Escape Room

Book/Story: ⭐️⭐️.5
Book Cover: ⭐️


TRIGGER WARNING: MENTAL ILLNESS, HOUSE FIRE (flashback), DEATH OF SIBLINGS AND PARENTS

POV: Quadruple, First PersonSeries/Standalone: StandalonePart of a series: NoSafe or Dark: Dark

DISCLAIMER: I'm a 35-year-old woman writing a review for a young adult book. Do with that information what you will.This story was so unhinged, and not in a good way!

I should have known it was going to be a flop when the synopsis on the back cover misspelled the character's name, Miles, as “Milas.” That right there should have told me everything I needed to know. 

This book opens with some of the greatest poetic lyrics of our time:

“Look, if you had one shot or one opportunityTo seize everything you ever wanted in one momentWould you capture it or just let it slip?”

I'm not making that up. This book opens with this masterpiece and closes with it as well. That's a pretty big opening promise for a book that (mainly) takes place in a demented escape room over the span of a few hours.

The name Milas was a screw-up in the synopsis (as mentioned above), and I was hoping the name “Mint” was a misspelling as well. It was not. One of the main characters's names was Mint. We get no explanation as to why this is her name, either. Was it perhaps a nickname for Mintalie or Mintlizbeth? Did someone mispronounce her name once as a young child, and the error was cute, so it stuck? Did her parents just love this particular herb so much that they named their firstborn child after it? Did she think she was some edgy badass and wanted to give herself a wicked cool name?  We never find out. We just have to sit there and accept the fact that this teenage girl's name is Mint. That is by far the worst character name I have ever come across in a book.


Shall we go through the four teenagers in this book?

Alissa - She was by far the most insufferable. She was so full of herself. Alissa must have been the earth because she really acted like the sun and moon revolved around her. Her dad was a firefighter who suffered from horrible PTSD after he was unable to save a family from their burning home. I'm not at all downplaying the importance of his plight, but this girl acted like she was the only person in the history of the world to have had something tragic happen to her. Earthissa thought about herself first and foremost. I don't think she was ever concerned about any of the things her friends were going through. Mint and Sky have been her best friends for years (the Gods only know why), and when they tried to warn her about Miles, a boy she met and started dating only a week prior to this escape room debacle, she took his word over theirs! She even thinks that Mint is lying about Milas/Miles because she is jealous that Alissa has a boyfriend and she doesn't! Both Mint and Sky are better than me because I would have left Alissa's dusty self in the escape room to fend for herself. She was just plain awful. Throughout the story, we hear about how beautiful she is, but at the end of the day, that shouldn't even matter because her personality was about as appealing as shit on a stick.

Miles/Milas - Honestly, I sort of liked the guy. He had gone through a horrible event in his life and was pretty messed up from it. But in some weird, twisted way, I think deep down he was trying to be a good person. He let himself get caught up in his twisted sister, Cloe's, game of revenge on Alissa and got a lot more than he bargained for. For what it's worth, he did try to protect Alissa from Cloe's rath and was upset when he realized both Sky and Mint were in danger as well. Miles was way in over his head. Not to mention, he was like totally just the hottest! weird teenage swoon We aren't allowed to forget that for a second.


Mint - Despite her atrocious name, Mint was one of my favorite characters. She was a “mousey” thing forever stuck in the shadow of her beautiful best friend (Alissa). She always looked out for her friends and often had their best interests in mind. Even when she knew Awfulissa would be upset with her, Mint warned her bestie about her new boy toy. Which, spoiler alert, didn't go well. Although she was quiet, Mint was a little badass. She could do so much more than she let on. She was the only one in the group to stay calm while trapped in the escape room. She kept a clear head and took charge. I enjoyed her character's development. It was rather fun seeing her go from a “nobody” to a leader. I was rooting for her the whole time. My only complaint about Mint was her ability to feel people's (physical) pain before it occurred. That added nothing to the story for me. I felt it was unnecessary.


Sky - Sky is a ride or die. I really liked him. Out of all four characters, I think he might have been the best. Mint was obviously a very close second. He believed Mint when she told him that Miles was dangerous, and he confronted Alissa about it. Sky was the only one who took the time to acknowledge everything Mint had done for the group while in the escape room and rightfully gassed her up. His “big reveal/twist” played out well and was honestly the best one out of all of them. Maren Stoffels did a wonderful job of making us believe that Sky was in love with Alissa throughout the book and was dating Caitlin (an innocent bystander) in order to get over that brick of a person. However, Sky was secretly gay and had, in fact, been in love with Miles the entire time. Much to Alissa's chagrin. Both Miles and Alissa have blue eyes, and the author played on that well when we were listening to Sky's inner monologue. I would have very much enjoyed reading an entire book solely based on Sky.


At the end of the day, I am not at all upset that I picked up this book because it did keep me entertained, even though it was only by its stupidity. If you're looking for a quick, unhinged read, I would suggest checking it out.