If the movie Saw occurred in an elevator it’d be this book! While I don’t think this will be receiving any critical literary acclaim, but damn was it fun!

I love the concept of escape rooms. I’ve never done one and am a little afraid I would not get out and be stuck there forever. Or get murdered. In fact this weekend I watched the movie No Escape Room about a haunted escape room. This book sounded really interesting and has a great title, so I was excited to read it.

It is not really about a traditional escape room. Instead 4 cut throat Wall Street investors are lured to a team building excercise in an abandoned building. They are trapped in an elevator and need to solve clues to escape.

At first I thought 4 people trapped in an elevator would not be a compelling read but I was wrong. The book was interesting and stressful. I had to know what would happen next. The narrative alternates between past and present. The story of Sara, a new hire at the company, and the story of the 4 in the elevator. They all have secrets and they are about to be revealed.

This book was a lot of fun and good escapism. If you are looking for an entertaining read, this is the book for you.

I received an ARC from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

Just finished. Very different. The use of the flashbacks was very unique, being told from two voices.
Really enjoyed the book

I really enjoyed the book. Fast paced and mysterious. The escape room element made it familiar and fun. Loved the twists and turns. Many times when reading a book that alternates perspective, the reader never gets a full sense of the characters because narratives are always changing. Not so with this book. The stress and emotional toil being felt by those in the elevator was heightened as the chapters progressed.

Really enjoyed this read! By the time I also realized it wasn't really an escape room, I was in too deep to turn back.

Thank you to netgalley and St Martin's Press for the advanced copy in return for an honest review. This one kept me going from the beginning. Sometimes parallelI story lines get confusing, but not this time. I felt myself reading faster and faster with the adrenaline rush among the characters! I was actually sad when I turned the last page. This is definitely one i didn't want to end. I would love to read more by this author!

There are some books that you can’t put down. The Escape Room is not one of them. Four coworkers are trapped in an elevator, in what they believe is an “escape room” team building excersize. Unfortunately, what appears to be a promising premise for a topical novel goes off the rails. The plot is ridiculous, the characters are clearly unlikable, and the story just gets more implausible with each page. I struggled to finish this one, and was very disappointed.

Wow, what a great book! It is a real page turner! I didn't want to put it down. I look forward to reading more by this author!

I was immediately pulled into the plot about four finance executives who are trapped in an elevator, having been lured there with an invitation to a team-building exercise. The story is told in alternate chapters by Sara Hall, and the four people in the elevator. I kept turning pages because I was eager to find out what would happen next in the "escape room" (although we know from the beginning that no one gets out alive) and Sara's story. The finance execs are greedy and manipulative, and Sara is perhaps a bit naive. I felt Sara's sense of self-preservation should have kicked in well before it did, and I rolled my eyes a bit at her willingness to trust Vincent and even Kevin. The writing felt unpolished in places and that lowered my rating to an actual 3.5 out of 5 stars. Still, this is a great beach or airplane book.

Wow! What a crazy nightmare of a story. I was so enthralled I could not put it down! This was my first by this author and it certainly won't be my last! This is a very different kind of book from what I normally read. I generally want to like the characters I read about, but there was no way this was happening with this group.

Thank you to Netgalley for this ARC.

Unputdownable! Literally. I cooked, did laundry, ticked my kids in, ate dinner, and brushed my teeth while reading this book. It's going to the very top of the book I recommend to my occasionally-reading friends looking for a summer read. I'm already ready for more from Megan Goldin!


Disclaimer: I received this ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I really wanted to like this book but I just couldn't get into it. It was too confusing and the characters were not like able.

Intense! I didn't know what to expect from this story. I was unsure about it at the beginning. But before long, it pulled me into the world of finance and Wall Street. The characters are complex and well=written. The story has many twists and turns and left me wondering what could be next. Every time I thought I had it figured out, it took a new twist. A great read, a captivating story.

THE ESCAPE REVIEW alternates between the story of four investment bankers with Stanhope and Sons and the first-person narrative of Sara Hall, a recent MBA graduate who had tried unsuccessfully to work with them despite the Wall Street firm’s emphasis on competition and profit rather than cooperation. Vincent, Sam, Sylvie and Jules find themselves locked in an elevator in a high-rise office building and welcomed to “THE ESCAPE ROOM. YOUR GOAL IS SIMPLE. GET OUT ALIVE.” Is it a team-building exercise or a life-or-death showdown? Getting to know the four better, I found that their careers at Stanhope seem to be as cutthroat, claustrophobic and confining as the elevator they find themselves trapped in.

Guys! I just finished reading Megan Goldin’s book The Escape Room and OMG! Pick it up!! It is a must read psychological thriller. I promise. My first 5 star read for 2019!!!! Available from @StMartinsPress on July 30, 2019. Thank you @NetGalley for the DRC.

I was a little lost and confused at the beginning of the book. The book is told from a couple points of view and until I got my bearings, I was lost. Once I got a sensitive e of the voices in the book, things started to build. This book was hard to put down. I was guessing all of the way through. I usually pick up on clues pretty quickly, but this once really had me surprised. I definitely plan on picking up more books by this author!

I enjoyed this book. This book wasn't profound or deep -- I enjoy those too -- but this was a simple, enjoyable read and kept me hooked. As a slow reader, who only reads a bit when retiring for the day, if the book doesn't hold my interest, I cut my losses and abandon it, even if I am more than half done with it.

I enjoyed how the story was set up and structured.

The Escape Room was a slow building mystery puzzle. The interest level definitely bumps up a couple notches once there's mention of people who died. This group has many many secrets and no idea what the escape room is for, what the reward will be, or how hard it can be to be cooped up in a small space of like-minded, cut-throat coworkers. The way the story was set up with different perspectives and a mix of past and present kept me intrigued, trying to figure out what was going on. The beginning sets you up to be pulled in right away. I enjoyed the story.

An excellent story. I was caught up in the story line from the beginning and did not want to put this book down. The intrinsic meanness and greed of the “Circle” made me wish for revenge, along with the main character. Don’t miss this one, the inventiveness and conclusion is brilliantly done. This book is added to my list of top reads.

I really hate it when authors think a book can be saved by an ending which is the case here. Who wants to slog through a boring book with insufferable characters so the author can write an ending that is supposed to make it all worthwhile? Not me. These Wall Street characters are just awful. Each one is worse than the last. This story is told on alternating chapters between the elevator and a character called Sara Hall. The elevator chapters jump around with different character POVs, even within the same chapter, and can seem too jumbled. Nothing is gained by this perspective. It’s pretty obvious how vile these people are. That would have been just as obvious had they stuck to one narrator or at least switch perspective in different chapters which might have better built suspense (of which there is none in this novel).

Which brings me to another issue with this book, it’s not suspenseful. Yes, the group is stuck in an elevator but that by itself is not suspenseful. The action is limited to them in a box. The writing is such that we don’t care for them or really care what happens to them. It’s just not very interesting and certainly not suspenseful. Plus it’s pretty obvious what’s going on.

The alternate chapters show Sarah Hall starting at the firm in the past and bringing her character forward with information on those in the elevator. Sarah is mostly a more sympathetic character but she does fall prey to the greed that ensnared her co-workers. This juxtaposition just continues to highlight how annoying the group in the elevator are.

As I said the ending is obvious and hardly saves the novel. In fact there is not the payoff that could have felt more satisfying. It ends too quickly for that. Unfortunately this novel could have been much better than it was. It does not even pick up its pace or become interesting until it’s almost over.

I didn't love it but I also didn't hate it. I felt like The Escape Room as a whole had some really strong points but some really weak ones as well. I really enjoyed the concept of the book and the past/present POV but the rest of it all fell short for me.

The idea of the story was something that was new and exciting to me! After I read what it was about on Netgalley, I was excited that it was a thriller that was based around something we don't normally read about: an escape room. While the concept and plot of the book sounded 100% interesting the story itself, unfortunately wasn’t what I had expected. As a reader, I wouldn't count it as a mystery or even a thriller mainly because it didn't thrill nor excite me. But I really appreciated how original the plot was.

The story as a whole was slow-paced and dragged as there was just too much information that wasn’t necessary to the story. I feel like the author did this so that the reader wasn't able to pick up on easy clues and details but it really was more of a distraction to me than it was helpful. If you read and follow this story closely-- you're going to guess the outcome, the "who did it", and the ending no matter how often the author tries to add new information or details in to distract you. It was just one of those books.

The ending was a little too far fetched IMO... that was the best the author could come up with? After all of that? 

I went into The Escape Room with high expectations but unfortunately, it just wasn’t as good as I thought. Overall, it was an okay read. There is just enough in there to keep you going until the end to see how everything plays out.