Confusing, disjointed and ultimately disappointing.
It is billed as an escape room horror but the escape room scenes make up a very small part of the story and as for the horror, what horror? There was no sense of foreboding and even any real intrigue. You knew what was happening and who was manipulating them all along although you never really discover why. The ending made no real sense and there was no real conclusion to it at all. Whilst the characters were well fleshed out and we really got to them none of them were particularly likeable. There really wasn't anyone to root for. and lots of the plot ends up being largely unresolved or just abandoned.

I gave it two stars because I did actually finish it although to be honest when I got the end I was so disappointed that I wish I had not done so. Also the actual writing is fine but the plot/story needed massive work to make it work.

Reprieve by James Han Mattson is a bit darker than books I would usually choose, but when I read the blurb I couldn't resist giving it a go. I'm so glad I tried it, as the story was incredibly thought provoking and very well written - I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the author via NetGalley and this is my honest and voluntary review.

Quigley House is believed to be haunted, so owner John Forrester opens it as an escape room, with dark themes and spooky costumes. As a far of thriller movies and stories, it’s a perfect job for Kendra Brown. But disaster strikes when her cousin Bryan is killed in the house,


I enjoyed the principle of Reprieve, with the different challenges and rooms being interspersed with the characters’ background, but I felt it really lost its way towards the end. I still have no real idea why Bryan was killed, whether he was the intended victim or even why Leonard was there at all.

Too complicated and confusing for me, sorry.

I’m not sure which book some of the promo reviewers read, but I definitely didn’t find this to be a "nail-biting horror" novel. That doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it but the ending made no sense to me and was so disappointing.
I did enjoy the author's writing style and loved some of the descriptions, especially countries but I’m not I
Would be willing to give the author a second chance with his next book.,

A brilliantly written book that uses the horror genre as a lense/medium to explore, not only racial fetishisation, but the fetishisation of horror and all things scary itself.

[DNF @29%]

I hate not finishing a book and this is one of the only ones I've had to put tuck away in my Kindle folder of shame this year.

The premises sounded amazing - an escape room (I love those damn mind-fuck rooms) where you have to find little red envelopes and someone gets murdered. I never made it to that part. The characters drove me insane and everything chugs along at a snail's pace.

I have honestly no idea what's going on and for that very dull reason, I'm giving up.

This book is clever, disturbing and a type of horror that is quite unique. You may think the story focuses on the horror that happens within the full-contact haunted escape room but it is a more complex story offering the reader 3 completely different lives of the people it happened to. We get 3 distinct POVs from Kendra, Jaidee and Leonard with in depth detail about their whole lives and the events leading up to that night.
The book is further split into details of each room (cell) that the team of 4 work through on the night and the questionings in a court room after the event and slowly pieces begin to fit together to create an incredible story full of greed, prejudice and obsession.
All of the characters are well developed with some being more flawed than others and there are multiple instances that are sure to shock you.
An incredible read about normal people who are thrust together on one disastrous night.

This book was interesting but not exactly what I was expecting. I did find it quite confusing, however I’m pleased I persevered as it did pick up for me.

Oh hello, my unexpected winner horror debut of the year! I am so glad I took a chance on this unknown release when I saw it on Netgalley and so grateful to the publishers for giving me this chance. Because, for me, this was a stunning, mind-blowing, multi-layered read that I won’t forget.

This book hasn’t been out long, and it’s still got relatively few reviews on Goodreads but already it has a pretty average overall rating of 3.55, which makes me a little sad. I’m not sure if readers were maybe expecting something a little different, but for me this book delivers on all it promises and more.

Yes, this is promoted as a horror about a full-contact haunted escape room. And there’s not that much haunting, or even escape room, in this story. But it’s a lot more than that.

In my opinion, really good horror transcends the genre. Horror is really about people and their fear. And this book explores that in a way which is unique and powerful. It has the creepy, dilapidated mansion. It has an eerie, uncomfortable atmosphere. It even has gore and violence.

But it also has the gradual unravelling of people, spun out painfully over lengthy chapters we see the descension of young, ambitious people into almost madness. It exposes people at their limits, doing extraordinary things for nonsensical reasons, acting on pure emotion.

“Horror tests limits. Horror shows who we are. When we’re faced with a monster, or a ghost, or a serial killer, what we’re actually made of comes forth. I like to see what people are made of. Therefore I like horror.”

The story itself is a slow burn. The opening scene is a court testimony, so we know something has gone awry at the mysterious Quigley House. But then, we’re whisked back. We meet a series of characters individually through long chapters exploring their lives. Not all of the characters are likeable, in fact most of them aren’t, but I found all of their stories strangely fascinating. We have Kendra, a black teenager who has recently lost her father. Jaidee, a Thai student in America, and Leonard, a lonely white American who struggles with relationships. Through them, the author explores themes ranging from grief to racism to sexuality, and it’s all gripping, authentic and chilling. Slowly, we learn how they all come to be at the monstrosity which is Quigley House.

There are multiple characters and three timelines – the characters’ journeys before Quigley House, their time spent in each “cell” in the multi-room Escape Room experience and the court case after. But this isn’t the type of story where you I ever got lost or confused by the multiple views. It’s a dark and creepy but at its heart it’s a character-driven tale at heart that had me glued to the pages. And the scenes that take place inside Quigley House are truly horrific, and should definitely satisfy any die-hard horror fan’s cravings this Halloween.

This was an interesting horror novel. It verged the line between thriller and horror and I think at time it didn't really read as horror but I did like it. The characters and settings were done well and I liked the wide variety of characters that were in this and they were all written in a really interesting manner. This was fast-paced and action-packed and I was hooked from the start of this. The way this was set up in the first few chapters were interesting and i think it is a good way to hook readers in.

This book is about several different characters that are all introduced throughout the book and end up meeting at a haunted house. I did find it a little confusing at the start with the different characters but once they had all tied in it was much easier to follow. They all had very different lives and i loved how the focal point in the end was a haunted house experience. I liked the police tape side of it as we found out what had happened at the start and it went on from there. it was a bit creepy and a bit gorey in places but this was a great read for around Halloween time.

This book wasn't really what I was expecting and I found it quite confusing. The overall idea seems good but I feel there is a lot room for improvement.
Thanks for the opportunity to read this ARC.

This was quite an interesting read. From the beginning it's tense and kept me intrigued. Some gruesome parts, but it's more thriller than horror. Somehow it did fell a little bit flat in the end, but liked it overall.

Reprieve is a social horror story told over multiple perspectives. Whilst the story focuses on the escape room, racism and identity are just two of the huge topics covered within this story.

This was a complex story that I found quite a slow burner to start with and I initially struggled to get into it. The book is split into 3 parts and those parts are made up of multiple character perspectives, police reports and time spent in each cell.

This was one of my most anticipated reads and whilst it was good, I felt that I would have enjoyed it more if the story covered being in the cells trying to find the envelopes and less of the back story for each of the characters.

Some of the scenes are particularly gruesome and normally I am squeamish, but it was written well so that it was detailed rather than too off putting!

There was much I enjoyed about this book but the blurb and marketing were confusing. The book is presented as a thriller, but it's actually more of a character-led book. I was hoping for a major, thriller-like twist at the end. I can think of a good one, and if even I can come up with one, surely it wouldn't have been too hard to put one in?

Gripping, intense, mesmerising. A book that appeals on many levels.I enjoyed the back stories of the main contestants but couldnt quite empathise with the situation they found themselves in. A highly original theme

From the opening lines of “Reprive”, we know that something has gone terribly wrong for one team of four during their time in Quigley House – a notorious “full contact” escape room in which successful contestants can win $60k for navigating the six increasingly harrowing cells (something that only one team has done in the past).

The chapters skip back and forward in time between the aftermath of the experience and the lives of the contestants – Bryan, Jaidee, Vincent and Jane – that led to them taking part in the escape room. We also meet Kendra, Bryan’s cousin who also works at Quigley House; John, the owner and creator of Quigley House; and Leonard, a friend of John’s who has become increasingly detached and misogynistic following the breakdown of a previous relationship. Through the interactions of this group, we learn more about the motivation of each leading up to the fateful night, ultimately allowing us to understand exactly what happened and how.

The most successful part of the story for me was the “behind the scenes” glimpse into the cells of Quigley House; it was fascinating to read about how the rooms were put together, with cheap props, actors and a lot of fake blood, and transformed from something quite ropey to something terrifying mainly through the power of suggestion and the players’ own imaginations. The scenes of the team within the escape room experience were gory and frightening, and well written. While some of the characters were far less relatable and sympathetic than others, I enjoyed the pacing of the story and would certainly read more by this author.

My thanks to the author, NetGalley, and the publisher for the arc to review.

This is a great book, and is an interesting take on the recent trend in horror of "Escape rooms". I flew through it in a day and cannot recommend this enough

I was so excited to read this book after seeing the synopsis. It’s October, so a book about Quigley House, where a group of 4 contestants battle their way through 6 cells of horror and gore in an attempt to win a $60k prize sounded perfect.

Unfortunately, although the parts of the novel where that was happening are well-realised, they are only a fraction of the novel and not really the focus. This book was trying to do too many things, including horror, courtroom scenes, campus novel, racism, misogyny, LGBQT+, sex tourism, the list goes on.

In trying to cover so much, my emotional connection just got lost along the way. I also found the John-Leonard relationship/ending utterly implausible. A person who successfully manages a hotel for a long time is of a certain calibre and I don’t believe that they would be so easily led or so naive and impressionable. It might be more plausible if it has been a young business student looking up to a mentor.

With thanks to NetGalley and the publisher, Bloomsbury Publishing for an arc of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

A compelling horror novel full of twists and action - great for fans of Squid Game on Netflix, with some great period details!