Review: The Escape Game by Marissa Meyer & Tamara Moss

The Escape Game 

by Marissa Meyer & Tamara Moss

Release Date: April 7, 2026

2026 G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers

Ebook ARC; 416 Pages

ISBN: 978-8217006120

ASIN: B0FCSQHF88

Audiobook: B0FD4BNMQX

Genre: Fiction / YA / Mystery

Source: Review copy from publisher

 

4 / 5 Stars

 

Summary

Six months ago, season four of The Escape Game ended in horror when contestant Alicia Angelos was found murdered on set.

Now season five is underway, and new contestants are ready to put their skills to the test solving the show's trickiest escape rooms. There's Adi, the cryptographer; Carter, the math whiz; Beck, the wannabe game master, and . . . Sierra Angelos, the girl who got away with her sister’s murder. Or so everyone believes.

But Sierra’s not just here to win. She’s here for justice.

When the contestants begin uncovering clues that hint at the identity of Alicia’s true killer, it becomes clear that the stakes aren’t high in this competition, they’re deadly. If these teens want to win—and survive—the game, they must solve the biggest mystery of who killed Alicia Angelos?

 

My Thoughts

The Escape Game was actually a lot of fun to read and I enjoyed the twists and turns quite a bit even if some of them were on the predictable side.  I liked the competition format of the story and I definitely enjoyed the escape rooms and how they were solved as that is something that I really enjoy.  I mean, puzzles are my thing.  While the character development was mostly one-dimensional, I still had a good time with the plot and enjoyed the overall story.

 

The plot mainly followed four contestants, Sierra, Adi, Carter, and Beck, who were one of five teams competing for the cash prize on the show.  All of them were there for very different reasons, but I enjoyed seeing them come together and become friends as the story progressed, as they learned to trust each other and rely on their strength and weaknesses to see them through difficulties.  While I did think the character development was the weakest part of the book, it didn't really affect the overall story as I still felt empathy for each of the characters for very different reasons and wanted them to succeed.  I also felt like each of them had a very distinct voice, a distinct personality, and the author used that to good effect.   

 

I thought the plot moved along rather quickly with a lot of twists and turns; even if a lot of the twists were fairly predictable, it didn't take away from the fun of the story or from reading about it because I enjoyed the dialogue and banter between the characters as things were happening.  Some of these characters did have some serious trauma going on with them and I would have liked to have seen a bit more exploration with regards to that as I thought it was fairly shallow and not explored at all within the context of the story.  However, I will acknowledge that the contestants didn't really know each other at first, so it would be difficult to unload stuff onto people you barely know so as the story progressed I did see a bit more exploration into some of the themes, but only at surface level.  I did figure out one of the twists at the end; I also thought the characters' comments about what was going at the end were hilarious. I liked that aspect as I liked the exploration of incredulity when you learn the lengths to which someone will go to for something so silly. If that sounds obscure, well, I can't give away the ending, now can I?

 

Verdict 

The Escape Game was pure fun and it was exactly what I needed at this time as I am reading some hard-hitting non-fiction books.  I enjoyed the plot, loved the escape rooms, thought the characters were endearing if one-dimensional, and was happy to see that one line at the end of the book that says this book is not the end.