Book Review: The Escape Game by Marissa Meyer and Tamara Moss

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NetGalley Book Review of The Escape Room by Marissa Meyer and Tamara Moss

The Escape Game by Marissa Meyer and Tamara Moss opens on the set of a reality television show called "The Escape Room" where one of the season four contestants, Alicia Angelos, is found in a coffin on set ... dead. Fast forward to season five where Sierra Angelos, the murder victim's younger sister and suspected killer, has been brought back to the show and paired up with Beck, Adi, and Carter. Sierra wants to find justice for her sister, but when Sierra and her teammates start uncovering clues about the true killer, they must figure out how to survive the game.

A huge thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Young Readers Group for approving my request and providing me with a digital copy of The Escape Game for free in exchange for my honest review. I was immediately drawn to the title and cover of the young adult novel. Throw in the plot being about an escape room, and I was completely sold on the story before even reading it.

The story is told from the perspective of four different characters ... Adi, a cryptographer; Beck, an escape room wannabe designer; Carter, the math whiz; and Sierra, the accused murderer of her sister. I know a lot of people don't enjoy having a story told by multiple points of view, but Marissa Meyer and Tamara Moss did a fantastic job of making it easy to follow and not get lost.

Each and every one of the main characters are well-developed for this being a book falling into the young adult genre, but they are a bit stereotypical too. With that being said, I ended up liking each of them for different reasons. 

There were characters that I liked but was suspicious of their motives towards Carter like the game master name Louis and the host of the show named Fitzy. Additionally, there were the characters that were unlikable like one of the producers of the show name Ranielle, the social media director named Vera, multiple contestants, and Adi's mother named Symphony. 

At different times, I was suspicious of Louis, Vera, and Ranielle being the murderer, but you'll need to read the book to see if I guessed correctly. There are lots of twists and turns that keep the reader guessing, including a connection between Adi's and Beck's family, which may or may not have something to do with the murder of Sierra's sister.

One part of the story felt oddly familiar to me, and that was the part where a particular character had struck it rich and hid his money in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, created a map to find the gold, and then disappeared. After thinking about why this felt like I had heard this before, I remembered a segment on 60 Minutes about Forrest Fenn who is an art dealer that hid a treasure chest in those same mountains and created a 24-line poem that people could use as a map to finding his treasure.

Overall, I absolutely fell in love with The Escape Room by Marissa Meyer and Tamara Moss and give it five out of five stars despite it having a cliffhanger at the end of the story. I can't wait until the sequel comes out, but it looks like I'll have a long wait to find out what happens next as it isn't expected until 2027.

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