⭐️Arc Book Review⭐️
📚Puzzle House - Duncan Ralston
⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 5

Puzzle house follows 6 people as they try to solve puzzles in order to escape a house. These people were brought to this escape house to get money that they have be willed by the rich puzzle master Alexei Vasiliev. If they can solve the puzzles, they will receive millions.

This book was...interesting. It was the perfect book to read during spooky month. The puzzles were a cool twist that I haven't seen done in a book before. While reading this book, all I could think of were the saw movies. If you read this book & have seen the saw movies, you'll know exactly what I mean.

Overall, it was a quick and easy read. Not going to lie though, the ending was super weird & I just think it could have been done differently. It kind of ruined the book for me.

Thank you @netgalley and @wicked_house_publishing for sending me this book. This is 100% my honest opinion.

📕 Puzzle house- Duncan Ralston- ⭐️ 4
available on KU and NetGally

A puzzle maker dies. His estate will be left to one lucky person. But only if they can solve his puzzles. 6 strangers will try but only one will win. Along the way they will figure out why they have been invited by the stranger.

If you enjoy movies like Saw, Cube, and/or love puzzle rooms check this book out!

Puzzle House follows six strangers who arrive at the home of a renounced Puzzle Master for the reading of his will, only to discover that they are now apart of a puzzle themselves. The prize? Their life.

I went into this book with the hopes that it’ll be like the horror movies that surround escape rooms. The book wasn’t exactly what I was hoping for but I still got all the great horror elements that make it a fantastic read.

This was a fast-paced and entertaining read. There were so many twists and turns that left me hanging onto the next page. The puzzles in the house were not the only ones that the characters needed to solve as their pasts and secrets were entwined with the house too. I loved that the atmosphere of the book made me feel as if I were one of the people in the house.

This is a great book to pick up if you want to get out of a slump or if you want to try to get more into the genre.

Thank you to NetGalley and Wicked House Publishing for providing me with this ARC. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

𝚁𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐: 3⭐️
𝙶𝚎𝚗𝚛𝚎: Horror/thriller📚

𝙼𝚢 𝚃𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚐𝚑𝚝𝚜:
I am a huge Saw fan so I was really looking forward to this one but it felt a little flat for me

𝚁𝚎𝚊𝚍 𝚒𝚏 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎:
Escape rooms
Saw vibes
Suspenseful reads that will keep you on your toes
Fast paced reads
Lots of twits
Dark secrets

𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜 𝙸 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎𝚍:
Quick and entertaining read

𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜 𝙸 𝚍𝚒𝚍𝚗’𝚝 𝚌𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚏𝚘𝚛:
I didnt love the turn the book took
The ending felt rushed

It starts as a challenge for 6 strangers to work together to split 150M dollars cash if they can make it through a dead billionaire's mansion turned escape room. Throw in some real ancient artifacts, some even older gods, and cameras watching every move and it ends up as something far more sinister than a mere fight for survival.
This story is richly character driven, and boy are there some characters! Some that you hope will make it to the end, even more that you want to reach into the pages and hasten their gory demise.
Don't even pretend that you know how this one will end. Besides, something tells me the end is just the beginning!

Who is Alexei Vasiliev, why did he name these specific people in his will, and what exactly is going on in Puzzle House?

This is definitely a good "spooky season" read, as the beginning reminds me of "Fermat's Room," and then it eventually dives into the "Saw" franchise as the story progresses, with the puzzles getting more and more tailored to the people involved as well as more horrifying. It does get a little... odd after a while, but nothing that put me off finishing the story at all, and the pace keeps ramping up with each room the characters enter, increasing the reader's adrenaline right along with theirs.

Someone's clearly been studying these people, preparing for this "game," but who? And why? Who will survive these puzzles to receive their "inheritance"--or is that even really an option?

You'll have to read it to find out. =)

4 stars

**I received an ARC copy from NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving this review. All thoughts and comments contained within are my own.**

I was hoping for a book that would be like Knives out of Inheritance games, but with some creepy things added in. I got that! And a lot more, and not is a great way. In this cross between Glass Onion and Jigsaw, the players must survive to inherit millions. But everything is working against them and surviving is going to be a lot harder than they thought. There are some extra aspects that seemed really ridiculous and unnecessary. And I wish we had gotten to know the characters better so that their deaths were more impactful. Overall, I think the author tried to do too much in not enough pages and it wasn't very well flushed out. Except the puzzles. Those were excellent and creepy. They just weren't strung together very well.

"Puzzle House" is extrermely different from other books that I read by Duncan Ralson. It starts out with the feel of a thriller but the horror comes.
Six stragners compete to beat a series of escapre rooms to split an inheritance. Each room is designed in great detail.
Puzzle House has good pacing and builds tension. It is a real page turner.

Six strangers are invited to secure their part of a $150 million inheritance from puzzle master Alexei Vasiliev. They include a former cop turned prisoner (and his jail guard), a movie star who is Alexei's soon-to-be ex-wife, a virologist with a death sentence, a professor with a wealth of knowledge on old religions, the dean of a college, and a shady politician (a bit redundant, isn't it?!). The beneficiaries need to get through the puzzles Alexei has left to win the money. But these are no ordinary puzzles, and some won't live to collect their part.

Wow, this was fun! I have yet to be disappointed by Duncan Ralston (two years later and I still am freaked out by WOOM...) and I don't think you will be either. Grab this one now!

📕Squid Game for six people instead of 400+ with money as a hook still but also sprinkled with a dash of ancient Egyptian gods and goddesses!
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📗Six people called in for a will reading of a dead puzzle master. Only one knew him: his ex-wife. $150 million sounded so nice, but why were the other random 5 called in for this reading? When they stepped into the house from the invitation, they realized this wasn’t a reading but an escape room
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📘I loved having ancient scripts and rituals weaved into the story, but what the heck happened at the end?! How in few hours world changed? If it wasn’t for last 20 pages, I was gonna be totally content with what I read. But again what the hell?!

Have you read the viral extreme horror novella, Woom?

Did you enjoy it?

While some readers are offended by the graphic nature of the book, I found the author’s skillful writing and insightful knowledge into the human psyche gripping. Duncan Ralston is an author on my radar.

Puzzle House is the latest novella from Ralston, the plot revolving around an escape room gone wrong. Six strangers arrive at a deceased puzzle master’s house for the reading of his will. The beneficiaries are promised to split $150M if they participate in the last puzzle he created. They can leave with nothing or choose to solve six interconnected escape rooms within the house. However, all is not what it seems when the puzzles turn deadly. Who will make it out alive?

Duncan Ralston has done it again! This riveting novella had me gripped from the first page! I can easily see it being made into a movie fit for a big screen adventure. The clever plot does venture into the horror genre, but definitely not as graphic as Woom. My only issue is that it ends too abruptly, but hopefully Ralston is writing a sequel! 🙏

It is available as a Read Now on NetGalley, so grab it soon!
Out now!

4.5/5 stars rounded down

Thank you to NetGalley and Wicked House publishing for the ARC of Puzzle House: A Novel in exchange for an honest review.

“Puzzle House” was similar to an Escape Room genre and was one I enjoyed! Author XX, jumps right in from the first page, moves at a decent pace, and the connection to the characters was immediate, making one even more invested in the story.

A few things I think would have moved this from a 4 star to a 5 star? I wish there was more back story to the puzzles with connection to the individuals and to the varying Gods. I also wanted to know more about Infinity and their drive & craziness. I really did enjoy “Puzzle House”, however, I was disappointed in the ending as it left one asking more questions than less, and felt unfinished. Even so, would be excited to read a book #2 if one was in the works! I will be checking out additional D. Ralston titles.

Thank you to both NetGalley and Wicked House Publishing for providing me the opportunity to review "Puzzle House” prior to publication . I am appreciative and leave my review voluntarily.

Puzzle House by Duncan Ralston...This book is a must read for horror/thriller/mystery readers! Six strangers inherit a fortune and have to go to the home of the deceased to claim their inheritance. But there's a catch...and the whole experience will be life changing for them all. I couldn't put this book down...read it in one sitting, straight through the night. I just had to find out how it would end. Highly recommend it!

3.5 stars ⭐️

I read “Puzzle House” over the course of three days- it was fairly short and I couldn’t wait to see what happened next. If “Saw” and “The Cabin in the Woods” had a baby, it would be “Puzzle House”.

The puzzles were very creative and I was trying to solve them alongside the characters. Some of the descriptions of the puzzle rooms were a bit confusing, and I had trouble picturing it in my head. There were also a few bits of dialog where a lot of characters were having a conversation, and sometimes it wasn’t explicit who said what. This took me out of my reading “rhythm”, as I had to back track a bit and try to piece the conversation together.

I wish the author had included a bit more about the motive behind the puzzles. It is kind of glossed over and generalized, but I would’ve preferred more details, and how all the characters were wrapped up in it. The last 20-15% of the book also felt a bit rushed.

There is a bit of gore, but nothing that made me squeamish. If you can make it through the “Saw” movies, gore-wise this novel will be a piece of cake.

Overall, it was an enjoyable, short read that was perfect for the start of the spooky season 👻🎃

Thanks to Netgalley and Wicked House Publishing for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I read this one in a single day because it was so fun, and I just didn't want to put it down until I knew the ending. A perfect book for people who love mysteries, puzzles (obviously), and a well crafter series of plot twists and turns, I instantly purchased a copy of this one for my husband.

Puzzle House tells the story of six strangers who are summoned to the home of the puzzle master, Alexei Vasiliev for the reading of his Will. They are told that they will split his fortune, as long as they can work together to escape the Puzzle House.

As someone who LOVES escape rooms and this genre of book, I was super excited to read this one and it didn't disappoint. I was drawn in right from the start and got totally sucked into the story, the characters and the puzzles.

This was a quick and easy read, although a little gory at times. The last quarter of the book got pretty weird and I'd have preferred it to have continued in the same vein as the rest of the book, but otherwise I really enjoyed this.

My thanks to NetGalley and the Publishers for sending me this ARC in return for an honest review.

I requested this book based on a review that I saw on Instagram. Thank you to NetGalley and Wicked House for providing me with the digital ARC.

I finished this book in one sitting! It was a fun, exciting spin on the escape room genre. I feel like there were parts of the story that reminded me of the movie Escape Room that came out in 2019. I will say, however, that Ralston provided his own twist to the story that added another layer of depth.

The one thing I didn't like was that there wasn't a whole lot of time to get to know the characters before things started to kick off. It's only a short novel, less than a 170 pages. I would have appreciated having some more connection and investment into who these characters were before they entered the house. The novel moves really quickly and I felt like some of the choices that the characters made didn't make sense. Maybe that would have changed if there had been more time spent developing them.

That being said, I thoroughly enjoyed this. I couldn't put it down and needed to figure out the reasoning and motivations behind the creation of the house. The ending was a surprise for me and I had made some predictions that ended up being completely wrong. I enjoy a book that leaves me guessing!

This book is perfect for someone who enjoys puzzles/escape rooms and wants a quick, fun read! There wasn't a whole lot of gore, so if that is your concern, it's easy to skip over those parts!

Thank you to NetGalley and Wicked House Publishing as well as the author for this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.
#NetGalley #WickedHousePublishing #PuzzleHouse #DuncanRalston
Author:Duncan Ralston
Publisher: Wicked House Publishing
Publication Date: September 25, 2023
Themes/Trigger Warnings: strong female characters, cultish, evil humans, supernatural,graphic violence, some gore, domestic abuse, child murder discussed
Duncan Ralston is amazing. I want that on record. This book is another delightfully fun offering, although his Ghostland is still my favorite. This one is about a wealthy man who invites six apparent strangers to participate in a puzzle in order to be his successor. What follows is basically Saw meets Hell House. Eccentric guy has something to prove so he put some people through the ringer.
This is a little different from the author’s usual content. If you’ve read “Woom”, you’ll know he enjoys extreme horror and shock. I also enjoy those things. I enjoyed this book also. I felt the character development in this one was better. The characters were better established and either likable, or unlikable, respectively. I liked Henry a lot. His character drew a lot of empathy and I enjoyed unraveling the layers that made him up. The puzzles were also fun. Delightfully evil and some fun gore.
Could this book be part of a series? I really hope so. While the end had some really fun components, it seemed to end abruptly without answering some questions. I hope it’s a cliffhanger, because then I would call it a successful end. If this is the true end, I find it unsatisfactory.

A lot of fun and a lively adventure. I think the gore might be too much for my younger crowd but adults may enjoy the twists and turns. The book moved swiftly and it is easy to read in one sitting. I didn't feel any emotional connection to the characters which I missed. I wish I could feel real emotion when they got into trouble.

Puzzle House by Duncan Ralston
4.5 stars

Six individuals find themselves in a house of escape rooms determined to outsmart Alexei Vasiliev, the worlds foremost puzzle master and creator of the puzzle house, and split the 150 million fortune up for grabs. They quickly discover that the stakes may be higher than they thought when one less guest makes it past the entrance room but it is too late to turn back.

This book took me for a loop! I'm surprised to say I only caught on to one of the big plot twists in this story, and the rest caught me off guard. Anyone who has an interest in dark puzzle or escape room horrors will need to read this book. Each room at first seems catered to individuals in the group and they are all very interesting designs with a ton of puzzles and interesting clues and traps. The individuals each give a unique look to the story and to the puzzle solving like all the deep lore of history from Rudy the University Professor specializing in all sorts of ancient history. Or Joy who has insights into her ex-husband Alexei's personality and how he may have crafted his puzzles.

The relationships between the characters was very heartwarming at times and I could really feel myself connecting and cheering for some of them. Overall the book was short but fast paced and packed with a ton of action especially at the end when things just get crazy really fast. I felt like the last few pages went by TOO fast and because of a cliffhanger I was left feeling I needed more. There better be a part two! Keep an eye out for this author because I know I will be patiently waiting for a sequel.

********SPOILERS TO FOLLOW*********

The big separation that happens half way through the book that starts to move things from a normal horror to more of a supernatural or magical horror may be the divide between readers. I know this sort of thing can put people off if they simply want gore, horror, and scares. However the second that book was compared to the necronomicon I was hooked. The idea that the deaths in the puzzle rooms aren't just for some dead madman's entertainment and could be ritualistic sacrifices for something way bigger and spookier is a plot that really makes this book shine.