"The Escape Game" by Marissa Meyer & Tamara Moss

The Escape Game (Apr. 7, 2026) by Marissa Meyer & Tamara Moss.

<This is the first novel in a duology.>

In the finale of the fourth season, contestant Alicia Angelos was found murdered on set. Six months later and season five is now underway, and there is one standout team right out of the gate. Not for their solve times (which are dismal) or their immediate camaraderie (nonexistent), but for Sierra Angelos, younger sister of the deceased and one of multiple suspects in Alicia’s murder. Sierra wants justice and prize money as she distrusts everyone and hides behind thick makeup. Also on the team are Aditya (Adi) Parvesh, the cryptographer with the face of a model; Carter Kelly, the math whiz and highest-ranking Solve Specialist on the Domain; and Beck Matheson, dexterous synesthete (he can taste sounds) and aspiring game master. As Team Helsing starts uncovering clues and someone on the Domain going by the Real Game Master says all will be revealed in the finale, it’s clear that the stakes are deadlier than they imagined. To win this season of Hitflix’s The Escape Game, the team will also have to survive. Nothing is as it seems.

            The opening story in a contemporary YA, murder mystery thriller is sarcastic and sharp with treachery, drama and some of the best escape-room puzzles imaginable. As soon as I started the novel, I knew I was going to enjoy it. Untimely death isn’t a delight, but the writing is consuming, the solve story is nonstop, the drama is compelling, the room maps provide a nice visual, interviews punctuate the steady pace, and the puzzles are complex. But be wary, for those puzzles might get you killed. Thanks to this topsy-turvy page-turner with its twists and turns, I’ll definitely be putting the sequel on my TBR!

"Perfect Lies" by Kiersten White

Perfect Lies (Feb. 18, 2014) by Kiersten White.

Tap tap tap tap. 4 taps. 4 is a good number. But things are not good for Sofia “Fia” Rosen. She sent her sister away. She killed Annie, except Annie’s not really dead. But she has to be so Phillip Keane and his Keane Foundation can’t manipulate her or threaten her life to control Fia. Fia has perfect intuition, and she’s with James Keane, whom she loves, so he must be a right choice. Right? Fia is recruiting, but the visions are never good. Dead. Always dead, floating down the river. Fia recruits so she can take Phillip Keane down and protect her sister. Too bad Annie feels so useless being away from Fia, for it may push her to do the unthinkable to save her own sister. From whom are they being saved, though? The Keane Foundation or Rafael Marino? And what’s so significant about a girl named Sadie Kavadellis?

            White’s story flips between the viewpoints of Annie (the elder sister) and Fia, and she did a great job of making them distinctive characters. Even supporting characters are easily discernible thanks to the traits White has given them, and I’ve noticed that distinct supporting characters aren’t always achieved. She makes it look easy. The sisters’ love for each other is strong, even amidst Annie’s feelings of uselessness and Fia’s brokenness. “Perfect Lies” is the concluding YA novel in a duology (see “Mind Games”) that is arresting, fast-paced, troubling and awesome in a twisted way. I totally got lost in the book. Maybe literally. Hopefully not permanently. (Get to know Fia, and you’ll understand why I wrote that.) As Annie says of Fia, “We still orbit the brilliant, chaotic burning of her star.” That’s pretty much true, and now this book has given me a complex. Not really … tap tap tap tap.