By Marissa Meyer & Tamara Moss
CW: Murder.
*MAJOR SPOILERS*
This was a surprise book. It wasn’t on any lists of mine. I was scrolling Instagram one day and an add popped up promoting this book. I don’t usually become interested in a random book out of fear of triggers – but I saw this and thought, a YA escape game? Likely innocent enough, and it was for the most part.
Sometimes I read short books like the Poirot series, but other times I read huge looooong books like this and I get to enter their world for a while. I already miss living in the Escape Game world. I miss the gang. I miss the escape games. I miss the murder mystery.
There are three central escape games in this story, in my opinion. Escaping the show rooms. Escaping Alicia’s murder. And the lovelist of all, escaping loneliness. Let’s dig into them:
- The Escape Game Show
- The murder mystery
- Team Helsing
The Escape Game Show
The game show was awesome! I loved the visuals starting from the gang putting on their outfits, that’s where the mystery would begin each round. You’d be wondering what kind of theme the room might be based on their outfit descriptions. I really liked learning about all the different teams and their skills. And how Team Dread kept giving Team Helsing disadvantages – it really raised the stakes for each round. I also like how it was laid out, we learn about each member of Team Helsing before the show starts. Then it follows a clear path – round 1, break/murder mystery hunting, round 2, break/murder mystery hunting, and on and on until the final round.
The escape games themselves were fantastic. The writers really put a lot of thought into each game, because not only were there escape room clues to win the round but there were also clues to Alicia Angelos’ murder in each room.
Oh, I almost forgot! The Real Game Master! Amazing. It really added so many layers to the story. Who was the Real Game Master posting on the domain? How did they know who murdered Alicia? Why didn’t they go to the police? etc. etc.
Team Helsing gets disqualified after the semi-final. But I hoped so dearly that somehow they would still get to run the final escape room – and having them run through the final round WHILE the murderer and accomplice were chasing them?! Brilliant! Visceral! Couldn’t peel my eyes away!
The murder mystery
Having Sierra find her sister Alicia’s body in the final room on her first season of the Escape Game was CRAZY. Sierra’s character didn’t grab me until near the end of the book though, to be honest. However, I think that’s a lesson in itself. For most of the story she’s kind of one note, wants to find out who killed her sister and why (which makes sense). Sure, we get that she’s a grumpy goth teenager, pissed off with the world, the cops, and being on another season of the game show. Totally valid. Sometimes we’d hear a little about how she likes to bake and paint, but there was no real substance to her…
Until the tub scene. The tub scene broke my heart. Full tears were running down my cheeks as I read with my heart beating hard. I felt so much for her. After Adi had betrayed them all by cheating, Sierra was even more broken than before. The scene portrays her walking into the villa bathroom, running a bath, and sinking in the water all while chanting “I am alone” to herself over and over. The way it was written, wow, I’m even getting emotional as I’m writing this. It was clear she was having a sort of panic attack, and the mantra that she chose to soothe herself were words that confirmed her isolation. If I am alone no one can disappoint me, no one can hurt me. Oof. Then her teammates Carter and Beck enter the bathroom and she realizes she was chanting a lot louder than she thought…imagine how loud she was actually saying that to herself. She was probably trying to be loud enough to drown out her thoughts about how hurt she was by Adi. It wasn’t just a show to her, she needed to be in the final round to figure out who killed her sister. The weight of it all. Damn. That’s good writing.
The mystery of Alicia was so interesting. I had so many theories. It’s interesting that she knew she was in danger and left clues for her sister. And the way they portrayed Sierra’s hobbies in such contrast to her personality…one of my theories was something like Alicia was pretending to be Sierra, and it was actually Sierra’s body they found. Or some pretty-little-liars inspired story line like that, haha.
OR I thought maybe in the final round they’d find out Alicia was actually alive all along! And the murder mystery was simply a part of the show. That’s my Poirot-inspired brain peaking through again.
Again, for someone who reads a lot of murder mystery, I was worried I’d be disappointed. I thought no one can do it like Agatha, so I’m going to figure it out early and be bored. But thankfully that was not the case. The authors did really well hiding the real story!
Now…as Team Helsing ran through the final round (while being chased by the murderer) and they slowly picked up on more and more clues as to who could be the Real Game Master…
Last chance to stop reading before I spill who the Real Game Master was and the murderer!
The Real Game Master revealing themselves through riddles to be none other than Vera! Loved it. I KNEW Vera was involved somehow, by the way she was always sort of around, and annoyed by the players. I enjoyed finding out why she was annoyed all the time…because she was the REAL game master. She created all the games and puzzles, no wonder it was so easy for her to insert clues about Alicia’s murder. But she had to stay in the shadows and host Louis got all the credit. Creepy Louis. I hated that storyline but I also appreciate that it did lead the reader astray. Louis had a real motive to kill Alicia.
Plus, it explains why Vera couldn’t just come out and tell the police! Because the real murderer was none other than…
Fitzy himself!
Or was he? The reveal of the gun, the change in his attitude toward Carter who he’d been wooing, the motive to kill Alicia because she was going to take his hosting position, it was all so juicy. But then…finding out he was simply the accomplice who moved Alicia’s body from the freezer to the coffin in the previous season’s finale room to send a message…genius.
Because the real killer…the one who strangled Alicia with gloves on…because she always wore gloves to drive…
Was Symphony!
Now THAT reveal was good. The sike with Fitzy was so good, then reading the stomping of heels down a dark hallway to reveal the actual murderer, Adi’s mother. Incredible. Even though we’d heard of her a lot, always wanting to be on the show in some capacity, maybe as producer or even better, as host. I still never considered her…The writer’s did very well hiding her from our suspicion. I was really worried they’d kill off one of the Team Helsing members during the finale showdown…I’m glad to say they all survived (even though Beck was shot but survived after being in a coma)
How did Beck survive, you ask?
Team Helsing
Beck survived because Sierra brought freshly baked cookies to his hospital room, and he solely claims the smell of them brought him out of the coma.
Team Helsing is why I argue there’s a third escape room, of sorts.
It’s the team members, all awkward and a bit lonely, finding their way to friendship. Between all of them. Pre and even post-Adi’s betrayal Sierra wouldn’t have baked cookies for someone other than herself, or when she was thinking hard about Alicia’s murder.
Remember Sierra’s tub scene? What I didn’t mention earlier was how Carter and Beck entered the bathroom and handed her some candy. She was clearly having an anxiety attack and somehow her new friends, she’d begrudgingly admit in the near future, saw her hurting (or more likely heard her chanting) and decided they wanted to help her. Because they were her friends. They sat with her and made her watch cat videos until she calmed down and that just melts my heart. That’s true friendship.
Taking a quick detour into my psyche, because it’s my blog and readers already know I’ll be linking stories to my own life, lol. Isn’t that what we all do? All I want to say is that when I read Carter and Beck gave Sierra candy during her panic attack and sat with her watching cat videos…I thought…wow that’s such a calm version of helping someone through a panic attack. I’m not sure if my experiences are more the norm, let’s be honest, of course they’re not, but helping friends or my family members out of panic attacks was never that easy…these days, if I’m being totally honest, my experiences with helping people in this kind of heightened emotional state makes me fear danger to myself. I would’ve expected upon entering the room for there to be yelling and throwing things and screaming, etc. And no matter what you say to calm them down they rebut it until you feel helpless and useless. At least, that’s my experience, haha. But now, I like to think I could help someone in the calm way Carter and Beck did.
I guess it’s more a story of Sierra slowly learning it’s okay to let people in. Kind of a cliche story but I believe the authors did well making it anew with mixing in her dear sister’s death. I found it inspiring.
And the end…?
Sierra, Carter, and Beck receiving suspicious invitations to an escape game at the Sweetbrier Resort…and Adi finding his father crawling into a window in his house to personally invite him to the resort…DELICIOUS. I truly thought it would be a stand alone book, but now I’m SO excited for the sequel!! I get to live in the world of Team Helsing again!
I can’t wait 🙂
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