Christopher Edge’s middlegrade adventure Escape Room begins with a bang and ends by throwing a serious gauntlet to the reader.

As a reward for working hard, Ami Oswald’s father buys her a ticket for The Escape - the ultimate locked-room experience. She meets her team and the adventure begins. And how!

The first locked-room is thrilling: puzzles, red-herrings, and an urgently ticking-clock. By the third chapter I was swept away.

The game master gives the children a clear mission: save the world, find the Answer. He tells them they are humanity’s last hope. But as the children race from one hazard to the next, they learn that solving puzzles is not their only challenge: surviving is.

The puzzles that you find and challenges you face might seem impossible at first, but for you nothing is impossible. (Ch 2)

As the game evolves two things emerge: the ways in which different skill-sets shape a team’s performance, and the hostile environments threatening the children. The latter being a theme which grows throughout the novel and shapes the ending in a surprising and topical way.

Take nothing for granted. Question everything. The Answer might be found in the most unexpected of places. (Ch 2)

What starts as an exciting bedtime story has, by the end, become something much more serious. And this end took me by surprise. I wondered initially if Escape Room was the first in a duology, but on second thoughts I think Christopher Edge is inviting and expecting the reader to join Ami in the game. Our collaboration is the only escape.

I look along the beach and see the plastic waste piled high, carpeting the sand in a tide of manmade mistakes. (Ch. 22)

Love the cover and the illustrations at the start of each chapter.

Many thanks to Nosy Crow, Christopher Edge, and NetGalley for my advanced reading copy.

WHAT TO READ NEXT

I’m not sure that I’ve read anything similar within this age group. Perhaps take a look at The Wild Robot by Peter Brown.