Reviews

It started off so well… I liked the introduction to the characters and the writing style. But as soon as we got into the puzzle house, everything became long descriptions of every action that is taken by each character to solve a puzzle without giving the reader the possibility to have a guess at solving the puzzle. This is often an issue with escape room types of books where the idea and the puzzles could even be interesting but when a book is written from a first person perspective then the reader can’t know more than the character at any given time. This makes it impossible to try to figure out the riddle or puzzle and if that’s the case then what is the point of reading an escape room book? It ends up being one character giving you the countdown, one telling you here is a keyhole and here is the door and here is a box and then we get a long winded answer as to why the answer is some Babylonian god and the box opens, one character gets the key and open the door. And do it again about 6 times. Because of the structure of this book and its own premise, it backed itself into a corner not allowing for neither the joy of solving a puzzle nor the tension of someone potentially dying or not making it out alive because each puzzle is meant to be for one person to be left behind… It is painfully clear who will be next and therefore I can’t care for their lives especially as I didn’t have time to get to know properly any of the characters.

Another thing that is often the issue with this type of horror “games” is that the author can’t stick the landing. It seems like there was no endgame or direction and things are just cut off abruptly leaving you to wonder what was the point of what I just read. It’s not even about it always needed a bigger picture or a big plot against humanity but at least some type of ending whether it’s an open ending or a closed one would be appreciated. This one made me feel as if the author got kinda bored or tired and send out to publishing the draft without writing the last two chapters.

Overall, the writing style itself isn’t bad and I quite liked the characters, but the plot, storytelling, lack of tension and the ending just chipped away at my rating until we came to a 2 because I felt like in the end I wasted my time.

kay_cee3000's review

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.25

Fun read! I did not see that ending coming.

fuent020's review

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adventurous dark tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

I read this book as part of books of horror indie author book brawl. It was honestly such a great premise. I think it did feel rushed, though. Things ramped up so fast that it ended my suspension of disbelief. However, it's not very long, so I stuck with it. It's a great ending, and that once again felt super rushed. Slower storytelling would add more to this book, and I never say that for other books!

malykaofhearts's review against another edition

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3.0

Saw-lite(gore-wise), which I certainly appreciated. Having avoided most of Duncan Ralstons better known works due to a weak stomach, I somehow thought this would be a good fit. A wild thought, considering this is about 6 strangers fighting to beat a dead-mans puzzles for a life changing prize. That being said, this is not a book with heavy graphic violence. It was definitely far below my threshold and that was great!

The first half of the book I read without putting it down. Excellent introduction to the characters. I found Puzzle House fizzled after that, and I was itching to get to its conclusion. Somewhere about halfway through, we changed lanes. Changed directions so significantly, and I wasn't a fan of that direction. The ending left a lot to be desired.

Thank you to Netgalley for a copy of Puzzle House.

mlivings8's review

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adventurous dark tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I very much have enjoyed everything I have read by Duncan Ralston, it's just this one did not hit as hard as others have for me. I enjoyed this book very much, I liked the characters and didn't like the characters, there was a lot of them so it was hard to care for them too much but the main character was well developed. This is a fun read for fans of horror and thrillers, the deaths are graphic but not too graphic, at least for me they weren't.

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