EXIT: The Book - The Fairground of Fear: A Puzzle Novel

by Anna Maybach, Inka Brand, Markus Brand

192 pages, Paperback

Published November 19, 2024

Reviews

[Kimmy · Rating 2 out of 5]

As an Exit game it's fine and fairly typical of Exit which I liked. As a book/novel... not good.

Lets talk about Exit as a book. I've played many (almost all) the Exit games with my family so I'm familiar with how they work. That being said, the instructions and layout of this was iffy. Unlike the games, there are no clear stop signs telling you not to turn the page until you solve the puzzle. Somewhat confusing, but I guess there's common sense to help us assume that the big bold font means to stop. The beginning also did not state that I was allowed to and supposed to look at the codex in the back to use for solving the puzzles. So I feel like these things could've been related more clearly to the reader.

The puzzles themselves were much like every Exit game... some good and fun with the right amount of difficulty. Others that just had stupid concepts and pissed me off. Which is subjective I suppose, but it is what it is. Also I do wish there was less cutting. I'm fine with it I the games but in a book it was just a pain. It's not even about reread ability, it was just simply difficult and annoying.

Ok now about the plot and characters. This was so not even lukewarm. Which is fine I guess because its primary function is to be Exit but... to put this into a novel format is to set my expectations high. I wanted to read an immersive novel where I also had to solve puzzles myself once in a while. Unfortunately this was just your average Exit flavor text switched from 2nd person POV to 1st Person with some beefed up dialogue and descriptions. The ending and climax is massively underwhelming, there are no explanations for anything really, nothing is satisfying. Characters have 0 depth or arcs or even distinguishable traits. Theres nothing particularly grabbing about the writing style: it's not scary or atmospheric or funny. It just is. Like I said, you read this for the puzzles and that's perfectly fine, but this could've been so much better.

All that said... I'd still eagerly read another one. I do love the Exit franchise.

[ry · Rating 4 out of 5]

this was so fun!! i have never done something like this before but it was worth it in my opinion

[Graham · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've long loved playing the EXIT escape room games at home, having gone through almost all of them published to date and enjoyed the majority. In 2025, the company decided to expand their range by releasing some similarly-styled EXIT gamebooks, which play a little like the old Choose Your Own Adventure titles albeit with supplementary clue material at the rear. THE FAIRGROUND OF FEAR is the first of these I've played.

Alas, it was not a successful experience, either as a story or as a puzzle book. The riddles tend towards the confusing, with only a third I was able to complete successfully without aid, and the rules on what you're allowed and not allowed to use are almost non-existent. I wouldn't mind this aspect so much if the story was better, but unfortunately this is the book's biggest fault: the narrative is so poor here that it appears to have been written by AI, or perhaps something was just massively lost in translation from the German. It's tedious, repetitive, totally uninvolving, and a struggle to get through. I only persevered due to my love for the brand.

[Kay · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the puzzle parts, but I felt like the plot between the puzzle parts wasn't very compelling and there were too many interchangeable named teens to keep track of for me. But I still enjoyed reading it.

[Christina Bush · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun! I love that the puzzles were a mix of easy and hard to figure out. Excited to see if I can beat my score with another Exit book