What in the Saw and Stranger Things did I just read?!

Alexei Vasilliev, a well known puzzle master, who has crafted the most strategic puzzles throughout his life, has died. His will states that six complete strangers must complete six of his most dangerous puzzle games for a chance to win a portion of his inheritance. After the first few puzzles, these six strangers figure out that in order to solve these puzzles, they must sacrifice a life to move onto the next room.

6 complete strangers
6 puzzles
6 ways to die

I really enjoyed the intricate ways of solving the puzzles and how the characters worked together to try and solve them. This was a four star read until I reached the ending which felt strange and out of place. I was hoping for more explanation or maybe the promise of a second book, but I was left confused.

This an escape room mixed with some saw & national treasure parts. A puzzle master dies and invited his exwife & 5 total strangers to the reading of his will. Only problem is, his house is a giant series of escape rooms that they will have to complete for the $150million. I enjoyed it.

This book is Illuminati meets Saw vibes with a supernatural twist. Should I call it a slasher gone rogue? Mystical puzzle mayhem? Idk what to refer to this as, but it kept me wanting to turn those pages. It's so entertaining. 👏🏻

It all starts when multiple people are named in a famous puzzle maker's will, and are set to inherite a large sum of money. The beneficiaries do not know each other, and only one of them knew the recently deceased...his ex wife is among the strangers, and she is scared for their lives...As she should be.

The group is forced to participate in sadistic escape rooms and solve dark AF puzzles for their freedom and their opportunity to leave with millions of dollars. Also, of course everyone has shady secrets they would rather the others not be aware of...

This one was scary, and fun. It kept me on edge. Thank you @netgalley for this early copy. I haven't read anything quite like this before. I'll be looking forward to more books by Ralston and need to look into his backlist now. This was so creative and unhinged. It is perfect for horror/mystery fans.

4.5/5 stars rounded up

Thank you to Wicked House Publishing and NetGalley for providing a review copy.
I'm quite fond of the competition trope in horror, and Puzzle House delivers on many levels. There's a lot going on, but I was here for all of it. I could barely put it down and read it in two sittings. My only quibble is that it ended quite abruptly. I definitely feel there's room for a second book and I hope that comes to be. 4.5 stars, rounded up.

Schpiel time- thank you to NetGalley and Wicked House Publishing for an ARC of “Puzzle House.” This is from the same author as “WOOM,” you guys! Duncan Ralston is also a really sweet and genuine person, but in the case of my review that’s neither here nor there. Just wanted to mention it!

Fans of ‘Saw’ are going to absolutely love this, as will enthusiasts of the hyper creepy escape room experience. This reads like being in one of those rooms- the clock is running out, you’re scrambling for time, and there’s only so many options you have left before you’ve failed to solve the puzzles in front of you. But this takes that theme and puts it to an extreme- in this convoluted house, not only is a prize at risk, but your entire life is on the line as well. In typical Duncan Ralston fashion, there is some nasty yet well placed and purposeful gore, and there’s things about (nearly) every character that you’ll grow to like. This makes the deaths and tragedies that happen throughout the story all the more disturbing.

I loved Oscar, I grew to love Joy, I appreciated Rudy, and Henry was really the type of guy with a hard shell and a gentle core. Atkins and Illeana suck and can burn for all I care, but the rest of the ‘contestants’ held rather redeeming qualities. They are all in the late Alexei Vasiliev’s house, playing his masterfully designed puzzle games for a chance at obtaining his fortunes. Or so, that’s what they’ve been brought here to think…

There are certain puzzles that come designed with their corresponding characters in mind. You’ll begin to see this as the story progresses, and you’ll also take note of the foreshadowing present. This isn’t usually my type of book, as it does read like an action movie, and I’m not typically one for those. But I have to tell you, this was one of those “action/thriller/horror” type of stories that just keeps you so on the edge of your seat it’s hard to slow down. There’s more than just puzzle solving at play here- we get dramatic backstories, Mesopotamian gods, questionable sacrifices, and a whole lot of glimpses into morality. The dialogue felt natural, and the characters well shaped.

The only complaint I really have is the ending. It stops rather short, revealing two giant shockers and then… in my opinion, not nearly enough time is left to fully explore them. I’m hoping this means that Duncan has left the story open for a sequel- I think that could work really well here. But I do have unanswered questions and I want some more- I feel the ending was just incomplete when given the rest of the story and the sudden and dramatic twists that occur pages before the book is over.

Nonetheless, the goal here was met in stride. This book will be released on September 15th- that’s about a week away from the posting of this review. I believe it could be enjoyed by many different people who read across many different genres, so keep an eye out for it if you wanna be grossed out, entranced, and anticipating whatever is going to happen next throughout the entire duration of a story.

By the way, that temple scene…. With the gold bowls…. My most affectionate “yikes” to date. Morgue scene too!

I loved this book and enjoyed reading it so much! I love Duncan’s writing style, and just get so lost in his story telling that it becomes like a movie in my head and this book is no different. A bunch of strangers get an inheritance from a man they’ve never met. They discover there’s a little bit more to it and find themselves in an escape room/Saw type of game for the winnings. Definitely pick up a copy, and find out what happens!

Puzzle House follows a group of people as they show up at a will reading and instead find themselves in an escape room situation is order to win $150 million. Things start taking really dark turns when the different rooms start becoming deadly.

Honestly, this book was just kinda boring. Unfortunately it did not work for me at all. I really liked the concept and the beginning, but it started taking some weird and bizarre turns that did not work for me. It was also only 200 something pages but it took me soooo long to finish. I found a lot of the characters annoying and unlikeable.

I really hate when i dislike a book but this is one of those that I didn’t like. I have seen a lot of good reviews on this one so take my review with a grain of salt. The concept of this book was fun it just did not work for me.

Thanks so much to netgalley and wicked house for the arc of this book in exchange for an honest review!

4 stars - loved it
Six strangers and a chance to win 150M dollars, all they have to so is solve some puzzles. Sounds good right? well it was. Very entertaining and fast paced, with some twists I did not see coming. This is very mild in comparison to Ralstons, other book, WOOM. If you like the SAW movie franchise you will likely enjoy Puzzle House a lot, its got very similar vibes but with some unique twists and turns. I also thought the ending was really cool, and dare I say a possible set up for a book # 2?! I hope so, I would love to see where this story could continue to.

Thanks to Netgalley, Wicked House Publishing, and Duncan Ralston for sharing a digital copy for me to read and review. As always, opinions are my own 🤘🏻💀🤘🏻

Such an uninspired ending, granted I struggled to even get that far. The characters weren’t interesting and the premise just didn’t do it for me. The forced “connection” between Henry and Joy, Henry’s random knowledge that kicks in at certain points to save them, wasn’t believable. I eventually scanned through just to finish.

3.5⭐

It's good actually. I love every puzzle needs sacrifice, then wondering about what happen to the next scene. The book too, the references, I adore em. Entertaining. I could ended this story for two days in a row, because it's so good.

The red line across them all, increase my curiosity to the next level. I would recommend this book to my pal. Thanks for this great opportunity, NetGalley. I enjoyed it so much.

An entertaining blend of pop culture, cinematic action and the supernatural. It’s not art but it’s great fun.

The meme that says 'They had us in the first half, I'm not gonna lie,' made from the viral video where the football player gave an interview and said that line, sums up this book perfectly for me.

A large part of it was my neglect at exploring more, going further, as well as simply ‘believing’ what Duncan had shared. Duncan and I message fairly regularly, and at one point he’d shared the synopsis and cover for this book. By all indications, I was under the assumption this was a singular release and it was a straightforward novel about a group of strangers in a ‘Saw’-type house, where they had to solve their way to survival.

For the most part, that is true, until about the half way point, when we learn way more about the ‘truth’ to who is behind the mystery within and we get a lot of occult/ancient deity involvement. And that, honestly, is where my reading brain started to hold back from the book.

What I liked: I should state first, though – thanks to Wicked House Publishing, Netgalley and the author for sending me a digital ARC of this one.

The novel begins just as I mentioned – we get some back story on an inmate and the world’s biggest female movie star, Joy, who are summoned to Joy’s ex-husbands home. Alexei has died and he’s decided to leave his staggering fortune to those who come. A group of six strangers, but with only Joy who knew Alexei before. Alexei made his fortune through creating complex puzzles and in order to receive their share of his fortune, they must solve the puzzles. Of course, this being a horror novel, we learn that they’ll need to not only solve the puzzles but that they’ll have to actually survive the puzzles as well.

Duncan does a solid job of setting up this premise, but also having us root for the two main characters, Joy and our prisoner. They play well off each other and as the book moves along, it was great to see them have a solid, platonic relationship without any hint of romance or potentially hooking up.

I really enjoyed each new puzzle room – up to a point, which I’ll discuss in a moment – and how they worked collaboratively together to solve it, even as each one becomes more extreme and more squirm inducing.

The first half of this novel had me hooked, but then it went in a very different direction, one I wished was a completely different book.

What I didn’t like: Briefly, before I get into the bread and butter of some stuff, I did find the extra characters, just that – extra characters. No connection, one dimensional and there simply to die in each room. But, the truth is, in a book like that, you need those characters. So, I didn’t mind that they weren’t as well defined or fleshed out.

I think for me, and minor spoilers here – so enter at your own risk – is I went in completely invested in a singular novel about people struggling to solve life-or-death escape rooms, and this was so much more. That so much more is a solid thing, a good thing in most cases (looking at you Ghostland trilogy), but I wasn’t invested in that when I started. I found the Book of Magic to feel out of place and the Infiniti Enterprises aspect should’ve been featured in a completely different book.

I went along for the ride, wanting to see who would survive and what would be left of them, but I was a bit frustrated when it went very ‘raising the dead’ and ‘the world you left isn’t the world you’ll return to.’ I was also expecting a solid, THE END, not a jarring finish with the dawning understanding that there would be another book.

Why you should buy this: Now, it may sound like I didn’t like this book, but honestly, I did. I liked each avenue separately, and I am invested now, wanting to see what tricks Alexei and Trent have in store for our survivor and what this strange new world has become. Saying that, I still do lament the fact that I didn’t get a straightforward Puzzle House story.

So, I’m splitting the difference. The first half, for me was a solid 5/5. The latter half a good 3/5.

Overall, this one was a 4/5 and a reminder that I shouldn’t always go in blind to books, as this reading brain will sometimes get far too stuck in its ways to loosen up and go with the flow!

I received the Puzzle House from NetGalley. This was my first Duncan Ralston novel and I will be reading more

. I enjoyed the puzzles and how each one seemed to be curated to one of the people involved. The novel was not overly graphic which from what I have heard about the author previously was a little surprising but really worked in the novels favor. By not being overly graphic the novel kept the point on the plot and what the characters need to do in order to solve the puzzles and hopefully win the game. The novel gave me escape room meets Saw vibes. It was fun, horrifying, and mysterious. I do wish there was a little more explanation to Infiniti and exactly how much of a hold they have on each individual.

Sadly I wasn't a fan of this book. The author is certainly not known for subtlety when it comes to graphic horror so I was very surprised to find the 'Puzzle House' kind of bland. It was fine for a quick read but for me it was rather disappointing and not very memorable. Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book, and sorry I can't be more positive in my comments this time around.

This book seemed like a mash up of several horror movies and it wasn't done terribly well. It reminded me a little of Cube mixed with the classic locked room mystery. Except the puzzles became more murderous (and sometimes bizarre) as the story goes on. The whole thing felt wholly implausible. I was looking for somewhat of a psychological thriller with creative puzzles and instead I got C-grade horror movie blood spatters. I was angry and disappointed at the end.


**spoiler alert** THE END IS STUPID

I guess thanks to Wicked House publishing and Netgalley for this ARC. This is my honest review.

Wow. I was sucked in right from the beginning. This would have been a 4 star but I didn’t like the ending.

Duncan Ralston has a wild imagination! When the book first started, it reminded me of The Westing Game with a group of seemingly unrelated people coming together to figure out a puzzle after the death of a rich guy. Puzzle House is far more dangerous, however! The characters were interesting and I enjoyed learning their secrets and connections as the book progressed. I couldn't wait to see what terrible thing was waiting for them through the next door. I was invested in the story from early on all the way through to the end. Great read!

I enjoyed this so much, I read it in one sitting! The new world that was started during the last chapter was phenomenal and totally scary! I need to know what happens next. Does Henry get to see his wife again? Does he get his money?

Puzzle House is a fun horror novel.
Six strangers are invited to the reading of an eccentric billionaire's will. Only one of them actually knew the man-Joy Reese, his ex-wife. It quickly becomes obvious that this billionaire doesn't intend to just hand over his fortune. He intends to make them earn it, through proving their wits through a series of puzzles.
This book is entertaining and fast-paced. There are lots of twists in the plot, not just in the types of puzzles they're forced to solve, but also in the reveals of each of the characters' dark secrets. The puzzles were clever, and the consequences of failing to solve them in time were quite severe.

I’ve read a few other books by this author and I couldn’t really get into them but this one I was completely drew in from the very beginning. I highly recommend this book to anyone that loves a good Horror book!

Thank you Netgalley, Duncan Ralston, and Wicked House Publishing for allowing me to read this ARC due to be published September 15th 2023.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC.

i was really excited to read this book and found the premise really intriguing and right up my alley. Sadly, it fell flat on the execution.
The writing felt really amateur, and the pacing was too fast, so you never got to really get to know any of the characters. The different POV's didnt help with that either. Yet it lingered and gave so many unnecessary information that didn't further the plot (f. ex. how often Oscar poops each day.. like why?)
The puzzles were underwhelming and the motivations behind each sacrifice made little sense, like doing an organ removal on an alive person instead of using one of the 4 dead bodies.
The motives behind the puzzle master made just as little sense as the so-called cult that was introduced.
All in all, good idea, just needed a lot more work

This one was a lot of fun.

Know that it gets very gruesome, and some of our characters are kind of ick, but it’s horrifying in all the best ways.

Now, the reason behind everything was unusual – I’m not sure I 100% love the why of everything, but I did love how it all played out.

The ending isn’t quite as concrete as I prefer, but it leave thins open for more and I’m really hoping the author continues to expand this world.

Definitely enjoyed this!

• ARC via Publisher