ARC, 352 Pages (e-ALC, 10:11:32 )
Read in Tandem
Narrated by: Caitlint Kelly, Ferdelle Capistrano, & Gary Tiedemann
Release Date: March 10, 2026
Published by: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers (Hachette Audio)
Read from: March 23, 2026
Stand-alone
Source: ARC (From ALA) & Libby for the Audio
Content Warning: Blood, Death, Murder, Homophobia, Mental illness, Panic Attacks/Disorders, Suicidal Thoughts, Suicide, Suicide Attempt
For Readers Interested In: 2sLGBTQ+, Audio, Libby, Realistic Fiction, Thrillers, Multiple Narrators, YAPerfect for fans of Karen M. McManus’s The Cousins and I Know What You Did Last Summer, this propulsive thriller follows a fractured group of friends as they fight to survive a killer escape room in rural Tennessee.
Twelve months ago, an escape room fire took everything from Steffi Zamekova. In just one hour, she lost it all: her popular blog, her close-knit inner circle, and her memories of the night that killed one of the group’s own… the charismatic (if infuriating) Matt Cesari.
On the anniversary of the bewildering tragedy, Steffi is still desperate to piece together what went wrong. So when she receives an ominous invitation in the mail summoning her to the new escape room across town, she seizes the chance for answers.
Reunited with her former friends, Steffi sees the game as a last chance to uncover the truth behind Matt’s death. But it’s soon clear that each participant has their own cagey reasons for accepting the challenge. And as tensions rise and the players are picked off one by one, it’s a race against the clock for Steffi to uncover their secrets and unlock her own memories before the game’s mastermind ensures that no one escapes the room alive.
*MY THOUGHTS*
This was a weird one. It started out a bit confusing and then it got to be interesting with the escape room and the things happening in it, but then it got weird again from the ending lol I liked it tho. Definitely had some fun reading this.
Ok so the weird part was how they got everyone there. I don’t understand how they all went there with no questions asked. I would have been terrified! Even learning that their invites didn’t have a name on it seemed suspect to me. But seeing how they were all so different, I’m not surprised that they had all these reasons for showing up.
When I say they were all different, I mean they were ALL DIFFERENT. One is the brother of the twin that passed away the last time, one is the Game Master, one is rich and has a judge for a father, one was the student class president, and one is always sick. The main character, Z had amnesia surrounding the situation because of her brain injury. They were like the breakfast club really and they all came together through Escape Rooms. For whatever reason I thought that was bad ass. They were all so cool. But they were also liars and more. ESPECIALLY when they were looking out for their own selves. They were the worst.
Ok so this is the crazy part. They were all hurt in a fire that happened in an escape room that they were doing. There were so many lies surrounding this lol I thought the mystery was good, but there weren’t that many like red herrings or anything misleading. I think I knew who it was from the almost the beginning. There is a plot twist, but it’s not super intense? But I will say even tho the mystery was a little bit lacking, I did say OMG every time someone was off-ed lol That part was wild lol
I don’t want to say more because this IS a thriller and I don’t want to give anything away…. But this was a little weird and I honestly had to sit with this for awhile to figure out how I wanted to review this. I need more of y’all to read this so I can make sure this made a little sense lol
Overall, I gave this
