This was fun! An interesting puzzle book, some puzzles are harder to figure out than others, so it keeps you on your toes. There are helpful hints, which turned out quite useful. Definitely a good addition to a public, school, or classroom library; I'm not sure how much replay value this will have for a home collection,, but maybe that's just me.

#TheCursedCastleAnEscapeRoominaBook #NetGalley

I like the idea of this book. An escape room in a book where you have to find the puzzles, figure them out and pick a path to make it out of the castle. The problem was there was no real story for why you needed to escape. There was no real start point and no instructions to begin to guide you. There were answers at the end, but that just takes all the fun out of it.

I liked the idea behind this book and thought that it was a fun read.

I loved books that made me really think and puzzles when I was younger so can see this one being a hit with the target age range, now I am older it was very much like the Crystal Maze so I loved that little trip back in time to my youth too!

Well written, easy to follow and best of all fun – it is 4 stars from me for this one – highly recommended!

I used to LOVE these books as a child and this is a fantastic example of one. Really well written with puzzles designed to stretch your mind, this was perfect for a rainy day activity.

This would make a great Christmas present or an ideal buy for the upcoming half term as something which parents can enjoy doing with their children.

This is a super fun book! Although, it was a bit difficult to read in an electronic version. I think the actual copy would be much easier to navigate.

While the artwork in this book is wonderful and the idea is good, the execution is terrible. The story concept and map don’t seem to serve any purpose, the ending is anticlimactic, and there isn’t enough of a story thread throughout the book holding it together to keep a reader’s interest.

The artwork looks great and the puzzles are good but doesn’t work as an e-book, think it would work much better in book form.
Would make a great Christmas present, something the whole family can enjoy.
Reminded me of books from my childhood.
Thank you Netgalley for a copy of this in return for my honest opinion.

"I received a complimentary copy of this book through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own."
This was an interesting concept, and the art work was well done. I think the book form would be excellent, but I struggled a little with the format for an e-reader.

This book is a lot of fun. It’s a choose your own adventure and try to escape book and some of the pages are laugh out loud, whilst others are more serious, My younger children really enjoyed this.

I struggled with this book. There didn't seem to be enough explanation of how to begin or progress. It felt a bit like someone had taken screenshots from an escape computer game and left out the story.

Well this, despite other positive reviews, just does not work. It's a puzzle of a book, but not only intentionally so. It's one of those items where you cannot read it in printed order – you have to go through it in some random-seeming order to succeed. But the direction through that order is awful. At the start you get a map of the allegedly cursed castle, and a contents page. So do you gear yourself up to turning constantly to the map, so you take your character around the place in a logical order, going from room to room and not skipping from one end of the place to the other? Well yes, but using the map as a way-finder, it proves, is cheating. Each double-page spread, for each and every location, has a puzzle in it, and an obvious clue you're gathering as you go along, towards some future test, but you also get a view of every possible next room. And nowhere does the book demand you cannot go through to the place of your choice before you've 'solved' the page, and that there is only one single approved route.

So there are many big problems (and I'm ignoring small problems, such as the initial location suggesting there's a way to the North Tower when there clearly isn't). The big problems:– for a children's (or at least family-friendly) test, there is no gentle instruction telling you that the map and contents page are just clues and not allowing you a free pass; there is a rampantly uneven level of difficulty in the puzzles; however you're treating this you're flicking always to and fro from the map/contents pages; and the ending is exceedingly weak, with no sense of accomplishment at all. There are many superior game books to this – I would have happily spent an afternoon with these pages if they had been at all welcoming, but I could not recommend this title as I saw it.

I’ve wanted to explore an escape room ever since I first learned of their existence. The need has been even greater since I saw ‘Escape Room’ and watched the Roses navigate one in ‘Schitt’s Creek’. After reading this book it has become abundantly clear that I should never be allowed to enter one.

That skeleton in the Alchemy Room? That’s me. It took a little longer than expected for me to solve the puzzles. Please say ‘hi’ to me on your way past.

Make sure you pay attention to both the words and the details in the illustrations in each room. Although none of them will explicitly say, ‘Hey, you! This is how you solve this room!’, there are clues that will tell you what you need to do. Some are much harder than others and attention to detail is key. There are word, sudoku, counting and logic puzzles included, so it helps if you’re a bit of an all-rounder.

Handy Hint: You’ll find clues for solving each room’s puzzle near the end of the book. It would have been super helpful had I known this earlier. In the print version, these will be hidden pull tabs.

And if all else fails … there are answers at the very end of the book. If you’re really stuck please know you have the option to cheat your way to the next room. You don’t need to become a skeleton like me!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and becker&mayer! kids, an imprint of Quarto Publishing Group, for the opportunity to read this book. I’m rounding up from 3.5 stars.

I love choose your own adventure books and escape room games. This is a combination of both in one book! How awesome is that?!

I really enjoyed this book and so did my kids. Brain teasers and challenging puzzles are great for improving your thinking and deduction skills, therefore, this book gets top score for providing entertainment as well as educational content.

The full color illustrations are gorgeous and add to the enjoyment of the book.

I would definitely recommend this book for kids and adults of all ages who enjoy puzzles and adventure stories.

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book for an honest review.

I love this book. It has taken the choose your own adventure to a new level. It isn't just reading the text, but you need to solve the text before you make a decision about what you are going to do or where you will go next.

"The Cursed Castle: An Escape Room in a Book" is a great idea! I'll definitely be recommending this title to patrons and friends.