If I could give this 10 stars, I would! I'm excited to If I could give Suzanne Park's debut novel 10 stars instead of 5, I would! When I think of debut novel, I am excited but am willing to overlook holes in the plot or flatness in the characters. The Perfect Escape doesn't feel like a debut novel because the characters of Nate Kim and Kate Anderson are so well crafted! They come alive so clearly and their humor, foibles, generosity and kindness shine through.

There are villains a plenty among the private school classmates that Nate deals with. But Nate's closeness to his family and his relationship with his 5-year old sister are so real. Suzanne Park captures the sacrifices that Nate's parents make and their frugality is treated with sympathy and humor. Even a non-Korean American understands the relationship, the expectations, the difficulty and the pride that Nate must have in his parents' persistence in the face of poverty and no safety net.

If you are looking for a funny, heartwarming boy-meets-girl story, you'll be glad to find that this also contains bullies, zombies, overstretched parents, helicopter parents, entrepreneurial zeal and a double dose of humor.

#WeNeedDiverseBooks #SuzannePark #AsianAmericanLiterature #KoreanAmericanWriters #NetGalley

I requested and was granted access to this book in order to conduct an interview with author Suzanne Park. You can read said interview below.

1. Professionally-speaking, 2020 has been quite exciting for you, as you’ve had both a young adult novel (The Perfect Escape) and an adult novel (Loathe At First Sight) published in a single year! I’d love to hear a little about your experiences drafting and publishing books for two different target audiences. Did you encounter any significant or interesting differences between writing (and publishing) books for a young adult reader versus an adult reader?

The publication experiences for my two books were so different that it’s hard to even compare them (so a note to writers: journeys toward publication may vary widely!). For all of my books, I try to do something “hard” that I’ve never done before so I’m learning new things and stretching to new levels. When I wrote my YA book The Perfect Escape I wanted to challenge myself in two ways: by writing a dual POV (which I’d never tried) and writing the book primarily from a male teen’s perspective. It took about 5 months to draft and one month to edit. The developmental edits weren’t too bad when the editor came back with notes, and the voice and humor stayed the same from the beginning. I love this book because it’s nuanced and layered, and has so much energy and momentum.

For Loathe At First Sight, I actually wrote it two years before The Perfect Escape, and redrafted it (a 50% rewrite by the end) from being a darker comedy to a workplace comedy with romance. That book took a lot longer from start to finish with all of the story and plot changes, but adding to that, I wanted to make sure I had all the gaming industry details right, so I did a ton of research for this novel. The last thing I wanted was for people to discount the book because it wasn’t an accurate representation of what it’s like to work in gaming. My adult editor loved the main character’s voice and the feminist message, so I’m thrilled this one will be in people’s hands soon.

One challenge has been trying to talk about the books to people outside of the book world because they might not know exactly what you mean by saying a book is “YA” or “Adult” (one ex-co-worker asked, WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY ADULT? LIKE X RATED?”) so I have had to think hard about explaining how these markets and age groups differ and how the potential readers would be different.


2. In addition to describing Melody’s initial feelings toward her potential love interest, the title of your adult novel, Loathe At First Sight, seems to be a playful reference to a beloved romance trope, ‘enemies to lovers’. From fake relationships to love triangles, every reader looks for and loves something different in the romances they read. What romance (or other literary) tropes do you enjoy reading (or writing!) most and why?

Yes! I love a good enemies-to-lovers. To be perfectly honest (confession time)…I didn’t exactly know what tropes were when I first started writing (I know, so embarrassing). I knew what they were in theory, but I never thought about them as categories for the stories. And I don’t usually know until after I start figuring out the main characters’ backstories that I determine the trope(s) my book might include. I just turned in my YA book to my editor that’s about a city girl falling for a country boy — it’s an idea I’ve had for a long while and finally put it to paper. But I didn’t think of this as “opposites attract” story until I was well into figuring out the characters’ misbeliefs, strengths and flaws because I didn’t want it to be a superficial “opposites” conflict.

I love reading and watching a good forbidden love story (there’s a little bit in that in Loathe too because the love interest is technically her employee). The adult book I’m drafting now has a childhood rivals-to-lovers storyline, and it’s been a ton of fun to write because they dredge old sh*t from their past lives that they need to get over but haven’t.


3. I recently read a fascinating post you shared on The Geek Embassy in which you spoke about how your initial perception of Loathe At First Sight as a light-hearted workplace romantic comedy shifted to something a little more serious after speaking with those in the gaming industry and doing extensive research on the subject. Why was it important to you to accurately capture the gatekeeping, misogyny and racism that so often makes the gaming industry unsafe for female creators and players (particularly those from a marginalized identity), and what was it like to to craft the novel to reflect this situation accurately while also including a secondary romantic subplot? Was it difficult to balance these potentially disparate elements of the story?

When I came up with the idea of this book, I’d initially thought it would be a fun and lighthearted workplace comedy, like The Office, but set in the world of gaming. But as soon as I scratched the surface, it was instantly clear to me that the gaming industry was not fun and games for women, especially for women of color. Sexual harassment and racism was (and is) pervasive and rampant, and not much changed for women in gaming over the last ten years.

Most of what you’ll read in Loathe At First Sight is absurd and humorous, but there are some cringe-worthy and very serious parts as well that were important to my story because I wanted to shed light on the macro- and microaggressions, racism, sexism, and harassment prevalent in the game world without diminishing the seriousness of the problem. I knew it wasn’t going to be easy.

The workplace romance is a source of conflict for Melody because she’s already in a tough situation at work, and one wrong move on the relationship front could mean immediate termination. What I loved most about Melody and Nolan’s relationship though was they helped each other grow and thrive in a workplace where everyone had pegged them as something they weren’t, and this isn’t something I see often in workplace comedies. I thought the title Loathe At First Sight worked perfectly for the book because it wasn’t only about the enemies-to-lovers relationship, but also that the main character is surrounded by hateful naysayers who want to see her fail.

In my past life as a stand-up comedian, I didn’t shy away from racism and sexism in my material so I wanted to try to do the same here with providing humor alongside social commentary. Publishers Weekly said that I wrote a novel from a female game producer’s perspective that makes “tough topics go down easy by couching them in wry humor,” so I hope I was successful in providing a balance of seriousness with comedy.


4. As someone who struggles with confrontation, one of the things I admired most about Melody in Loathe At First Sight was her ability to advocate for herself and fearlessly speak up when she witnessed injustice or inequality. Do you have any words of wisdom for those of us who want to feel more comfortable and confident speaking up in our own lives?

Melody shows strength in ways that I didn’t necessarily have in my late 20s and I wanted to show her confidence in the story in a realistic way (for example, I didn’t want to have her all of a sudden out of the blue waking up with complete self-confidence or coming up with a brilliant million dollar business idea out of nowhere). What she does do in the story is surround herself with likeminded people at work who provide support and seek help from those who are more senior to her to provide mentorship, support and advocacy (speaking up too) when she needs them the most. Melody wasn’t the most salesy person, or great at media engagement (she outsourced those things to Asher), but she does get some practice too by chatting with people at the convention and generating enthusiasm for her game. She also celebrated her wins with her team, which really showed her strength as a leader (she also gave them donuts haha). Later on, she give a big speech in front of her company, and all these things she did prepped her for that. I learned how to do a lot of these things later in my working career, and in hindsight I wish I had done them earlier.


5. When Melody’s loved ones learn of the disrespect and difficulties she’s experiencing at work in Loathe At First Sight, they encourage her to quit, but she insists on keeping her job and seeing her video game project through to completion. Why did you feel it was important for Melody to remain in – and fight for – her job, and do you have any advice or guidance you could share with those who find themselves in a situation similar to Melody’s?

Melody’s motivations change early in the book: at first she planned to stay there for the money (bonuses) and “coolness” factor, but then after Melody overhears some male executives trash talk her, a fire lights inside her and she is determined to get her game released. She wants to show her jerk executives, coworkers and trolls that they’ve underestimated her.

My advice would be to surround yourself with people who advocate for you. This also means to go out of your way to find those people, and that can be a little weird, networking and introducing yourself to others, but what I’ve found is that people actually like it when people go out of their way to introduce themselves.

I also recommend showcasing wins. This might not be for everyone, but when I worked at a huge company on a large advertising team, I used to put all the ads I worked on on the intimidating general manager’s chair with a note, something like: “Great to see this team get these out the door! The product team loves the work!” He’d see me later and mention it in casual conversation and my colleagues were so impressed. How did the general manager know what I was working on? It’s because I got my accomplishments in front of him and he remembered me because I took initiative. And the best thing? I didn’t even have to talk to him. It didn’t take much, just a color printer and a post-it. But he always remembered my name.


6. Zombies make seem to be a fun and consistent theme in your work! In The Perfect Escape, both Nate and Kate work at a zombie-themed escape room. In Loathe At First Sight, Melody devices a game in which male strippers have to fight off (among other things) zombies in a post-apocalyptic setting. Why zombies, and what are some of your favourite pieces of zombie-themed media?

Haha I’m so glad you noticed this! I’ve been obsessed with zombies and apocalypse survival for a long time, and it all started because of The Walking Dead. I’ve seen every episode (and read a few comics) and bought all sorts of survival guides so that I’d know how to stay alive if the apocalypse came. My favorite zombie media would be Train to Busan, The Kingdom, World War Z (book and movie).


7. From Kate’s pursuit of acting in The Perfect Escape to Melody’s resilience in the gaming industry in Loathe At First Sight, two prominent themes in your work seem to concern the pursuit of one’s dreams and finding – and fighting for – where you belong. Is there anything you hope readers will take away from your work?

As someone who was once pre-med and pursued an MBA degree that she doesn’t use anymore, I am a firm believer in pursuing dreams and figuring out where you belong. I know for a fact I wasn’t put on this earth for my excel spreadsheet and surveymonkey skills. It took a long, winding path to get to where I am in my writing career, but looking back, I don’t think I could have had this career any earlier. I needed my life experiences to help me figure out what kinds of stories I want to write. And I had to try out a bunch of things to figure out what I did and didn’t like in a career. Over time, what you care about evolves as life circumstances change. What you want in life might not happen overnight, or turn out exactly the way you wanted it, but I like to believe that you can get there with time and patience. A dose of good luck would help, too!


8. Melody’s journey in Loathe At First Sight is complete and satisfying, but it seems like there might be more to Nate and Kate’s story. Can readers look forward to a sequel to The Perfect Escape and are there any hints or snippets you can share about what that might entail?

I’d love for there to be a continuation to Nate and Kate’s story. I wrote The Perfect Escape so it could be a standalone with the possibility of a sequel. The book I pitched though is another YA standalone so we will have to wait a bit on any Nate and Kate developments. Fingers crossed they’ll get to have more survival adventures together!

Super cute book with a hilarious voice. Nate and Kate have such a great connection and seeing Asian rep in romance novels has me screaming from the mountain tops “yes!!!!”

The premise of this book is really cool. I love escape rooms, and I loved the creepy escape room that the protagonists worked in. Nate felt a little flat for me as a character, and his interactions with other characters weren't real enough for my taste. However, I loved Kate and her personality. I wish the survival competition took up more of the novel, but over all I had a good time reading this book.

This book was the perfect summer escape, sweet with just the right amount of tension to make the payoff really delicious. I loved the main characters and loves how quickly the plot moved along. Recommend for fans of Jenn Bennett's Starry Night.

This was truly the perfect escape book right now! Loved this sweet story between Nate and Kate (omg how darling!). It's such an appropriately cute YA romance with zombies and jobs and responsibilities. Brought me right back to applying for colleges and making sure all my high school activities looked good for my applications. The way Nate's family is written is so relatable to me as a Korean-American. I felt like I knew what the household felt like except Nate's mom is able to joke in English way better than my parents could! There's a part about the family tree and how Nate has a hard time filling it out because he doesn't know how to spell the names his parents are saying and there aren't pictures or photos he can attach. My own kids had such a hard time with their family tree assignments in elementary school for that same reason - I am not kidding when I say I googled "old asian grandparents" on google image search to find several "different" looking "models" for my kids to draw in their great grandparents and great-great grandparents like the assignment asked for. Immigrating to another country in the 1970s, my parents did not have the luxury of bringing all the family photos with them. In Nate, I saw a Korean-American boy who was realistic and someone my own 14 year old son could relate to (if he wanted to pick up a YA romance!). There are some Korean American readers who didn't love the representation in Eleanor and Park and maybe this book would interest those readers. Beyond the excellent representation, the romance was sweet and while kind of on a surface level, again I think it's really appropriate for high school. Not everything has to be deep and full of angst. It's nice to just have a sweet story where romance is budding and building. Kate's perspective is also really well written and her journey in coping with grief/loss feels spot on. Check this one out - I inhaled it in 2 sittings!

I loved this book it was hilarious and her characters are all so loveable.

I can't wait to read more books by her. Thank you for my chance to read this book.

This book was adorable, but slightly unrealistic. When it comes to “rom com” type novels I tend to enjoy books that are true to real life - I just didn’t feel the same about this. Robots, zombies, plot twist from rich company owner/dad, family relationship issues.... it was just too much for one book. Not only that, the main characters were just teenagers.... it was very difficult to picture them in the situations in the book.

3.5 out of 5. I liked it - but I needed more. We got a bit of an info dump in the end about one set of parents, but I really needed more info about the other set. The romance was cute, as were Nate and Kate, but most of the secondary characters were forgettable/unlikeable (except for Nate’s little sister). The pacing really picked up during the second half of the book but then it all ended sort of abruptly. Still stoked for Loathe at First Sight though!

4.5/5 stars

The Perfect Escape is a fluffy and light-hearted read exploring the relationship between Nate and Kate who meet at a zombie escape room. The romance between the two is cute but this book isn't entirely focused on the romance, something that I personally found refreshing. .
We explore family relationships like absent and busy fathers, strict Asian families, financial family constraints and what not. It was all done very beautifully and the characters were well developed and so very lovable! But my favourite part of the whole book is the escape room and the Zombie survival game Kate and Nate enter into. It has a nerdy aspect that I find endearing and I myself am a huge fan of escape rooms and survival games so every but of it was like a dream. The writing is so engaging and the book is so easy to read, I finished it in a single sitting. .

I was given a free copy of the book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Nate is a scholarship kid at the top of his class from a Korean family. He's offered a lot of money to commit grade fraud from a group of rich kids. He doesn't want to cheat but his family could use the money. Kate works with Nate at a Zombie themed escape room. She asks Nate to join her in competing in a weekend-long survivalist competition for a huge cash prize. The two connect but will they win?

#sourcebooksfire #theperfectescape #suzannepark #netgalley #survivalists

Thank you to @ntegalley for the digital ARC of A PERFECT ESCAPE, a super-fun read, with way more adventure than I was expecting! A sweet YA story of friendship and romance, it also has a good dose of figuring out what and who are really important along with some fun zombie-survivalist excitement and even a scene at a roller rink. For me this one is an easy ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating.

Este tipo de ilustraciones en la portada siempre llaman mi atención, de inmediato me hacen querer leer la sinopsis y la de The Perfect Escape se me hizo interesante. Nate y Kate se unen para participar en un evento de supervivencia donde zombies te atacan y andan atrás de ti. Lo que ambos buscan al participar es ganar el dinero que se da de premio. Cada uno tiene sus razones para necesitarlo y están decididos a ganar.

Admito que la palabra "zombies" por poco hace que no lea el libro. Estos seres nunca me han gustado y le huyo a leer sus historias. Pero en The Perfect Escape son solo personas disfrazadas y no influyen mucho, siento que solo fue para tener algún extra en la historia.

Nate y Kate, individualmente fueron buenos personajes y tuvieron una buena química entre ellos. No son de esos personajes que se quedan contigo toda la vida pero cumplieron su función. Ambos fueron muy bien estructurados y sus vidas personales les dieron profundidad. La historia en sí también me agradó, fue sencilla con la cantidad perfecta de drama. Terminé disfrutando mi momento de lectura

The Perfect Escape has a really cute concept, but it just didn't hold me attention. I kept putting it down for long stretches of time and going to read other things, then coming back because this was an egalley and I felt like I HAVE TO finish it. The writing style was just a little dry for me, the characters fell a little flat, and it didn't capture me. Ended up just abandoning it about about the 80% mark because I'm just not invested in how it ends.

Hello! Hey! Hi! How are you?


It's a new reading week and I am like halfway through two or more books right now (and loving every minute of all of them which makes it even harder to try to decide which one to read at any given time). I want to start by saying I slept on this book for far too long! This book is utterly adorable and I love it so much. Last week I decided to participate in the Olympic Games readathon and I decided to be in the Apollo cabin (for more information about this please see my readathons page)! One of the prompts for the Apollo cabin is to read a book that makes you happy. I chose to read this book for that prompt! From the summary alone this book sounded like something I would enjoy endlessly but then I saw a few of my friends talking about it and I read the first few chapters, after that, I was hooked.


SPOILERS AHEAD


Nate wants to be rich, he is spending his high school years working at a zombie apocalypse-themed escape room and saving every dollar he makes towards his future business and goals. He currently attends one of the best private schools in the area on a scholarship and has some of the best grades at his school. One night at work, Nate meets a new zombie named Kate. Kate was hired to work a few days a week and hide in a locker to pop out at a certain point during the escape room. Nate gives Kate a ride home that first night and from there the two keep forming a friendship. However, Kate's life is the exact opposite of Nate's. Kate is the daughter of a very famous tech mogul (one Nate actual worships), but her life is very lonely and she wants nothing more than to escape to NYC and work in theater. However, in order for Kate to be able to run away to NYC after high school, she must save up money (her father is not supportive of her dream at all and has very different plans for her). Kate has a big idea that could get her all the money she needs to complete her move but she needs a partner, and that partner is Nate. Nate and Kate are going to compete in a zombie survival competition where the last team alive gets a huge cash prize!


I loved this story so much! I found myself flying through it (I would read for hours until I was interrupted by life) and even then I did not want to stop. Even before we really got into the competition, I was hooked by the story (but once we were in the competition I did not want to stop because I seriously wanted to know what was happening next). I loved both Nate and Kim, and I definitely did not see some of the twists that were coming in this story. Additionally, I love the cover for this book (we all know I am such a cover buyer) and I thought this cover was super cute! I definitely recommend this book if you are looking for something cute, fun, with a side of adventure!


Goodreads Rating: 5 stars





***Thank you to the publisher for the E-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Well, wasn't this an endearing story? I can't remember why exactly I requested The Perfect Escape, but I'm so glad I ended up doing so because I really enjoyed Suzanne Park's debut. I loved that it had such a unique premise and setting - a zombie-themed escape room - and thought the author did a really good job at making it stand out. I was rooting for both Nate and Kate. They both had personal reasons for wanting to take part in this challenge. Nate wanted to win the money so he could help his family as they struggled through some financial strains and Kate also needs the money so she can finally escape what is essentially the high-tech (there's literally a talking robot!) prison that her single workaholic father has left her in. Both of these characters were well-developed, in my opinion. They acted like teenagers and had interesting backstories that had made them who they were as individuals. I loved that they were both driven and had aspirations beyond high school. Nate and Kate's relationship started off as a friendship. I definitely thought they had good banter and shared good chemistry together. I did hope for a little bit more from the romance. It could have done with maybe a few more swoony scenes? It didn't affect my enjoyment of the story too much because all the other elements including the friendships and the family dynamics were beautifully handled. I'm really excited to see what else Suzanne Park comes up with next because this was a fabulous and strong debut for me. I'm particularly excited to read Loathe at First Sight, her romance novel!

So cute, loved the relationship in this. Would definitely recommend to readers who come in and want a light, nice summer virtual-beach read.

A sweet book, however, I found it got quite silly at times and unfortunately I found the zombie stuff a bit boring. Full review to come on my blog

The Perfect Escape by Suzanne Park was a refreshingly different Young Adult romantic-comedy. It was a book I flew through on a sunny afternoon, and I can picture countless teen readers doing the same. This book is quirky, and while I know it won't work for all of my students, I can think of a few quirky, zombie-loving kiddos who will enjoy it.

I didn’t know what to expect going into this, nor did I expect the first few chapters, but it was surprisingly delightful. I do wish I could have seen a little more with the dad and daughter and their healing process. Overall I enjoyed the book a lot.