goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2656009249

While I enjoyed the start of the book. I quickly found that the story of the executives stuck in the elevator to be much more boring than the story Sara. Overall the book is fine and a quick read. I do think a chunk of the elevator chapters could be trimmed to cut the book down ~20 pages.

This an engaging and gripping psychological thriller that hooked me from early on and didn't let go.

Devolving deep into the cutting throat world of the stock market, a group of collegues got trapped in an elevator with nothing common between them except lies, revenge, and deception. Told from various POVs and different time lines,what happens then? Well you have to read to find out.

Thanks Netgalley, the author, and the publisher for an ARC of this novel.

A gripping psychological read that will have you turning pages late into the night. What happens when four work colleagues are trapped in an elevator, armed with only lies and secrets and revenge? Told through a juxtaposition of past and present narratives, this novel will not disappoint.

Are people really this ruthless and cutthroat? Sara finally gets her dream job on Wall Street, but is it worth the cost? After her unfortunate fall from grace and death, her colleagues Vincent, Sylvie, Sam, and Jules are trapped in an elevator, where they are told their goal is to escape with their lives. But can they work together to solve the clues? Suspicious of each other, secrets start spilling out when they realize they may not escape this elevator alive. This thriller keeps you guessing who is pulling the strings behind the Escape Room. Who can be trusted? Who will survive?

In a world full of lots of thrillers, The Escape Room didn't necessarily stand out, but was a fun read. Fans of Ruth Ware and actual escape rooms might enjoy the mystery and excitement. If you've ever had to do some forced team building with your co-workers you might also relate

An interesting view of cutthroat politics in the world of Wall Street. As Gordon Gekko would say, "Greed is good." It's a story of sweet revenge and while it kept my interest, it's not a book that will stick with me. And I felt like the reader had to suspend a bit of believability in order to buy into the author's desired ending.

Thanks Net Galley and Penguin Books for opportunity to read and review.

This was my first time reading a book by Megan Goldin and I must say it won't be my last. It was suspenseful and an incredible joy-filled ride. Once you start reading you won't be able to stop. People locked in an elevator you never know what will happen. You must read more to find out what drives people to murder and greed.

Oh yes, this was one of those books that I went into blind and so glad I did! One of my biggest (not very rational fears) is being stuck in an elevator, so when this happens to several members of a law firm, I was already tense and out of breath. Then when they discover it's actually an Escape Room and they'll have to solve a series of clues to get out, things get really dicey! Enter Sara, a new hire--"dead but not forgotten--and the novel becomes a puzzle the reader must also solve in order to figure out who has designed this creepy scenario which pits colleague against colleague until the final realization of who has set it up! Gripped me until the end!
Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC!