Scan barcode
A review by shermanberry
The Escape Room by Megan Goldin
3.0
The premise of this thriller was great. Four overpaid and largely unlikable investment bankers stuck in a lift after being bought there supposedly by management for a team building exercise. They start off thinking they are in an Escape Room and the narrative alternates between the action in the lift and the back story that led us there. So far so good but a few things jarred a little bit for me.
Spoilers imminent!!!
I love a revenge story that culminates in some wrong being put right. For me it is far more satisfying if the perpetrators of the original wrong not only get their payback but they find out who is responsible for the payback. We never got that closure here.
It was a bit of a stretch to think that the four people in the lift just cruised in to a lift that was in the lobby of an unfinished office block. Surely a building site would be locked after hours. Even if open would otherwise intelligent people just happily wander in?
The character of Vincent changed too much. One minute he was benevolent mentor taking Sara into the firm. The next he was engineering her dismissal following an accusation made against one of the team members. This suggested he was complicit in Lucy's death but later in the story he seemed to be unaware of what had happened.
Sara's dismissal was necessary to generate the sense of injustice that she was victim of. I just felt that it all seemed a bit contrived then the text raced ahead too quickly I thought.
On a side note I really wanted Sara to take revenge on Kevin too. What a creep.
Enjoyable? Yes
Brilliant? No
Spoilers imminent!!!
I love a revenge story that culminates in some wrong being put right. For me it is far more satisfying if the perpetrators of the original wrong not only get their payback but they find out who is responsible for the payback. We never got that closure here.
It was a bit of a stretch to think that the four people in the lift just cruised in to a lift that was in the lobby of an unfinished office block. Surely a building site would be locked after hours. Even if open would otherwise intelligent people just happily wander in?
The character of Vincent changed too much. One minute he was benevolent mentor taking Sara into the firm. The next he was engineering her dismissal following an accusation made against one of the team members. This suggested he was complicit in Lucy's death but later in the story he seemed to be unaware of what had happened.
Sara's dismissal was necessary to generate the sense of injustice that she was victim of. I just felt that it all seemed a bit contrived then the text raced ahead too quickly I thought.
On a side note I really wanted Sara to take revenge on Kevin too. What a creep.
Enjoyable? Yes
Brilliant? No