Reprieve is a riveting novel spanning the horror, suspense and thriller genres that is refreshingly original, deeply disturbing and difficult to put down about a brutal, unprovoked killing that takes place at a haunted house. It's 1997 and Victor Dunlap, a bank manager and former Thailand-based English teacher agrees to participate in what most wouldn't even consider: a challenge whereby you must try to survive through the horrific torturous things the creators of Quigley House, a full-contact escape room style experience located in Lincoln, Nebraska, have in store for you, but its so emotionally draining that you will most likely be left with trauma for years to come. Full contact refers to the fact that those who work there are given full approval to physically engage with contestants as they vie to win a monetary prize. Owned and operated by puppet master extraordinaire John Quigley, who claims it to be safe, it has grown a large following in a specialised sector of the haunt market with people looking for more of a hands on terrifying experience rather than just the usual run of the mill paranormal themed experiences.

But if there is one thing that proves it may not be as safe as suggested it's that a former participant had his throat slashed in front of the others and subsequently died while inside the niche attraction when 37-year-old hotel manager Leonard Grandton murdered black university student Bryan Douglas who had only taken part due to his 15-year-old cousin Kendra being employed there. The four-man team had included Victor’s fiancee, Jane Roth, a lover of all things Halloween but who drew the line at some of the "trials" she was put through at Quigley House including being restrained with handcuffs, shocked, muzzled with tape and even waterboarding, all for the thrills and the chance to win $60,000 if you can endure the torture. Jaidee Charoensuk, a university student whom Victor had taught in Kanchanaburi, was another member of the team, and Bryan took the last spot. Initially, everyone thought it was merely part of the act, but they swiftly realised it most certainly wasn't. How was this allowed to happen in a place people attend apparently for fun?

This is an enthralling, utterly disturbing and compulsively readable thriller with a refreshingly original premise that confirms to me 100% that Mattson has based this classic horror on the horrifying nature of a real-life full contact haunted house that has been under a cloud of controversy known as McKamey Manor, run by the apparent sadist Russ McKamey. Many of the people who help operate it seem to get a kick out of degrading, dehumanising and terrifying the contestants, which is certainly an ethical concern, but as they have themselves agreed to it and signed legal waivers, what can be said?! It's a tension-filled, wickedly twisty and delicious deviant read that is endlessly thrilling as you race through the pages, but I must admit, all the money in the world wouldn't get me to agree to one of these experiences. The power those who work there have over participants gives them satisfaction which truly makes you question the nature and legality of these types of venues that are well known to cause PTSD. The story can also be viewed as an allegory based around guilt, sexuality and racism and the power these issues hold over us all. Highly recommended.

This had such an interesting concept of a murder happening in an escape room, it was an enjoyable read. Nothing too outstanding. I was expecting it to be more of a horror but I would say it’s more of a psychological thriller. Would recommend.

As an avid fan of escape rooms, I was really excited to read this book. Reprieve is an innovative book based around a 'full contact haunted escape room' called Quigley House. The story follows 4 participants in their journey through the house and it's 5 cells as they try to win the big cash prize. We know how it ends right from the start of the book, and the remainder flits between the individuals' stories, the escape room experience and police interviews. I quite enjoyed this style as the story was pieced together, bit by bit, keeping the reader invested.

The majority of the characters are teenagers and therefore, it reads a little like a Young Adult book during these chapters. They are all flawed in different ways and the book tackles a lot of difficult social issues, such as race and sexuality. None of the characters are particularly likeable, but I did find myself wanting to know their fate.

Overall, I did enjoy this book, especially the last quarter, where I found myself rushing through it to fill in the missing pieces of the story. I think it tries to fit into a number of different genres, which can make it a little confusing, but the premise of the story is certainly unique, and one that I liked.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for sending me this ARC in return for an honest review.

This was not the book I thought it would be. I was expecting it to be all about the 'game' but it was far deeper than that. It shared the backstories and lives of the main characters alongside the progress through the cells and you began to understand why they were there. The author described their feelings and difficulties. skilfully and you really felt that you got to know the characters quite well. I did not expect the ending.

With an intriguing premise set alongside a thought-provoking social commentary, I was really excited by the premise of this book, as the setting of a full-contact escape room sounds like a scary but thrilling place to base a story. I was expecting, goosebumps, chills, and gore. But this is definitely not the intense and addictive horror story that I was expecting.

The scenes set in the escape room are great, but they are sparse. Instead, this story is more character-driven. The first 80% of it is spent getting to know these characters, but you don’t know their link, what’s going on, or why you should care about these – frankly very irritating – characters.

When you eventually see the connection between the characters and find out what’s going on, things do get interesting. I really enjoyed the final few chapters of the book, but I just felt so disconnected for the rest of the book, not knowing where the story was going or why these characters mattered, that it didn’t make it up to me.

What you will hear a lot about this book is that it’s a “blisteringly relevant literary novel” and a “chilling portrait of American life”, with a “searing social criticism” of our racial prejudices and stereotypes. It’s obvious that Korean author James Han Mattson has something to say, and there were certain points that I took on board. But for the most part, it fails to make a point.

This is most definitely a book that some readers will take away more from than others. I really enjoyed the horror aspects, but I wanted a lot more of that side of the story. Maybe that does say more about our obsession with fear as entertainment, but that’s what I like to read fiction for.

I fear that my dislike for these characters has blindsided my opinion of this book and I hate to be so negative, but it really just wasn’t for me. If you enjoy a social commentary running through your thrillers, then you’re likely to appreciate it a lot more, so do take my review with a pinch of salt!

It’s not easy to find a good horror type book I don’t think but this one is an excellent example of the genre and reminds me of one of my favourites, Chris Brookmyre.

The premise is very unusual and the writing is complex and intense.

Difficult to get into at first but a real page-turner once it gets going, Reprieve is an original and gripping book about a horrific escape room and the murder that occurs there.

Quigley House has five rooms that teams of four have to get through in order to be in with a chance to win a big cash prize. There are envelopes to collect in each room in order to progress but it’s not easy - the challenges are gory, complete with actors in costumes who are allowed to touch and even hurt those taking part, while contestants are not allowed to fight back. Legend has it that only one group has ever made it through and won the money, everyone else has used the safe word ‘reprieve’ to end the game. Bryan, Jaidee, Victor and Jane are about to try their luck but will they make it through to the end?

The first half of this book reads a little like an angsty YA novel and I’ve nothing against that, it’s just not how it’s marketed. Thankfully it picks up though and I really, really loved the second half of this book EVEN THOUGH I still have lots of unanswered questions - who was actually in on what happened that fateful night? Who was acting and who wasn’t? Head to my Goodreads review to see the rest of my many, many questions - answers on a postcard welcome!
But even so I really thought it was a great book, it’s so different to anything else I’ve ever read and it hooked me that was it. The descriptions of the escape rooms (and everything/one inside them) are excellent and super freaky, it reminded me a little bit of the Saw franchise. As such I think this would make an excellent film. The pacing is excellent towards the end and I liked how it all came together in the end. I just wish we knew more, it could’ve been longer I think.

Four stars from me, it only missed out on five because the beginning is a little slow and I want more answers! The final part with a sit down between two of the characters doesn’t give us enough, we need more. Still though, it’s a great read with an original premise, and I’ll definitely be looking out for more from this author!

Thanks to NetGalley and Bloomsbury for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

I was really looking forward to this as it's such a great idea; 4 contestants are in an escape room and one dies...

Unfortunately, it wasn't for me and I found it a very difficult and confusing read. I think the difficulty lies in the way the story is told; via courtroom transcripts and I also feel it's being marketed incorrectly as I didn't feel it was a horror, more a literary observation on society norms and behaviours.

A 2* OK read for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to preview.

I was drawn to this book by the description but unfortunately it didn’t really deliver. There is so much going on in the novel, and we meet various different characters associated with Quigley House in some way. There is also a court case relating to what happened in the escape room and a host of less important characters and storylines that are given more time than they need. It’s all rather messy and doesn’t make a lot of sense if you think about it for for a few minutes. A good idea for a novel but not terribly well executed. Thank you to #netgalley and #bloomsburybooks for allowing me to review this ARC

I did not know what to think about this book, other than it is an amazing read, impossible to put down and well worth a read

Reprieve is the code word that will end the challenge at a Quigley House, a full contact haunted house that offers an experience so horrific that only one team has been able to win the 60,000-dollar prize. But a hastily put together team of four think they can handle it – after all, there are only actors in there.

Nevertheless, ss the book opens with the proceedings of a trial, we understand that something must have gone very wrong. In this tense book, these proceedings will alternate with scenes from the escape room and with the back stories of the participants and characters, among which: a hotel manager desiring a devoted subservient wife torn between his girlfriend who wants a job to be independent and a Thai prostitute, a gay Thai student that chases his English teacher to America, an orphaned black girl whose father was not as good as she thought. We also meet John, the dark spin doctor that pulls the strings at Quigley House, an all-white establishment so far. It is 1997, and the United States are heading for Bill Clinton’s second round. Business is not exceptional: people are getting softer these days -- they feel they have rights not too be touched and they will even sabotage you -- and he has something in mind.

As a setting Mattson chooses Nebraska, which one character also called a redneck heaven beyond Lincoln's liberal façade, where the only topics of conversation are sports and Quigley House. The book has the terrific feel of a Nineties’ college movie that holds up the mirror to the dark heart of America: it offers an insightful study of racist, self-obsessed, homophobic whiteness and masculinity as well as of luring American dreams that end up materialising in nightmares taunting and engulfing their dreamers (it reminded me of great American novels of that period that managed to paint a veritable moral picture and, more recently, of Joker). With an angry metal soundtrack and images from the Rodney King beatings on repeat in the background, the theme of otherness, racism and integration is exceptionally developed in biting social criticism (just look at the bios of the protagonists above).

The escape room is meant to push humans to the limits, and it does. We see how the tensions that build up in the outside conflate in this room in gory splatter scenes, and how the fine line between fake and real dwindles to deliver a terrifying experience with the horrors of the real world lurking under the costumes. In the end we end up wanting a reprieve: both from the haunted house and from the horror outside its walls.

Perfect Halloween read, not too scary.

I received this book from the publishers via Netgalley for a review. An escape room thriller. Good story though not sure about the execution. Characters not nice but I think that's intentional.

I got, Reprieve by James Han Mattson from NetGalley for a fair and honest review.

Reprieve by James Han Matterson is a novel that is set around event that takes place on the 27th April 1997 in an escape/ horror room, in Nebraska.

Reprieve by James Han Matterson, is one of those novels on the face of it, is just about how several individuals get involved in a violent incident, it does this by telling the story through different perspectives, in three ways before during and after the event.
However, the way that these stories play out is that it examines a few issues involving those individuals, from the loss of a parent to immigration race and sexuality.
What helped in away was how some issues were examined by using more than one person experiencing the same event but slightly different way.
For example, immigration was both examined through moving to the state of Nebraska from Washington DC, as well as moving from Thailand to the same US state.
In addition to this the writer added another dimension to each person, making them more than just two dimensional and adding to the depth of the story.
All this makes Reprieve by James Han Matterson’s novel an in-depth story that is the type that should both be written, published and more importantly read, more.

Thank you to @netgalley and Bloomsbury Publishing for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!
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On 27 April 1997, four contestants make it to the final cell of the Quigley House, a full-contact haunted escape room made famous for its monstrosities. If the group can endure its horrors without shouting the safe word, 'reprieve', they'll win a substantial cash prize – a startling feat accomplished only by one other group in the house's long history. But before they can complete the challenge, a man breaks into the cell and kills one of the contestants.
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This book is one I was excited to read as soon as I read the synopsis. Escape room’s always excite me and adding horror, gore and murder to this? I couldn’t wait. I already knew I was going to love the concept and the writing style was great as well. 

However, this book started off slow and it wasn’t fully what I was expecting. The escape rooms themselves definitely felt secondary to this story, and once I’d started it, it felt more like a story about these individuals and their lives. Whilst this shift in the book storyline was disappointing, it was definitely worth still reading. Whilst I didn’t like any of the characters, the social commentary about race, power and the innate instincts of people when pushed to the limit, was interesting and kept me reading until the action of the escape house picked up once again.

The outcome to the mystery was one which I saw coming around the 75% mark but the reasoning behind it made it worth it, for me. 

Overall, this was a book that wasn’t what I was expecting but still really liked. If you like the idea of escape rooms, this is a good book for you - although don’t expect there to be lengthy detail on this. If you like reading about pushing human emotions to the limit, and the lengths people will go to, then this is ideal for you. Either way, it’s a great read for the spooky season.

Release Date - 5th Oct 2021

‘You know that’s where the Quigley House is, right?’
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I loved this book so much and can’t properly find the words to describe just why. From so many different aspects, it just ticked all my boxes!!
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Most people didn't make it to Cell Six, he said. Most called out the safe word – reprieve – after the first Cell. It was that intense.
When Bryan, Jaidee, Victor and Jane team up to compete at a full-contact escape room, it seems simple. Hold your nerve through six terrifying challenges; collect all the red envelopes; win a huge cash prize.
But the real horror is unfolding outside of the game, in a series of deceits and misunderstandings fuelled by obsession and prejudice. And by the end of the night, one of the contestants will be dead.
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At times the layout of this book and story telling took me back to my time reading Miracle Creek, which is always going to be a good thing as it’s one of my favourite books to date! The author has seamlessly woven an intense thriller making you flip the pages to see what happens nexts with a heart string pulling look at what it is to live in America in this day and age. A truly enjoyable read from start to finish! Highly recommend!!
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Thank you to Netgalley and Bloomsbury Publishing for the ARC!!

I was so excited by the premise of this but I found the actual story disappointing. I didn’t connect to the characters and so I didn’t care what happened to them. Parts of it were very repetitive and the plot kept jumping which was confusing.

After reading the blurb for this book, I thought it would be right up my street. I expected a thriller, set in an escape room.

Unfortunately, the book wasn’t what I expected at all. Mostly set in the 90s, there has been a murder at an escape room.
There was no real mention of the escape room for the first quarter of the book and the story flitted between different characters who seemed unrelated at first.

I really struggled to connect to or care about any of the characters. They were unlikeable and a couple of them had the same traits which made me think that the author couldn’t be bothered with proper character development.

When the escape room was finally properly introduced, it was extremely bizarre and I wonder if the author was trying to be a bit too ‘out there’ ? I had hoped the book would pick up at this point, but it didn’t.

I found the word “ornery” was used quite a lot and I thought better words could have been used to describe the characters, rather than the same word being repeated so much.

The author also tried to introduce the issue of race and fitting in with more than one character, but this didn’t seem to go anywhere.

This book wasn’t for me at all and I really struggled through it. I was confused by the plot jumping around between characters that were two-dimensional, and then the introduction of a strange escape room that wasn’t at all thrilling like I had hoped.

Personally I wouldn’t recommend this book and wouldn’t be keen to read more from this author.

Thanks to Bloomsbury and NetGalley for a copy to review.

This is a fabby mystery, at the start you know that something has happened, that some kind of crime has been committed via a series of interviews. Interspersed with these the story is told in retrospect, it takes time for all the characters to link up, there is a deliberate muddling of the waters by weaving between the various characters. Four people attempt to win a large prize by completing the Quigley House competition, by surviving a complex horror house mystery, a place where actors are encouraged to hurt the contestants as their quest takes them through six cells of increasing complexity. The players and actors have been manipulated and there is a deeper plot than merely winning the prize and surviving the ordeal. A very entertaining plot.

I was looking forward to reading this but once I started I found it wasn't to my taste, and although I suspect the characters are supposed to be unlikable I found not liking any of them made the book quite hard work.

I feel like this was both completely what I expected and nothing at all what I expected.

I know it’s early but I’m already starting to think about spooky book season so I thought I’d make a start with this.

Reprieve tells the story of a murder at Quigley House, a full- contact haunted house, in the late 90s, and a group who try to “win” the challenge it presents.

The story opens with a court hearing, and jumps between this to different characters, focusing mostly on Leonard, a hotel manager, Jaidee, a Thai student and Kendra, a high school student who works at Quigley House.

There is a lot to like here. Despite being a 400 page book it feels fun and pacey and I was never bored. I actually wish there had been more! I wanted more character backstory, more plot, more book!

I loved learning more about Quigley house, especially early on when there is a moment where I thought the rug was being completely pulled from under me!

My only criticism? Not that spooky for spooky season! And again, I kind of wanted more.

3.5 stars