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Company: Andrews McMeel Publishing
Game: Escape Book Vol. 2: Mystery Island, Vol. 3: Madam Mortell's Haunted House, Vol. 4: The Museum Heist
Country: USA 🇺🇸
Language: English
Type of Game: Tabletop Game (Kids Book) 📬
Genre: Kids, Pirate, Detective, Haunted House
Date Played: May 15, 2022
Difficulty (based on 2 players): 4/10
Size of Team: Unlimited (Recommended Ages 8-12)
Time: 90 Mins.
Price: (see below)
Escape Book Vol. 2: Mystery Island - $13.99 (Hardcover), $7.99 (Paperback)
Escape Book Vol. 3: Madam Mortell's Haunted House - $8.22 (Hardcover), $6.39 (Paperback)
Escape Book Vol. 4: The Museum Heist - $13.85 (Hardcover), $7.99 (Paperback)
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Each book in the Escape Book series tells a different story. In "Escape Book Vol. 2: Mystery Island", the volcano is about to erupt on this exotic island but the pirate captain knows that there is treasure here and is not going to leave until it is found. Can you get off this island and maybe find some treasure along the way.
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In "Escape Book Vol. 3: Madam Mortell's Haunted House", you discover a mysterious haunted house in the middle of a carnival. Going in, you are now trapped. Visiting with all the different monsters and ghouls, can you figure out how to leave this house before you become a permanent visitor?
In "Escape Book Vol. 4: The Museum Heist", you must play detective as a visit to the local museum turns into a mystery. You and your grandfather were the only ones in attendance when a priceless masterpiece was stolen, making you both the prime suspects. Can you find the real culprit?
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Each book as a fun colorful cover of the adventure. Flipping through each book, all entries are divided into excerpts rather than pages with a themed border on each page. Each book is just shy of 100 pages.
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Opening the books, in the front there is a map of the area (whether it’s the island, haunted house or museum). Each location has a number on it. If you want to visit the location, you go to that excerpt number. There are some locations that will be marked differently and those locations will need to be unlocked someway through the book.
As you start at the beginning and read the book you will be guided to use the map and go to different excerpts. You will encounter different items that you can also add to your inventory which you will need to get pass certain obstacles. When you encounter an obstacle in the book, you will be prompted to refer to a chart in the front or back with the obstacles listed out. Cross check the items you have with the obstacle and it will direct you to an excerpt to read telling you if that is the correct item to use.
The book is more geared to a younger audience with the writing and the way the book is set up. A few nice things is that the inventory is a checklist, so you do not have to write everything down. One thing I did noticed is that a lot of the challenges and puzzles has the corresponding excerpt on the next few pages. That way, there is not a lot of flipping around to different pages but can also spoil the answer with a wandering eye.
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These were fairly basic puzzles with math, fun facts and pattern recognition. The kids really enjoyed them because they were easy for them. There were a few puzzles that did require outside knowledge but was still fun because we had to go and research the answer.
The puzzles worked well with the flow of the game. The kids were even hoping for more puzzles throughout. A bulk of the puzzles contained a visual picture that you normally needed to solve the puzzle. There is also no “wrong ending” to the story. During the puzzles, if you do choose incorrectly, the excerpt will tell you to simply go back to the start of puzzle and try again. This was easy to manage as we read the book.
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Though geared for a younger audience, these Escape Books are great books for the young puzzle solver, especially if you want to get your kids into escape rooms. If your kids enjoy "choose your own adventure" books or standard puzzle books like mazes and word searches, these books a nice variation for them to read. Obviously as well, my kids really enjoyed these and anything to help lessen their screen time and get them to read more is a plus.
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(If you do decide to try this game, give us a shoutout or tag us on social media so we know you heard it from "ESCAPETHEROOMers"!)
Disclosure: We thank Andrews McMeel Publishing for providing us with a sample of their game. Although a complimentary experience was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever.
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