The Locked Room (Adam Cece, PRH)

Adam Cece’s The Locked Room is built on an excellent premise: four teenagers trapped in an escape room must solve a series of puzzles – each on a one-hour countdown – to unlock doors and win their freedom. No one remembers how they got there, but the question of why is quickly overtaken by the urgent need to escape before choking gas is pumped into the rooms. Narrator Andy finds himself thrown together with kids from his school – not all of them friends: the girl he has a crush on, the boy who has bullied him for the past year, and a girl he has seen around. As they move through the sequence of rooms, choosing either a red or green door each time, they begin to work out a pattern in the challenges. Though the near-fatal puzzles and overarching mystery are interesting, much of the novel’s tension comes from its claustrophobic settings and the evolving character dynamics. The Locked Room marks a new direction for Cece, best known for the comic Huggabie Falls series (The Extremely Weird Thing that Happened in Huggabie Falls), and is pitched at the slightly older readership of those within the Tristan Bancks (The Fall) market. With its fast pace, short, sharp chapters and high-stakes tension, The Locked Room is likely to appeal to reluctant readers as well as thriller lovers aged 11+.

Books+Publishing reviewer: Angela Crocombe is a senior buyer and bookseller at Readings Kids. Books+Publishing is Australia’s number-one source of pre-publication book reviews.

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