Escape Room

ESCAPE ROOM is a thrilling middle grade adventure. Ami loves puzzles and escape rooms, so when she gets to go to the new escape room experience, The Escape, she is thrilled. After she finds her way into the mysterious building, she meets her four teammates, all about her age (she's 12)- Ibrahim, Adjoa, Min, and Oscar. Once the game begins, it starts to seem more deadly and incredible than any of them could imagine. They will have to rely on their wits, puzzle-solving skills, and each other to be able to make it out.

What I loved: This is quite the thrilling story with a mysterious location and fantastic settings. This presents the idea of what if an escape room could be everything it imagines to be. The stakes are high and the puzzles are very cool. Readers will enjoy seeing how the kids navigate these unexpected challenges and work together, when they are basically strangers and all very different. What is forged are some new friendships and deeper bonds through the trials.

This book has some really fantastic twists along the way. Anytime you think you have things figured out, there's a new element to throw a wrench into those ideas. The biggest twist towards the end was quite shocking and unique with a bit of a sci-fi flair and a surprise about the characters and what The Escape really is. I don't want to spoil it, but it also addresses some of the questions that might be had around the premise and brings it all together nicely.

Due to the characters' ages, the complexity of the text, and the potentially scary elements, this will work best for older middle grade readers. We are definitely curious to see where this series will go next!

Final verdict: ESCAPE ROOM is a thrilling, twisty middle grade read, perfect for puzzle, mystery, and sci-fi lovers!

I’ve always loved puzzles and escape rooms, so picking up Escape Room by Christopher Edge felt like stepping into a story made just for curious, puzzle-loving readers. And honestly? It turned out to be a wild, imaginative ride that kept me guessing the entire time.
The story follows Ami, a girl who loves riddles and big questions about the universe. When she arrives at a mysterious place called “The Escape,” she expects a challenging but fun puzzle experience. Instead, she’s thrown into a series of increasingly strange and dangerous escape rooms with four other kids she’s never met. Their mysterious host tells them they must solve each challenge and find “the Answer.” Easy enough… except the rooms feel impossibly real.
Each level felt like stepping into a completely different world. One moment, the characters are solving clues in a crumbling library; the next, they’re dealing with dinosaurs in an abandoned mall or trying to survive in space. I loved how unpredictable it all was. Just when I thought I had a sense of where the story was going, it would flip things around again.
What really stood out to me was the creativity. The puzzles aren’t just background details—they’re part of the story and the characters’ survival. Watching the group work together (and sometimes clash) made the tension feel real, and I kept turning pages because I wanted to see how they would escape the next impossible situation.
But the thing that surprised me most was the deeper sci-fi twist running through the book. Beneath the puzzles and action lie bigger ideas about technology, the future, and the choices humans make. The ending definitely made me pause and rethink everything that came before it.
Overall, Escape Room felt like a fast-paced adventure mixed with a brain-teasing puzzle game. It’s the kind of book that’s easy to fly through in a couple of sittings because you want to know what the next room will be.
If you enjoy clever puzzles, imaginative settings, and stories that feel a little like stepping inside a video game, this one is definitely worth checking out.