What a revelation this novel turned out to be! The Escape Room was an amazing read because it has great characters and also: 1. a corporate setting that is more than fascinating, and 2. an intense and claustrofobic locked room mystery in an elevator. Despite it being such a tiny room, there was lots to discover and it really never got boring. There was a perfect balance between both scenes and just when the heat gets on in the elevator with nicely timed hints, it switches to the past where you learn a little more about the people trapped in that small space.

The people in the elevator all share Stanhope and Sons unofficial but very truthful motto ‘fake it till you make it‘. The firm has over 9000 applicants each year and only 30ish are chosen for an induction week, where they are pampered and spoilt extravagently. Sara Hall is a girl with an MBA who tries to get a place as a financial analyst at the prestigeous New York firm. It is through her eyes that we get a sense of the place. The author provides such a clear imagine of the corporate mentality that even for all the money in the world, I wouldn’t want to work there.

At the same time 4 high-rolling employees of Stanhope are sent to the 87th floor of a builing for an urgent team building assignment. They never reach the floor though and it appears the elevator itself is set up as an escape room. The prologue gives the reader a taste of what’s waiting at the end of the story and you’re left wondering for the next few hours who’ll get out of that elevator alive and who’ll die. If that doesn’t get you hooked immediately, I don’t know what is.

As the story progresses I found out so much about this foursome. They seem to work well together but secretly there were jealous of each other and tried to undermine one another whenever they got a chance. They’re unlikeable characters but very interesting to read more about so they were absolutely the right kind of unlikeable. I was trying to suss out who was the baddest devil of them all but they all quite rival each other. Not to worry though, you have Sara to root for, for most part of the novel. It’s kind of a mystery why she isn’t in that elevator with them. Did she leave the team, turn her back on that money? It seemed very unlikely. My eyebrows almost touched my hairline when I found out why that was, no kidding.

Without giving away anything more about the plot, The Escape Room had me racing through this novel, it was a thrill of a read and I can’t recommend it enough. This novel is a real gem and definitely one of my favorite reads this year.

I can hardly believe this spectacular read is a debut novel and all I know is I can’t wait to read the next Megan Goldin novel!

Thank you Netgalley and Orion Publishing for the ARC of this book.
I did not realise this was Megan's first book and I really did enjoy it and had problems putting it down at times, specially at 2am one morning!
A really original plot, with realistic characters, and loads of twists and turns and an insight into Wall Street. I can highly recommend this book

It’s hard to believe that the Escape Room is this authors debut......it is incredible! I genuinely could not put it down!
When I initially read the plot line I was worried I would be lost in all the financial jargon but I was very wrong.
This book taps in to the darkest of human emotions and primal fears whilst always surprising you with an exciting plot twist.
I cannot wait to see what this author produces next, definitely one for the favourites list!

The Escape Room is two from two perspectives, the people trapped within the lift and a woman named Sara Hall.

Sara is offered a job at a top financial firm on Wall street, after struggling to find a job. At first, it’s tough, long hours and a less than friendly welcome from her new colleagues. But she finds herself with more money than she’s had in a long time.

She ignores the toxic work environment, ingrained sexism and back stabbing workmates until it’s too late.

Meanwhile the people in the lift are sent more and more cryptic clues. Someone is messing with them. Tempers flare and paranoia sets in.

Wow what a fantastically twisted thriller the escape room was! I will freely admit I have a love of locked door mysteries but this is still one of the best I’ve read so far this year.

From the very beginning we know that something bad has happened within the confines of a lift but the who and the why is where this novel really keeps you hooked.

What I also loved was when I thought this novel was going in one direction, the author threw in a twist I didn’t see coming, keeping me guessing all the way through.

Of course most of the characters aren’t particularly likeable, especially the people trapped in the lift but I found it easier to read someone like that being toyed with than someone I actually liked.

The escape room had plenty of gasp out loud twists and turns that really kept me on my toes while I was reading it.

The Escape Room grabbed me and kept me hooked. It’s not great literature, nor is it a psychological thriller with incredible twists. It’s simply deliciously absorbing and great fun. But don’t read it if you’re claustrophobic! Megan Goldin shines a bright light into the nasty, corrupt underbelly of Stanhope, an investment banking firm which seethes with immorality. Right from induction, Stanhope employees are wooed, so they end up with “blind, cultlike reverence” for the firm. The book is a real indictment of the industry, but often with great humour. Four senior Stanhope people are summoned to a team building exercise, find themselves in a real pressure cooker situation that brings out the very worst in all of them and end up fighting for their lives. We gradually learn their back stories, interspersed with that of Sara Hall, an ex-employee who soon began to see through the dazzle and riches to the putrid corruption underlying it. “They were like capitalist soldiers in their two-thousand-dollar suits, pressed razor-sharp. Impeccably groomed. You’d think they’d never been touched by perspiration, dirt, or excrement. But no one gets to make the kind of money those four did without tarnishing his soul.” This is a story of lust, greed and immorality, about the cut and thrust of power-hungry corporations. But it’s also a story of revenge and justice.

I had the same formatting problem that other reviewers complain of but it’s the same missing letters all the time so some odd quirk in my brain soon fills in the blanks and on the whole quite effeciently so I read on regardless.
I hadn’t read the blurb or rather only the first few lines so the plot was new to me and I did really enjoy the story at first. Sara was maybe a bit too lucky to just meet her future employer in a lift on the way out of a disastrous interview but I let that go and got caught up in the drama. However the plot soon rambled pit of control for me. The story told in two timelines that ultimately met was at first unlikely and then just too unbelievable by far.
Flat predictable characters with poor Sara seeming to be one of the most unpopular girls imaginable and then when she has any kind of relationship disaster and disappointment strike every time
I won’t say don’t read it because it does have something going for it but I’m just not sure what. I read to the end but finished very unconvinced by it all.

I found The Escape Room to be an utterly compulsive book. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to read it in one sitting and every time I couldn't wait to get back to the story when I had to put it down. An original plot, realistic characters, plenty of twists and a fascinating insight in the world of Wall Street - I loved it!
Many thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC.

Thank you netgalley, publishers and megan for this review copy. I absolutely loved this book. I was hooked from the start. The only problem was the format was missing words and text and some parts were hard to read because of missing letters.

I really liked the emotions I felt from the characters in this book. I really ended up Hating the main characters in this book they were horrible people and made me so mad, they were ruthless and literally did not care about anyone or anything other than themselves and money. Lucy and Sara on the other hand were the best characters and they deserved better. But that ending!!!! Wow I loved how it ended. I did feel like it left a lot for the ending and ended quite quickly but overall this was a 4/5 star read for me. Thank you.

I was so excited to get this book to review. Unfortunately I could not finish reading it as the format was terrible with missing letter. What I did read was good, I just couldn’t finishing reading without feeling irritated by the missing letters. I will definitely be buying this book to read after it’s published and the format is correct for kindles.

OMG! A tense thrilling read. Sara has applied for many jobs since graduating and has a nightmare of an interview for what would have been a dream job. On her way out she literally bumps into someone who could change her fortunes. Stanhope and sons pride themselves on being the best of the best. They have the best staff, they pay the best salaries and bonuses and the staff work all hours to earn this. When some of them are called into an urgent meeting this is nothing new. They all have places they should be that evening- one is missing his holiday flight, the work comes first. They discover that the meeting is an escape room scenario so think that in an hour or so having solved the clues they will be free to go. On the elevator ride up it stops. Welcome to the escape room. Alternating chapters give us Sara’s story- of how she got the job and her time at Stanhope and sons. The very first chapter gives us a security guard, Miguel having called 911. He should be the only one in the building but thinks that he has heard gunshots. What transpires is a two fold story. of Sara and of those in the lift. I couldn’t help but keep turning the pages, the tension was brilliantly written and characters that you either like or loathed. Oh what a clever plot- love it! It didn't dawn on me at all… I won't spoil anything. Brilliant!
(amazpn posted- misfits farm)
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“The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.’ - Sun Tzu.

My thanks to Orion Publishing Group/Trapeze for an eARC via NetGalley of Megan Goldin’s tense thriller, ‘The Escape Room’ in exchange for an honest review.

Four Wall Street high-flyers receive instructions from the HR department of their prestigious firm of investment bankers to attend a meeting at what they assume is a satellite office. Although none are thrilled to give up their Friday evening plans, they feel compelled to attend as rumours of lay-offs are rife and they want to ensure their positions.

After they enter the elevator it quickly starts to ascend and then stops. The lights go off and across a small screen a message appears: “WELCOME TO THE ESCAPE ROOM. YOUR GOAL IS SIMPLE. GET OUT ALIVE.”

Oh my! At first I was a little worried that the entire novel was going to be focused on these four rather unlikeable types trying to get out of the elevator. While we do get plenty of short chapters focusing on the unfolding events in the Elevator, the main story is narrated by Sara Hall, a junior member of the same team.

I won’t say more as my feeling is that thrillers like this are best read without too much plot foreknowledge in order to avoid spoilers and maximise the OMG moments.

I found this such a wild, fun read. Yes, some aspects of the plot were a bit bonkers though I just sat back and enjoyed it as a bit of escapism. I pretty much devoured it in a single day totally unable to put it down.

A great book for summer time (and beyond).

I really, really enjoyed The Escape Room by Megan Goldin. It is a fun read (fun is an odd choice of words when four people are trapped in escape room trying to avoid being killed, I know) which trips along at a great pace and kept me guessing.

The premise is simple. Four colleagues who work for Stanhope, an Investment Bank on Wall Street, are called to a meeting late one Friday night. None of them want to be there, they’d all rather be off doing whatever it is they do in their spare time but when the Firm calls, you answer. And so they arrive at the office, enter the elevator and off it goes, until suddenly it stops, and a message appears on the screen. They’re in an escape room and their objective is not only to escape, but to escape with their lives. We soon discover that Vincent, Jules, Sylvie and Sam are not the most likeable of people (that may be the understatement of the Century to be honest) and hours trapped in a small space with one another can only end badly.

Interspersed with these passages are chapters concentrating on Sara Hall, a Graduate who gets a job with Stanhope. It is through her eyes that we see the intoxicating allure of working for a prestigious, affluent bank. A large salary, brand new technology, spa treatments and a beautiful apartment are just some of the perks of the job. But when you work for a business like that they want everything you have to give and they own both you and your soul. These chapters introduce us to Vincent, Jules, Sylvie and Sam, filling in their backgrounds and we gradually get to know them and their duplicitous ways. They are great characters, ones that you really, really love to hate which I always think are the best kind.

I really loved the two timelines and how they contrasted. The dynamics between the four of them is full of power play and aggression and as we get to know them better we come to fully understand the underlying tension in the elevator. The back and forth between the two time periods provides light and shade and I particularly enjoyed reading about Sara. Her awe at her new job and the perks that it brings and then the slow realisation that she needs to up her game if she is running with the big boys is brilliant to read. The dynamics of the team; Sylvie’s use of her beauty to ensure she is the focal point of every room, Jules’ Lothario tendencies, Sam’s encouragement of Sara to further his own career and Vincent’s unknowable character combine to create an office that I wouldn’t want to be anywhere near. Megan Goldin’s representation of office politics and high finance makes for a gleeful read.

But then, there is the dark side with back stabbing and underhand techniques all coming into play. Almost Machiavellian in nature, the plot does take some dark turns down the rabbit hole. I didn’t really see any of the plot coming, which I loved and couldn’t work out where it was going at all. It’s all a bit bonkers to be honest and I mean that in the best possible way. Suspension of belief is needed a little, particularly towards the end, but I was happy to disregard that as I just enjoyed it so much.

It is very clever book. Very enjoyable and a little bit mad, and was just my cup of tea. This would make a brilliant summer read as it is a portal into a completely different world filled with great plotting and characterisation.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Escape Room by Megan Goldin and can hardly believe it's her debut novel. In fact, it's just become my new rave-about book! Seriously this book wowed me from the very beginning with the Sun Tzu, Art of War quotation, which instantly provided me with the idea that this was going to be a tale of cleverly planned revenge. I wasn't wrong.

The story starts with an enticing prologue and chapter one flashes back to a Friday night were Vincent has invited his investment bank colleagues, Jules, Sam and Sylvie, to a compulsory meeting thirty-four hours earlier. Turns out it's a team building activity called The Escape Room Challenge. Only this challenge is nothing like they expect. But with bonus day looming, they'll do anything it takes to keep in their bosses good books. Even stab each other in the back, if needed. Which, I must add, they frequently did. talk about smarmy arse-lickers!!

So they all meet up and ride the lift together, and suddenly the lift stops working. Trapped they think the game's just started, and that it is - just that- a game. They're told the results of which would be used for internal consultations about future staff planning. Not surprising since their team have been performing quite badly lately, which leads them to think the winner of the game might have more of a chance to keep their job and get the biggest bonus of them all. Until the first clue appears on the monitor saying...

'Welcome to the escape room. Your goal is simple. Get out alive'.

And things go from bad to worse.

From this moment we see a 'Saw' (horror film - the first and original) type story evolving, where Vincent, Jules, Sam and Sylvie are literally fighting for their survival, and not just a place at the top of the company with the biggest bonus.

Not only was I riveted to this story line, but I loved how the two plots intertwined. We follow Sara Hall's point of view and her enjoyment of being accepted into the well-paid world of investment banking and eventually breaking into her team's clique. But as the story unfolds, she realises that it's a cutthroat business where only the strongest, manipulative and toxic people appear to thrive. As Sara's day's get darker, we see her rapidly decline as she navigates a horrible and competitive environment that seems to have become her life. And there's no way out, other than death.

My favourite character? Has to be autistic Lucy, who knows much more than she lets on and becomes a great ally to Sara.

Closing thoughts: I can see how Megan's job as a corespondent for Reuters may have just helped when writing this book. I imagine it's not an easy position to fill, especially as a woman in a largely male orientated environment. A theme this book touched on very well.

What an outstanding debut novel! I can't wait to see what Megan Goldwin comes up with next, I want to be first in line when it arrives!

Wow! I am so glad that I don’t read blurbs of books as I don’t think the book would have had the same effect otherwise! I fully suggest you ignore the blurb on this and read ‘The Escape Room’ blind. Don’t worry, my review won’t contain spoilers either!

I really wasn’t sure what to make of this book at first, I’ll be honest. There seemed to be a lot of storyline up in the air, with nothing connecting the individual situations to the overall novel. That said, I was so glad that I kept on reading as oh.my.goodness.me it delivered!! I have never read such a unsettling, uncertain, and chilling read as this one. If you find yourself teetering with uncertainty after the first few chapters, please trust me when I say stick with it! It’s worth it, honestly!!

As I’m sure you can guess by the cover, ‘The Escape Room’ has a large part of the storyline set in a lift. Now usually that sort of thing wouldn’t bother me, that was until I walked into Tesco yesterday to find that someone was in the lift shaft fixing it! I hadn’t long finished reading the book! My legs turned to jelly, I was freaked out!

Many times whilst reading Megan Goldin’s novel, the words ‘what the…..’ fluttered around in my mind. My eyes couldn’t believe what I was reading, and my brain could not understand the lengths which people went to for an extra buck. The whole ‘do you know who you can trust’ vibe is very eye-opening and had me wondering which of the characters I could trust. In all honesty, every single one of them gave me the impression that i couldn’t trust a single word they came out with. It was such a weird predicament to be in as usually there is at least one character you can keep in your corner. Not this time!

I was hooked by ‘The Escape Room’ and its addictive storyline. I have no idea how Megan Goldin managed to weave all of the intricate details of the characters lives together, but she did and I have to say that it was very cleverly done.

For a book which had me perching on the fence to begin with, i can hand on heart say that i bloody enjoyed it! Such a compelling and complex read which continued to surprise me with every new page. I am so excited to read more from Megan Goldin – what a cracking start!

I suffered the same problem with the formatting of this book that several others also seem to have experienced (missing letters). Nevertheless I decided to persist with reading it, as I'd been excited about recieving it.

Unfortunately, I ended up not enjoying it as much as I'd expected. I thought the concept it was based around was really interesting, but something about the writing just didn't 'click' for me. I found that there was a lot of telling rather than showing, and I just didn't feel drawn into the story in the way I should have been.

Thank you for the opportunity to read it, and I'm sorry that I can't say I enjoyed it more. I recognise how much of an effort and commitment goes into writing such an original story, so I'm happy that it seems I'm in the minority and lots of others have really enjoyed it.

Compulsive reading, this is an addictive suspenseful psychological thriller like no other.

The plot is unpredictable with lots of twists and turns along with solid engaging characters.
There is also a sense of dread as the story deals with the deep and dark corners of the human psych.

I very much enjoyed this and would recommend it to anyone!

This ARC was courtesy of netgalley - all thoughts and opinions are mine and unbiased

I loved this because it was so out of my comfort zone - I know nothing of the finance industry other than media and films so I would this very originally written

It feels very modern and current - it was riveting





Thanks a lot Netgalley and the publisher for this copy in exchange for an honest review.

Oh I absolutely loved this one and obsessively devoured it in one nightly session! I recommend going into this one blind (like I did!) as I think you get much more from the twists and turns of the plot if you do! Just be prepared to become completely gripped until the very end!

The Escape Room is a locked room mystery with a bit of a difference as a lot of the “action” takes place in a lift over the space of 36 hours. We know from the first few pages of the book that the outcome is not a good one but we have to go back in time to understand why the four employees are all in the lift and how they handle the pressure of being trapped there. Vincent, Jules, Sam and Sylvie think they have been summoned to the office for a team building meeting but upon entering the lift they immediately become aware of a problem! It does take them a little longer to realise that it’s one that has been planned for them though! In flashbacks we meet another member of the team Sara and it’s through her that we find out the possible reasons for their imprisonment.

The Escape Room really is an escape read! It doesn’t require a huge amount of concentration as it’s a fast moving adrenaline fuelled narrative that keeps you guessing as to what happened in the past to these rather disagreeable characters to have set off this chain of events. There wasn’t a huge amount of character development but we get enough background details to be able to work out very quickly what motivates these people. And it’s probably exactly what you would assume it is!! Although I did enjoy the scenes in the lift as the four captives tried to solve the clues that would lead to their release, the characters in there weren’t the most likeable so there was no real necessity to keep them alive for me! This was opposed to Sara, who’s story was much more intriguing even though as outsiders we could see where things were heading long before she did!

The Escape Room was a brilliantly twisty thriller with a fabulous ending. If you aren’t hooked within the first few pages then please do keep reading because all of a sudden everything falls into place and it becomes an uputdownable addiction that will keep you up until the wee small hours of the morning. Enjoy!

I was sent a copy of this novel with so many letters missing that I've been trying to guess the word and now it's became not fun. I've gotten 7% through and now I'm giving up, my review however doesn't reflect upon the story because I do believe this story would have been good and its the kind of story I enjoy reading.

The Escape Room by Megan Goldin

Sam, Jules and Sylvie have been gathered together by their Team leader Vincent for a late night meeting at Stanhope, one of the most high profile and elite merchant banks in New York City. Even Vincent doesn’t know what it’s about as they get into the lift. But the lift stops dead and the lights go off. A TV Monitor tells them that they have entered an Escape Room. They have an hour to solve some clues in order to escape. If not, they will be dead. Some of the four have taken part in Escape Rooms before. They’re well-known team building exercises. They just have to work together. But for these four, who do not get along and are each hugely ambitious, competitive and ruthless, this will not be easy. Each of them has somewhere else they want to be. And conditions in the lift are cramped, dark and hot. And then they answer one of the first clues – the answer is Sara Hall, a colleague ‘now gone but not forgotten’. This changes everything. They soon realise that they are fighting for their lives.

The premise of The Escape Room is so fantastic and appealing that I read it as soon as I could and devoured it in just one day. I wanted a fun, escapist thriller to read over the holiday weekend and I made the perfect choice with this. It is so exciting! And the four in the lift are just so despicable. Instead of rooting for them to survive, you can’t help wishing they would get their just desserts. We learn more and more about them as the novel goes on and what we learn is not pretty. And it’s made all the more fascinating because some of these characters, such as Sam, would say that he is one of the good guys and believe it.

Chapters depicting what takes place in the lift alternate with those which tell the story of Sara Hall, a young woman who excelled academically but has fallen on difficult times, desperate to make that break. She receives it, unexpectedly and wonderfully, from Stanhope and now she has a glorious future ahead. The chapters describing company life at Stanhope are brilliant. This is another world entirely. It’s intoxicating. It’s cliquey. It’s mesmerising.

I love thrillers that take place within a confined space and you can’t get a space much more confined than a lift. This is the stuff of nightmares and the panic, tension and misery of it are captured perfectly. This side of the novel is utterly gripping but so too is the story of Sara Hall. I just could not put this book down. There are slightly preposterous elements of it, I think that the ending is slightly rushed (but otherwise satisfying), but on the whole I think that The Escape Room is a huge success and I couldn’t gobble it up quickly enough. Without doubt this is one of my top reads of the year so far.