A review by dovesfalling
The Escape Room by Megan Goldin

3.0

This book is a treat.

No, it's not going to solve world hunger or bring peace to the lands, but it will entertain the eff out of you, and don't we all need a little bit of that these days?

Alternating between the past and the present, The Escape Room is a tightly plotted tale of revenge, and oh how sweet it is to watch certain people get what's coming to them. Four people are in an elevator. When it stops, they realize they're taking part in a 'team-building' exercise. A sort of 'escape room', where they have to answer riddles in order to be let out of the elevator before the hour is up. Frustrated and fractious, they nonetheless get to work attempting to unravel the scant clues. When their personalities clash and it becomes apparent there's something more sinister going on, things take a very bloody turn.

Between these bites of suffocating tension, Goldin tells Sara's story - a young woman who begins working at Stanhope & Sons, as a financial analyst. Desperate for money, Sara's willing to drink any sort of Kool-Aid to make her way up in the company, and begins to sacrifice her own ideals and values for success.

How these two tales intertwine is fairly obvious from the beginning, but it's fascinating watching it all play out. It's one of those books that you close feeling good about life, and about how things played out. Maybe it's not a morally sound ending, or one that SHOULD make the reader feel a particular glow of happiness, but it does nevertheless. I thoroughly enjoyed this quick, engrossing read - recommended!