For puzzle-loving Ami, the chance to challenge herself at The Escape - a thrilling escape room experience - is the perfect day out. It appears that Ami might be playing alone until four others arrive; all action and impulsive Oscar, quiet and observant Ibrahim, book-smart Min and natural-born adventurer Adjoa. With the team set to go, the ‘Host’ sets them a challenge…‘Find the Answer. Save the World.’ Sounds simple enough.
But this is no ordinary escape room and soon the children are on a dark and dangerous path where every room is out to get them. Will everyone make it to the end? Can they find the Answer before time runs out?
Now I love an Escape Room, have even escaped from some of them successfully, but I have never experienced anything of the like that Ami and her co-escapers face. Christopher Edge’s latest release, Escape Room, is expertly written, full-on and fast-paced and is much more than I anticipated. I absolutely loved it.
Edge is somewhat of a master in delivering quality over quantity and, as always, there is a lot crammed into two-hundred-and-eight pages. With its short page count it is perfect for those children who find longer books overwhelming. Full of peril, excitement and with plenty of twists, turns and a very unexpected ending, Escape Room is a thought-provoking story that will appeal to gamers and young activists who are keen to help save the planet. The thrilling, puzzle-solving adventure will have readers on the edge of their seats as Ami and her team discover various rooms in which the threats and dangers are all too real; an attic full of old computer tech, a dusty labyrinth library, a Mayan temple with a cursed tomb, an abandoned shopping mall home to extinct animals and the command module of a spaceship heading towards Mars. But nothing is at it first appears in The Escape and each room, a representative symbol of the world today, holds much more than just the immediate puzzle that needs solving. The game's ‘Host’ has a bigger puzzle that needs solving and through events from the past, present and future, Edge challenges both Ami and the reader to face-up to the world’s problems. Highlighting extinction, climate change, pollution, a throw-away-society and the possibility of human existence on another planet, Edge addresses important and timely issues, raises questions and provide lots of food for thought. Where adults have perhaps failed, it is up to children with their ideas and creativity who hold the power to change the world. So, what have you done to save the world today? Or perhaps more importantly, what action are you going to take to save the world? With huge thanks to Nosy Crow for the copy I received via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Recommended for 9+.
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