Read Dates: May 7, 2019 – May 10, 2019
Expected Publication date: July 30, 2019
Source: Arc from the publisher via Netgalley
Sara. Sylvie. Sam. Jules. Vincent. Lucy. A team working in a financial firm on Wall Street. A team with friendships, lies, betrayals, and secrets. Sara is the newest member of the group and soon falls into step with the lavish lifestyle her peers enjoy.
Fast forward to a few years later. Two are dead. The rest are stuck in an elevator full of cryptic clues after receiving a message for a mandatory escape room group building exercise. Can they gain their freedom by answering the clues? Or is there more to this “escape room” than they know?
Ughh. I don’t know. This book was incredibly predictable for me but I’m thinking maybe it was supposed to be? The way the story was told and the clues we’re given throughout kind of give everything away. I had it figured out at around 40% completion. I didn’t take this book to be a “mystery” so much as a thriller. It was definitely thrilling. I was curious to see where the story was going and what would become of all the characters. Few of the characters are very likable or have any redeeming qualities. Which was fine actually. I like a good gritty cast of characters because that usually trips me up. But, again, this wasn’t a mystery.
This book is about revenge. It’s about people who are only looking out for themselves and care little about the welfare of others. It’s about secrets so big that they could ruin lives. It’s about getting back at those who have done you wrong. It’s about getting back at those who have done others wrong.
There wasn’t one of those big twists at the end that leave you gaping. It was just one of those endings that left you complacent. It left you to wonder how two particular characters ended up faring in the long run once the novel was at a close. I have some ideas, but…
The other thing that was tripping me up was the way this book was narrated. In the beginning of my notes for this book I assumed the narration would be told by Sara and Sam. I soon learned that every main character in this book gets to narrate their own story. Some accounts are told in first person and some switch to third. So that was a little confusing until I got the hang of how it was written.
I LOVE a good revenge story but I wanted more out of that ending. The book was super exciting, don’t get me wrong. However, if you’re looking for something believable, this book isn’t for you. But it was definitely enjoyable. I can’t say I didn’t enjoy picking this up to read it every day because I did. I just wanted more. This book left me wanting a lot. Which is sometimes a good thing but this time, for me at least, it was a neutral feeling. At the end I just thought to myself, “Well… alright. That’s that.” Nothing stuck with me. Nothing kept me thinking afterwards. Once I was done reading, I was just… done. On to the next.
This is definitely an enjoyable book though and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good thriller. Especially is you like a good revenge thriller. Then this is definitely for you.
I feel like I’ve said a lot of negative things about this book but I want you to know that I really did enjoy reading this! It just didn’t do anything for me. It came to a point where I was just reading to see how my theories came to be true. (Because I was 98% sure I was right in where I thought the story was heading.)
Anyway, I do recommend! Just don’t go into this expecting there to be twists and gasping moments. There really aren’t any. This is just one of those slow burner thrillers where you’re left to wonder why it’s happening. For me, though, I had the what, who, why and how figured out fairly quickly.
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