Getting Away by K. Foxfield is a fast paced, complex, complicated thriller that I loved to read. Suspenseful from start til the last page I was hanging on the edge of my seat, reading as fast as I could, I just had to know what happened. Loved storyline and characters and recommend the book.
Blurb: Cabin in the Woods meets Squid Game - a girl playing a game with a supercomputer unwittingly traps her sister in a deadly escape room. When Saffron is forced to do work experience at a tech company, she gets into an argument with her supervisor over which high school stereotype would survive the longest in a horror film: the sports star? The queen bee? The swot? The drama girl? The class clown? The rebel? Unbeknown to them, the AI robot she is working on at the time decides to determine the answer by testing it out for real. It designs an algorithm to search social media and school records to find the best examples of each stereotype from the neighbouring towns, and the invitations go out - six people, including Saffron's perfectionist sister Georgia, will be trapped in a series of deadly escape rooms and only one will survive the night...

Book:
GETTING AWAY WITH MURDER by Kathryn Foxfield
Thank you Sourcebooks Fire and Netgalley for the Arc (Out Nov 5)

Review:
4 ⭐
GETTING AWAY WITH MURDER was a thrilling tale of mischief, betrayal, and murder. It follows Georgia and Saffron as well as the other members of their Sole Survivor group as they try to out best the AI that has taken over the game.
It took me a minute to really get into this book, but once I did, it kept me on my toes. It's one of those nail-biting, unputdownable reads that has the reader questioning everything, especially: who's killing the group! Let me tell you, this book was twisted, it was unpredictable, and I never would have pegged the killer as the killer.
As if I needed another reason(No Escape Room 2018 being the primary one) not to want to do escape rooms, then an author goes and writes a book about AI taking over everything. Definitely a must read if your need a mystery that'll send chills down your spine.

What I Liked About It:
*that huge twist at the end
*the puzzles

I thought this book was good! I liked the idea of AI running an escape room and I think the idea behind this was great. I didn't however love the lack of emotion or caring from the characters. Something bad or distressing would happen and no one would react. I think that with some of the characters being more compassionate and deeper this book could really be great.

Too many details and descriptions that led nowhere and added nothing to the plot or the story. The characters were more robotic than the AI running the escape room. They had zero human reactions to the tense and emotional things happening.

Have you ever called somewhere and got a robot that doesn’t listen to a word you say? This was like that. What happens when an AI takes over an escape room, turning it deadly?

Rival twin sisters, Saffron and Georgia, play the game Sole Survivor online with “friends”. Saffron is a prankster who is working at a startup tech company that designs game rooms with AI. Georgia is interning at a local newspaper and can’t wait to get the scoop on the new company. When Saffron asks the AI, lightman, who would win in an irl game of Sole Survivor, he decides to put it to the test. Unknowingly, six of the online players enter the battlefield, but who will survive? Can Saffron and Georgia put aside their differences and help each other out of the AI nightmare?

Most of the characters were vapid and selfish and literally no one reacted when someone died. That was my first problem with this book. The second was the incredibly anti-climatic ending. Besides that I felt like this had a really good premise and could have been so much more than what it was. I loved the idea of all of the different stereotypes, kind of like a breakfast club situation, and seeing which one of them would win in a real life game of survival. Unfortunately, this just didn’t really live up to the hype in my mind.

Overall though, I did enjoy the story and it had some really good selling points. I loved the idea and even some of how it played out. It was fast paced and intriguing and I absolutely had to keep reading to see how it ended! While it wasn’t my favorite, it was a nice little read!

I was very disappointed in this book. It was way too boring.. The details went on and on and added nothing to the book.

I had high hopes that were not met.

I had difficulty getting into the story. The concept of AI is not something I have ever read before. however, the characteristics of the characters help to connect with the story.

2 stars ✨⭐️.

This book was fine. It just didn't meet my expectations for a mystery book so I had trouble getting through it. It was definitely a YA book (sort of reminded me of Wattpad).

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the e-book ARC.

3.5⭐️ rounded up.

Rounding up isn’t my norm but I think the book was a decent enough read to recommend it to other YA readers who like escape rooms.

I am thankful for the ARC received from NetGalley and Sourcebooks. My honest review is voluntary and my own opinions. This book is for the future 11/24 US release of a book that was released in the UK in Nov 2023. From the reading of other reviews from the first release I have a feeling that the book may have gone through a major edit as it didn’t match up with the negative reviews to the same extent.

The prose itself was fine from a grammatical sense and not choppy at all. What was problematic was that it got a bit confusing at time with the various games and how character ended up in different places seeming out of the blue.
I don’t think teens would have acted how they did at all. There seems to be a disconnect with the author understanding her characters ages and motivations. This would have worked a bit better if she set the characters as a college age and marketed it as NA. The internships and the responsibilities each twin had at their internship would have made a lot more sense had they been in college.

But overall it was a mix of breakfast club, War Games and The Game by Lindsay Miller mixed into one. It’s not a literary masterpiece by far but it’s entertaining to think about when AI goes wrong. Although I wish the “voice” of the AI was fitting more with technology. It was too much like a real person to be plausible.

My rating system since GoodReads doesn’t have partial stars and I rarely round up.

⭐️ Hated it
⭐️⭐️ Had a lot of trouble, prose issues, really not my cup of tea (potentially DNF’d or thought about it)
⭐️⭐️⭐️ Meh, it was an ok read but nothing special
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Really enjoyed it! Would recommend to others
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Outstanding! Will circle back and read again

This gave very YA squid games to me. With an AI who think it knows better than it does, it also almost gives some Illuminae vibes...the only parallel being the AI aspect clearly.

It was a quick read. Plot moved along quickly. I think we could've done without the video / YouTube / text message stuff and just fluffed the description as to what happened. I just wasn't a fan of reading those parts even though they did give some bit of backstory as to why the sisters bicker so much and the break up of friendships. Little clues as to who is motivated by what.

But as with all kill to survive genre books, it does get a tad predictable. The betrayl of one. The deaths of many. The faux death and clues.

I'll admit the moving maze was pretty legit.

I think this could've been fleshed out a bit more. Characters seemed to need a bit more...along with the story.

This is definitely YA for YA, not so much for adults to enjoy, but things set in escape rooms are always entertaining (except these guys almost never actually complete the task, so, well, of COURSE they are going to die, right? I mean, that’s only fair.).

Saffron (a name that will always make me think of “AbFab,” a reference completely lost on the target audience for this) and Georgia are twins, but Saffron is a bit of a mess, and Georgia plays by all the rules (I’’m guessing teens are meant to connect with one or the other, I thought both were pretty irritating and they never. Stop. Bickering.). They do share one thing, their affection for the video game Sole Survivor which they play online with a group of friends.

Saffron has a summer position at a high tech escape room while Georgia is interning at a newspaper. Saffron gets in a discussion with the escape room’s AI….what high school stereotype would be best equipped to win in a real life version of Sole Survivor? I do not recall these things being an issue when I was a lifeguard. I mostly just twirled my whistle.

Anyway, the AI decides to stage the query for real with Saffron and Georgia’s SS group, pitting the rebel, the know-it-all, the princess, the jock, the geek, the weirdo, the star, the artist and the criminal in a battle to the death. I’ll bet you can guess how this goes.,,,

This book was so predictable, the character development was not present and they were highly unlikeable, they were also highly aggravating. I had a hard time pushing through this one.

Very good! It was honestly similar to many other thriller books. Has a good plot and keeps you wanting to read more. Thrillers are my thing so I enjoyed it . Easy read.