The Escape Room

I have been meaning to read a Megan Goldin book for a while, especially because I have two, and I am really glad I finally got to this one! It was definitely exactly what I needed after last month's reading slump, where it took me over ten days to read Lie To Me. I chose this book off my shelf because I was hoping it would be fast paced and exciting and it delivered on both of those premises. The only thing I had a problem with was the ending, it just wrapped everything up way too fast and felt a little unbelievable, especially because the whole book prior felt somewhat plausible. Overall, I had a really good time with this and will be reading Megan Goldin's other books soon.

To begin with, The Escape Room is about these four workers, who work in one of the most prestigious finance firms on Wall Street. They get called to do an escape room challenge in order to bond more as co-workers and soon realize that the elevator they all got on is indeed the escape room. But who is behind this cryptic activity and what can possibly transpire in such tight confines? I thought that this plot was unique enough. The only other book I read that was similar to this one in terms of plot was The Firm and I didn't like that one much. I thought the pacing was a lot better in this one and I was hooked from the very first page. I liked how it went between the four co-workers being stuck in the elevator in the present day and then an ex-coworker's perspective of how she ended up where she did, I thought that was really well done. However, the ending felt completely rushed and whereas the pacing was on point up until the end, the conclusion completely flew off the handle and gave me a bit of a whiplash. I just thought that it was somewhat unbelievable and I felt really unsatisfied, especially because there weren't any huge revelations, only maybe one.

Further on, the characterization definitely stands out to me in this novel. Everyone who works in this firm is messed-up, to the very core- complicated and I was here for it. I loved just how despicable these people were and how far they were willing to go to ultimately get what they wanted. I feel like many authors shy away from really going there and committing but not in this case. For this reason alone, I will be checking out the other novels by this author and I can't wait. I felt like I got a look into their souls and there's not much more than I can ask for in that aspect.

Finally, the writing was my favorite kind. The thing I look for most in my writing style, when I am reading my favorite thrillers, is that the writing flow and it definitely did in this book. I raced through this book because the pages basically flipped themselves and I found myself not being able to put the book down. Also, the chapters were really short and that also helped tremendously in keeping my attention and interest as I rushed to get to the ending and the conclusion of this creative plot.

In conclusion, even though this book isn't a favorite thriller of all time for me, it did pull me out of my reading slump and I couldn't put it down. I would recommend it to anyone who wants a really fast-paced thriller, where you don't really find out what's going on until the very end. It gave me the same vibe as No Exit did, although in this case you don't find out who the bad guy is early on in the book, which was my issue with No Exit. If you're looking for an exciting read, I'd say give this one a try!

I enjoyed the read. It was a slow burn but kept you interested in the solution. It was a little predictable. I like that the "clues" in the elevator did not give it all away. The captives slowly figured out why they were targeted. There was one surprise at the end. Vincent survived. What happened to him? The story could have been cut 20% to speed up and an epilogue of what happened to Vincent.