Escape Room is a thriller about four teenagers, Alissa, Sky, Miles and Mint, who go into what they think will be a fun night solving puzzles in a commercial escape-room. What begins as a game quickly turns terrifying when the “Game Master” reveals sinister intentions: the room becomes a trap, and what was supposed to be a playful challenge becomes a fight for survival.
I picked up this book expecting mild chills and I got more than I bargained for. Stoffels ramps up tension from the first page: the claustrophobic setting, the gradually revealed secrets of each character, and the shifting alliances make the stakes feel personal. As a reader, I felt the fear and desperation creeping in: the escape-room puzzles that once seemed fun now feel like cruel tests, and the teen’s panic and confusion hit close to home. The shifting perspectives among the four main characters help to layer the story with emotional complexity, jealousy, regret, guilt, loyalty all bubble under the surface. I found myself caring about them, wanting them to find a way out, to survive both the physical danger and the emotional fallout.
At the same time, the book isn’t perfect. Some of the thriller’s mechanics and certain plot turns felt a bit predictable. The “escape room as horror trap” premise has been used before, and a few of the characters’ reactions sometimes rang more like teenage-drama tropes than realistic fear. Also, once the deception is revealed, the “puzzles” take a back seat, the horror becomes more about tension and psychological terror than clever clues or riddles, which might disappoint readers hoping for a puzzle-heavy thriller.
Rating: 3 / 5 — I’m giving Escape Room three stars. It’s a gripping, emotionally charged and fast-paced thriller that works especially well if you enjoy YA horror or psychological suspense. It may not reinvent the “trapped in a room” trope but it delivers enough fear, tension, and heart to keep you reading late into the night.