I loved the book! When I started reading it, I really didn't know if I was going to finish it, but once I kept reading, I couldn't put it down!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 5

Wow, The Escape Room by Megan Goldin wasn't what I expected, but it was an enjoyable and at times pulse-pounding read.

What it's about: Four people from a ruthless Wall Street financial company go into an elevator to do a team building exercise, only to find out there is much more at stake than just completing an escape room. Soon they realize they are fighting for survival, and the dark secrets the team has been hiding are about to come back to haunt them.

I want to be purposely vague in both my summery and review because I don't want to risk giving anything away. The synopsis of The Escape Room is clearly also vague on purpose, and I highly recommend going into this book blind if at all possible. The book mostly switches between the elevator, which is viewpoints from all four people trapped inside, and a woman named Sara Hall who is ' now gone but not forgotten'. There were twists and turns that I didn't see coming and although some people may anticipate what is going to happen, I spent most of the book wondering how things would play out.

The Escape Room is what I would call a slow burn, and you are thrust into the world of Wall Street to see just how cutthroat and corrupt it can be. Most of the characters aren't very likable, but Sara was, and I really liked reading from her viewpoint which was the majority of the book. I felt a lot of emotions while reading this and was very angry by the time everything is revealed. The Escape Room will make you feel all the feels, and I liked that it was very dimensional.

Song/s the book brought to mind: Funhouse by Pink

Final Thought: I was highly satisfied with how The Escape Room ended, and I would recommend this book to thriller and mystery lovers that like a slow burn. This book will make you mad and then leave you satisfied. Even though the jacket says this is Goldin's first novel, I do see another one that was published in Australia and I am definitely going to be tracking that down to read it. If you read The Escape Room it will make sure you never look at an elevator the same way again!

Thank you to the publisher for my advanced review copy via NetGalley. All opinions and thoughts are my own.

The Escape Room is a dual storyline book following four colleagues who are trapped in an elevator ("escape room") and also Sara Hall who used to work with them. For me this is an average thriller that really suffers from the escape room idea this book is titled after and so I'm assuming it is also based on. However, if this book cut out all the "escape room" aspects of this story than it would have worked so much better. Also, I keep putting escape room in quotations because this is NOT an escape room in any way. It is basically a book about four people who are trapped in an elevator by a nefarious someone. That should have been the synopsis and then just give the book a different title and most of my issues with this book would be gone. 

All that aside I did really enjoy this book. The story starts out high stakes because these people are trapped and they are in a terrible position and we are going along trying to figure out everything that led up to them being in the elevator. I thoroughly enjoyed Sara Hall's story so much and the journey her character goes on. I connected so much with Sara that she kept me wanting to read to find out what was going to happen next. This is another book that I flew through in a couple of days purely because I wanted to know where the story was going. I definitely would have rated this book at least one star higher if this had just been a trapped elevator story. 

Most of the ending was really good and I loved how the author, Goldin, laid it all out. It was pretty well thought out and I feel like she told a well rounded story. There is a part of the ending that I think is lacking but I don't want to spoil anything so I will just say that I wish there was one little thing that had been added in.

In Megan Goldin's The Escape Room, this chilling thriller will leave you hooked and at the edge of the seat. It all started when Sara Hall landed a job with Stanhope and Sons, an investment banking firm, a dream job straight out from college in NYC. As the new girl, people treated her differently until she fast-learned the ropes in no time. Between her rise on the ladder of success, she had to deal with her parents' health issues and a new potential love interest. Things were up and up for her. For Vincent, Sylvie, Jules and Sam, they were stuck in an elevator for an escape-room team building for the firm. Pretty soon, they're trapped and feeling the heat, when new clues shook things up when secrets and lies come out into the open and turn each other. For the past five years, everything was fine for Sara, when one of their co-workers Lucy died from a "suicide" and later her mother died in a "hit-and-run." It was up to Sara to put the pieces together and discovered what Lucy left behind for her to find in hidden clues. When she told this to her boss, Vincent, he denied everything. Things took a drastic turn for her when her co-workers didn't give her the time of day and harsh deadlines, and ruining things for her. And later, it landed her being fired, losing everything including her mother's death. But revenge is better served cold when Sara concocted the perfect plan behind the schemes to leave them in the cold, looking for answers, until she would have the better revenge after all in a shocking ending.

Being an escape-room junkie, I knew I needed in on this one. It was not exactly what I expected and that is totally ok. It had a original spin on the concept.

Thanks to St. Martin's Press for this ARC. I read this book in 2 days and loved it! Megan Goldin crafts a thriller that kept me on the edge of my seat right from the start. I particularly loved Lucy and Sara, and I found the antagonists to be well-developed and utterly despicable. Can't wait to read more from this author!

The Escape Room by Megan Goldin is a unique thriller that will keep you flipping the pages. Vincent, Jules, Sylvie, and Sam arrive for a mandatory meeting to find themselves in a team building escape room. Or at least that is how it seems. Locked in an elevator with seemingly unconnected clues, the four cut throat Wall Street team members need to try to figure out how to solve the clues and get out of the elevator. What they don’t realize is that their past is going to creep up on them, and it might not just be a team building exercise after all.

I really liked this thriller. The change of perspective from the escape room to the backstory of Sara Hall made for a fast paced read. I wanted to continue to learn how these characters were connected and the truth behind why they were being lured into this predicament. Uniquely plotted, and paced just right, this novel is a sure quick thriller to keep you reading.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for this honest review.

I’ve heard great things about this book but honestly I was a bit bored. I didn’t really care for the characters, so it was difficult to root for them to have a good ending. There was a good start here, good foreshadowing to what could have been an interesting ending but the time jumps in the story just didn’t keep my interest. I think there’s plenty in this one for an audience to really enjoy the story, but it just wasn’t for me.

{ partner } Thanks so much to the author, NetGalley, and St. Martin's press for the advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are completely my own.
tacklingtbr.home.blog

Holy cow. I love a good thriller. As soon as I heard about this book pre-publication, I knew that I was going to have to read it. And then when my fiancé and I were looking for something fast paced and attention grabbing book to listen to during a road trip, I had a feeling this was the book for us. We thoroughly enjoyed it from the very beginning, and very quickly became invested in the story and started trying to make guesses at the ending.

The characters were all really interesting, and while they were all deeply flawed it made them all that much more fun to read. The entire conflict of the story stems from a desire to punish people for their numerous wrongdoings and get revenge - and while I don't condone revenge fueled actions in real life, we've all had our day dreams, right? So it is very fun to get to get into those mindsets through books and media, which in my opinion is why these types of books are so popular. And on those levels this definitely did not let me down.

Now I will say this : we had both guessed the ending before we had reached it, and the last few chapters were overall our least favorite part of the book. Throughout the whole first part of the book, while not a situation that you'd be likely to actually find yourself in, the tactics and motivations seemed to at least be stemming from real life. What I'm saying, in a weird round-about way, is that they weren't Disney villain type motivations, and nobody was dropped into a crocodile filled moat. But towards the end of the book, it almost seemed like, while still not crazy or fantastical, small things were being explained away as if they were just needing to be quickly wrapped up and swept under the rug.
And as I had said, before the last chapter we were pretty sure we knew how it was going to end. Not totally a deal breaker for me, but it can be annoying for some people, so I thought it worth mentioning.

As a note, I would highly recommend the audiobook that I was able to download from Libro.fm. The chapters alternate between two different places/timelines as well as points of view, and the two different locations had different narrators; and each narrator was equally great in both voice and storytelling.
Over all, however, we both really enjoyed this book from start to finish, even with the small issues that we had with the last few chapters. It is something that I can see myself maybe coming back and revisiting at a later date.

I found this one to be a bit slow. I got to the point where I wasn’t really caring what happened or who the mastermind was.

Four colleagues from a cutthroat financial company attend what they think is a mandatory team building in the form of an escape room. The team must grapple with and face the consequences of difficult decisions from their past in this terrifying ordeal.

Frenetically paced, this was a unique and fresh take on a psychological thriller. At the beginning, readers don’t know why the four are in the elevator, but chapters with alternating time periods slowly piece together the puzzle until a sordid, unthinkable picture is painted. A fast, fun read.

Many thanks to Netgalley, St. Martin’s Press and Megan Goldin for my complimentary e-copy ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

DNF at 30%. In the quest for different and high-concept thrillers this was an interesting experiment that did not work.

The concept of <I>The Escape Room</I> intrigued me right away. I was hoping for a thriller ride / horror movie vibe as I read along to the cast of characters trying to find their way safely out of an escape room. Boy was I not disappointed. Although, not exactly what I envisioned, it definitely met the mark for entertainment purposes.

Working in a corporate/finance office myself, I am well aware of the ice breaker/teambuilding challenges that are meant to be fun, but usually feel forced upon us. There have been the idea of an escape room outing thrown around in my office, but after reading this I will probably call out sick that day.

In a nutshell, <I>The Escape Room</I> is a glimpse into what could happen when you play dirty with greedy investment bankers. Do you get mad or do you get even?

My reason for not giving it 4 stars was because I was disappointed with the ending. I wanted a little more closure than what the author provided because I still have questions that never got answered. Probably arbitrary answers in the scheme of things, but they are still stuck with me.

If you are looking for a thriller a little different than the rest, I suggest giving this one a shot...

****** gifted a copy from netgalley*******
At first this book was not what I thought it was. I though it was a little slow, but as I got going I couldn’t put it down.

We’re given a good view of how the financial industry and suck you in. Even good people get caught up in all the money they handle and make. You go I. With good intentions and end up being like the rest of them.

Sara was graduate student looking to get a good job to be independent and help out her ailing parents. She accomplished that and more,

This is a story how Sara gets sucked in then chewed up and spit out. Just like many others. But Sara’s story doesn’t end after she’s spit out., she doesn’t turn into some has been.

We start out with 4 of her colleagues ending up shot on the floor of an elevator they’ve been trapped in for hours.

Through a series of two timeline, past and present, were able to find out how they ended up there and why. The reader find out who lured them there but the elevator victims don’t. It’s a very good psychological thriller. One of the best I’ve read in a while

I'm sorry I just didn't like it. It just didn't hold my attention, even though I hung on and finished it. Maybe it didn't start out fast enough for me. I'm not sure what it was.

*Huge thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for providing me with an advanced copy of this book for review. All opinions are my own.*

I want to preface my review by saying, I didn't read the synopsis. I seldom do for thrillers as I never want to risk anything being given away. 

That being said, I was distinctly disappointed at the lack of escape room from this book. I LOVE escape rooms and I thought the movie from earlier this year was *okay,* but I was really excited to see this trend brought into the book world. Don't get me wrong, I still really enjoyed the story, but it just didn't go ANYTHING like what I thought I was getting into. 

—>characters<—

Sara Hall - The fresh face of Stanhope learning the politics of the office. 

Vincent, Jules, Sylvie, and Sam - Highly competitive members on Stanhope willing to put just about everything on the line for their success. 

–>plot<–

Told in dual perspectives, this book follows Sara as she is acclimated to the Stanhope and thrust into the competition. Sara finds herself financially stable, yet working insane hours to meet the demand of the location. Sara befriends Lucy, a socially awkward girl (later learning that she's on the ASD spectrum) who is the brains behind the Stanhope team. Lucy and Sara are not to disclose their friendship at work, due to Lucy not wanting it out in the open. As the book goes on, Sara learns more about the cost of the job than she expected. 

The other perspective is that of Vincent, Jules, Sylvie, and Sam in the elevator. They are told they must attend a team-building workshop and arrive at a worksite after hours. All hesitant to participate, the four agree to show up as they think it's what's needed to advance their careers. Once in the elevator, they're brought to the 70th floor before the elevator's lights turn off, heat is cranked, and all cell reception is non-existent. With nothing but a cryptic clue as to why they're there, the four must solve the clues and take some skeletons out of their closet to survive. 

Like I said, this book did not do what I was expecting it to do at all, but boy was I on the edge of my seat. Learning more about the slimy underbelly of this corporate company and watching these characters throw their peers off the rungs to climb the ladder was so compelling. As someone that's currently strapped for cash, watching people literally kill themselves for 6-figure bonuses is quite compelling. 

This book does discuss some dark topics including suicide, murder, sexual assault/harassment, drug use, death of a parent, chronically ill parent, if any of these topics are things you've experienced, go into this book with caution. 

Final Thoughts:
Escape room was not about an escape room. However, it was a raw look at the skeezy side to corporate jobs and how much people really will give up to be on top. While I thought the ending was a bit lack-luster, I still thoroughly enjoyed my time reading this book and it is one I will still recommend to others. It just missed the 4-star mark for me but was a wild ride and quick read nonetheless. Oh and the audiobook is a great way to consume this story! It really adds to the suspense!

This was somewhat repetitive, but still very much a page-turner for me – I definitely wanted to see how it all played out in the end. There was a little too much head-hopping for my liking during the elevator chapters, but that's a bit of a pet peeve of mine and probably won't bother most readers. Given the title, I would have liked for there to be more "escape room" clues for the folks in the elevator to have to solve but it was still an interesting concept. The only other thing that bothered me was that the ending for one character was left somewhat ambiguous – I would have liked to have seen something a bit more concrete in that regard.

The Escape Room was published by St. Martin's Press on 07/30/2019. I was given a copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

Vincent, Jules, Sylvie, and Sam are top performers for their Wall Street business. All they care about is getting rich, and they'll step on anyone in the way of the path to greatness.

When they're summoned to an office building late at night and wind up stuck in an elevator, they believe they've been tricked into doing some type of team-building activity.

When their secrets start to come out and a deceased employee is mentioned, they finally realize that this may not be a game after all.......that they may actually be fighting for their lives.

Listen. I read a lot of thrillers so take this with a grain of salt. I guessed the ending right around the third chapter. Instead of me wondering what would happen in the book, it was more of me waiting to find out how they were going to bring my ending to life. I was pretty disappointed to find out I was right. I was bummed that the story was so predictable.

If you're just looking for a quick thriller to take your mind off things, this book will definitely do the trick. I'm glad I didn't buy it, because I wouldn't read it again. It just felt like a story I had already read so many times. There wasn't anything special about it, and that bummed me out. Ask me about this book in a year and I probably won't be able to tell you about it. It was completely predictable and forgettable.

🌟🌟🌟/5 Stars

The Escape Room was so good! I was mesmerized by the whole concept of the story and found it hard to put down! I enjoyed the way the story was written, the way the story started, and the whole scary idea of the escape room challenge. Vincent, Jules, Sam, and Sylvie are top financial executives for the Wall Street firm they work for. One night, they are summoned for a mandatory work meeting. When they arrive, they realize it is an escape room exercise. And it is in an elevator. Once they get closed inside, they start to realize the horrible extent of the challenge's circumstances. Eventually as the hours go by, they begin to fall victim to their true feelings towards each other. They find out secrets about each other they didn't know. And they begin to wonder if they will get out alive.

I liked the fact that this book took a fun puzzle game and gave it a sinister spin. The author managed to keep my interest throughout the book and I found myself surprised by the twists, which is rare for me.