Puzzle House follows a group of people as they show up at a will reading and instead find themselves in an escape room situation is order to win $150 million. Things start taking really dark turns when the different rooms start becoming deadly.

Honestly, this book was just kinda boring. Unfortunately it did not work for me at all. I really liked the concept and the beginning, but it started taking some weird and bizarre turns that did not work for me. It was also only 200 something pages but it took me soooo long to finish. I found a lot of the characters annoying and unlikeable.

I really hate when i dislike a book but this is one of those that I didn’t like. I have seen a lot of good reviews on this one so take my review with a grain of salt. The concept of this book was fun it just did not work for me.

Thanks so much to netgalley and wicked house for the arc of this book in exchange for an honest review!

4 stars - loved it
Six strangers and a chance to win 150M dollars, all they have to so is solve some puzzles. Sounds good right? well it was. Very entertaining and fast paced, with some twists I did not see coming. This is very mild in comparison to Ralstons, other book, WOOM. If you like the SAW movie franchise you will likely enjoy Puzzle House a lot, its got very similar vibes but with some unique twists and turns. I also thought the ending was really cool, and dare I say a possible set up for a book # 2?! I hope so, I would love to see where this story could continue to.

Thanks to Netgalley, Wicked House Publishing, and Duncan Ralston for sharing a digital copy for me to read and review. As always, opinions are my own 🤘🏻💀🤘🏻

Such an uninspired ending, granted I struggled to even get that far. The characters weren’t interesting and the premise just didn’t do it for me. The forced “connection” between Henry and Joy, Henry’s random knowledge that kicks in at certain points to save them, wasn’t believable. I eventually scanned through just to finish.

3.5⭐

It's good actually. I love every puzzle needs sacrifice, then wondering about what happen to the next scene. The book too, the references, I adore em. Entertaining. I could ended this story for two days in a row, because it's so good.

The red line across them all, increase my curiosity to the next level. I would recommend this book to my pal. Thanks for this great opportunity, NetGalley. I enjoyed it so much.

An entertaining blend of pop culture, cinematic action and the supernatural. It’s not art but it’s great fun.

The meme that says 'They had us in the first half, I'm not gonna lie,' made from the viral video where the football player gave an interview and said that line, sums up this book perfectly for me.

A large part of it was my neglect at exploring more, going further, as well as simply ‘believing’ what Duncan had shared. Duncan and I message fairly regularly, and at one point he’d shared the synopsis and cover for this book. By all indications, I was under the assumption this was a singular release and it was a straightforward novel about a group of strangers in a ‘Saw’-type house, where they had to solve their way to survival.

For the most part, that is true, until about the half way point, when we learn way more about the ‘truth’ to who is behind the mystery within and we get a lot of occult/ancient deity involvement. And that, honestly, is where my reading brain started to hold back from the book.

What I liked: I should state first, though – thanks to Wicked House Publishing, Netgalley and the author for sending me a digital ARC of this one.

The novel begins just as I mentioned – we get some back story on an inmate and the world’s biggest female movie star, Joy, who are summoned to Joy’s ex-husbands home. Alexei has died and he’s decided to leave his staggering fortune to those who come. A group of six strangers, but with only Joy who knew Alexei before. Alexei made his fortune through creating complex puzzles and in order to receive their share of his fortune, they must solve the puzzles. Of course, this being a horror novel, we learn that they’ll need to not only solve the puzzles but that they’ll have to actually survive the puzzles as well.

Duncan does a solid job of setting up this premise, but also having us root for the two main characters, Joy and our prisoner. They play well off each other and as the book moves along, it was great to see them have a solid, platonic relationship without any hint of romance or potentially hooking up.

I really enjoyed each new puzzle room – up to a point, which I’ll discuss in a moment – and how they worked collaboratively together to solve it, even as each one becomes more extreme and more squirm inducing.

The first half of this novel had me hooked, but then it went in a very different direction, one I wished was a completely different book.

What I didn’t like: Briefly, before I get into the bread and butter of some stuff, I did find the extra characters, just that – extra characters. No connection, one dimensional and there simply to die in each room. But, the truth is, in a book like that, you need those characters. So, I didn’t mind that they weren’t as well defined or fleshed out.

I think for me, and minor spoilers here – so enter at your own risk – is I went in completely invested in a singular novel about people struggling to solve life-or-death escape rooms, and this was so much more. That so much more is a solid thing, a good thing in most cases (looking at you Ghostland trilogy), but I wasn’t invested in that when I started. I found the Book of Magic to feel out of place and the Infiniti Enterprises aspect should’ve been featured in a completely different book.

I went along for the ride, wanting to see who would survive and what would be left of them, but I was a bit frustrated when it went very ‘raising the dead’ and ‘the world you left isn’t the world you’ll return to.’ I was also expecting a solid, THE END, not a jarring finish with the dawning understanding that there would be another book.

Why you should buy this: Now, it may sound like I didn’t like this book, but honestly, I did. I liked each avenue separately, and I am invested now, wanting to see what tricks Alexei and Trent have in store for our survivor and what this strange new world has become. Saying that, I still do lament the fact that I didn’t get a straightforward Puzzle House story.

So, I’m splitting the difference. The first half, for me was a solid 5/5. The latter half a good 3/5.

Overall, this one was a 4/5 and a reminder that I shouldn’t always go in blind to books, as this reading brain will sometimes get far too stuck in its ways to loosen up and go with the flow!

I received the Puzzle House from NetGalley. This was my first Duncan Ralston novel and I will be reading more

. I enjoyed the puzzles and how each one seemed to be curated to one of the people involved. The novel was not overly graphic which from what I have heard about the author previously was a little surprising but really worked in the novels favor. By not being overly graphic the novel kept the point on the plot and what the characters need to do in order to solve the puzzles and hopefully win the game. The novel gave me escape room meets Saw vibes. It was fun, horrifying, and mysterious. I do wish there was a little more explanation to Infiniti and exactly how much of a hold they have on each individual.

Sadly I wasn't a fan of this book. The author is certainly not known for subtlety when it comes to graphic horror so I was very surprised to find the 'Puzzle House' kind of bland. It was fine for a quick read but for me it was rather disappointing and not very memorable. Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book, and sorry I can't be more positive in my comments this time around.

This book seemed like a mash up of several horror movies and it wasn't done terribly well. It reminded me a little of Cube mixed with the classic locked room mystery. Except the puzzles became more murderous (and sometimes bizarre) as the story goes on. The whole thing felt wholly implausible. I was looking for somewhat of a psychological thriller with creative puzzles and instead I got C-grade horror movie blood spatters. I was angry and disappointed at the end.


**spoiler alert** THE END IS STUPID

I guess thanks to Wicked House publishing and Netgalley for this ARC. This is my honest review.

Wow. I was sucked in right from the beginning. This would have been a 4 star but I didn’t like the ending.

Duncan Ralston has a wild imagination! When the book first started, it reminded me of The Westing Game with a group of seemingly unrelated people coming together to figure out a puzzle after the death of a rich guy. Puzzle House is far more dangerous, however! The characters were interesting and I enjoyed learning their secrets and connections as the book progressed. I couldn't wait to see what terrible thing was waiting for them through the next door. I was invested in the story from early on all the way through to the end. Great read!

I enjoyed this so much, I read it in one sitting! The new world that was started during the last chapter was phenomenal and totally scary! I need to know what happens next. Does Henry get to see his wife again? Does he get his money?

Puzzle House is a fun horror novel.
Six strangers are invited to the reading of an eccentric billionaire's will. Only one of them actually knew the man-Joy Reese, his ex-wife. It quickly becomes obvious that this billionaire doesn't intend to just hand over his fortune. He intends to make them earn it, through proving their wits through a series of puzzles.
This book is entertaining and fast-paced. There are lots of twists in the plot, not just in the types of puzzles they're forced to solve, but also in the reveals of each of the characters' dark secrets. The puzzles were clever, and the consequences of failing to solve them in time were quite severe.

I’ve read a few other books by this author and I couldn’t really get into them but this one I was completely drew in from the very beginning. I highly recommend this book to anyone that loves a good Horror book!

Thank you Netgalley, Duncan Ralston, and Wicked House Publishing for allowing me to read this ARC due to be published September 15th 2023.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC.

i was really excited to read this book and found the premise really intriguing and right up my alley. Sadly, it fell flat on the execution.
The writing felt really amateur, and the pacing was too fast, so you never got to really get to know any of the characters. The different POV's didnt help with that either. Yet it lingered and gave so many unnecessary information that didn't further the plot (f. ex. how often Oscar poops each day.. like why?)
The puzzles were underwhelming and the motivations behind each sacrifice made little sense, like doing an organ removal on an alive person instead of using one of the 4 dead bodies.
The motives behind the puzzle master made just as little sense as the so-called cult that was introduced.
All in all, good idea, just needed a lot more work

This one was a lot of fun.

Know that it gets very gruesome, and some of our characters are kind of ick, but it’s horrifying in all the best ways.

Now, the reason behind everything was unusual – I’m not sure I 100% love the why of everything, but I did love how it all played out.

The ending isn’t quite as concrete as I prefer, but it leave thins open for more and I’m really hoping the author continues to expand this world.

Definitely enjoyed this!

• ARC via Publisher

Saw meets National Treasure in this thrilling new escape room novel.

Six strangers are summoned inside a deceased millionaire's mansion to get the inheritance of this famous puzzle maker. However none of them are ready for all the puzzles they will have to solve to be the last one standing and get the money.

The six strangers are introduced at the beginning of the book so that we get the chance to get to know them a little better before they are thrown into the deadly games. This allows the reader to get a grasp on who they are and get attached to them.

From the beginning I found the story and characters very engaging and as soon as the puzzle rooms started I was hooked. It was such a fun and fast paced read that will be a great choice for people that, like me, love stories about escape rooms and deadly traps.

Even though the rooms were not like these super high tech complicated escape rooms, I truly enjoyed that they were more realistic and the story was much darker than expected.

Honestly I had a really fun time reading this and it even made me care for a specific character and we all know that not all of them were going to make it out alive. This was a short but intense story that also has a human side and shows how we can react when put in a life or death situation. We all know the best and the worst of us comes out.

If you like the Escape Room or Saw movies, this is the book for you. It has all of the elements that make those movies so interesting -- puzzles, tough decisions, and ultimately brutal deaths. I found this one a lot of fun, and it felt familiar without feeling like a copy. There are some unique choices that make this story shine.

Thank you, NetGalley, the publisher and author.
What a story and intrigue. It was like watching an action-packed movie with gore.
The chapters were long but the adventures in every chapter were mind-blowing.
It kept me interested and I was rooting for the underdog.

What a fun thrill ride. I felt like I got on a roller coaster and enjoyed the ride. This is a cinematic story expertly told. The characters are so real and fully fleshed. I can’t recommend this book enough. I don’t think there was a misstep in this book. Every scene propels the story forward. I read a NetGalley version of this and beg you to go right now and buy, preorder and jump into this book.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

This book was very bland. The parts that tried to be cool and interesting fell really flat for me. The ending, for instance, didn’t fit very well with the rest of the story. Everything just seemed very thrown together. It was an okay read.

Six strangers arrive at the home of puzzle master Alexei Vasiliev for the reading of his will. The potential beneficiaries will split his fortune if they participate in his last great work. The choice is leave the house with nothing or continue in the hope of solving the six interconnecting escape rooms within this house. Once there, the participants soon discover Puzzle House is far deadlier than it appears with their lives on the line, they are forced to wonder, is it all just a deadly game created by a gleeful sadist, or something far more sinister?

This was a high stakes escape room with creative puzzles alongside the horror and Gore what more could you want ! Really enjoyed this and just flew through it. I did not see that ending coming and hope that Duncan Ralston has plans to continue this story !

Thank you to Netgalley, Wicked House Publishing and Duncan Ralston for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.