The Escape Game by Marissa Meyer and Tamara Moss (2026)
Enormous fun to be had here for fans of murder mysteries, puzzle solving, code cracking and that surefire winner......smart endearing teens up against a slew of obnoxious, criminal adults.
Not to mention my personal favorite as someone who grows nauseous at the thought spending even 10 seconds watching reality TV, the depiction of Reality TV show producers and assorted staff as loathsome, creepy and overall moronic individuals. Put that in a book and you had me at hello......
"The Escape Game's previous season finished up with one of its teen contestants, Alicia Angelos, murdered and found in a coffin. You'd think that would be enough for cancellation, but in a pop culture universe where high ratings and click-bait rule, the show must go on. Not only go on, but include one of last season's contestants, the victim's sister Sierra. The laser-focused, goth-outfitted Sierra, temper always at a full boil, was accused but never charged with her sister's murder; And now she'll settle for no less that winning the game and hunting down the real killer.
So the game's afoot, Sierra leads four teammates (handsome, bookish Adi, influencer Carter, game master Beck). They're up against similar hotly competitive teams in solving their way out of a series of Escape Room challenges, each room with its own theme and densely packed with clues and codes to break..
While I realize that for a lot of readers, the puzzle and clue solving sequences will sound like heaven on earth, those parts of the book held the least amount of interest to me. What I did love and enjoy was the time and attention authors Marissa Meyer and Tamara Moss spent to bring all these characters to life and make me care for them, root for them and fear for them when they're courting danger. I was really taken with Carter Kelly ("Kick It Carter"), a shy introverted girl employing, like the Wizard of Oz, a manic pixie exaggerated animated avatar as her public persona.
And given my low opinion of reality shows and those who produce and create them, the miserable collection of cynical, devious corrupt and altogether odious people in charge of the game here fulfilled all my worst expectation.......(with the exception of 'Fitzy' the show's bubbly, live wire young Australian M.C., who's not much older than the contestants.)
Along with those incredibly challenging Escape rooms, Sierra and her Scooby gang must also plow through all the hidden secrets, twists and reveals that will lead them to unmask the murderer of Sierra's sister. And I can only tell you that their climactic showdown throwdown is everything you'd expect of it......thrilling, threatening, action-packed, surprising and even, at times, weirdly funny.
Even if I'm no great fan of puzzles, this bunch I had a good time hanging out with, and wouldn't mind seeing them all re-assemble for further adventures.
4 stars (****).
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