NEED TO KNOW
- Authors Marissa Meyer and Tamara Moss will publish their cowritten novel, The Escape Room, in early 2026
- The young adult thriller follows the contestants of an escape room game show who must solve a murder before things turn even deadlier
- PEOPLE has an exclusive first look at the cover
Reality TV turns deadly in a striking new novel.
PEOPLE can exclusively share the cover of The Escape Game, a new young adult thriller co-written by Marissa Meyer and Tamara Moss. The book will hit shelves in early 2026 from Putnam Books for Young Readers.
The novel centers on a fictional escape room game show called The Escape Game. The show’s fourth season shocked audiences when one of its contestants, Alicia Angelos, was found murdered on set.
Instead of getting cancelled, however, The Escape Game is green-lit for another season with all new contestants, including a cryptographer, a math genius, a determined game master and Alicia’s sister, who many believe to be the murderer.
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But as the competition wears on, the show’s contestants begin to uncover the truth about Alicia’s death, and soon realize they’re all at risk of facing deadly consequences. If they want to win The Escape Game, they must find out who really killed Alicia — before it’s too late.
Per a statement shared with PEOPLE, Moss and Meyer met as critique partners, and had long considered the idea of writing a book together. Meyer suggested writing an “escape room murder mystery.”
“Writing The Escape Game has been the most rewarding experience of my life,” Moss, author of the Lintang series, says.
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“Marissa and I have been friends for several decades, and to be able to co-write such a fun story, with so many twists and turns, was an absolute blast.”
“I’m so thrilled for The Escape Game to hit shelves next April!” says Meyer, who’s also author of the Lunar Chronicles series. “The book combines some of my all-time favorite things (codes and puzzles and escape rooms!) with a hefty dose of murder, sabotage and found family.”
And though The Escape Game is a riveting whodunnit, its characters are sure to be a hit with readers too, Meyer says.
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“While Tamara and I were writing the book, I couldn’t help but fall in love with our four protagonists, and I hope readers will laugh, cry, swoon and cheer with them as much as we have.”
The Escape Game will hit shelves on April 7, 2026 and is now available for preorder, wherever books are sold.
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