Reprieve keeps you on the edge of your seat as contestants traverse a terrifying escape room while offering a biting portrayal of race relations in the US.
When Bryan, Jaidee, Victor, and Jane team up to compete at an infamous full-contact escape room in Nebraska known as Quigley House, it seems simple. Hold your nerve through six terrifying challenges; get through each of the cells as masked actors roam the house of horrors; collect all the red envelopes; win a huge cash prize. Are you up for the ride?
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.
A startlingly soulful exploration of complicity and masquerade, Reprieve combines the psychological tension of classic horror with searing social criticism, and seamlessly threads together trial transcripts, evidence descriptions, and deeply layered individual narratives to present a chilling portrait of American life.
Han Mattson is a Korean American writer whose first novel, The Lost Prayers of Ricky Graves, was critically acclaimed. His second novel, Reprieve, is his first foray into the horror/thriller genre. With all the suspense of a psychological thriller and added layers of social criticism regarding race relations, homophobia, xenophobia, and sexism, Reprieve is a gripping, intriguing read.
Set in Nebraska during the 1990s, Reprieve offers a fascinating portrayal of everyday life at that time – especially for people of colour – through the eyes of many characters in this novel. Readers follow the contestants who entered the escape room: teenager Kendra, a long-time fan of horror films, works at the House before its dark secrets become apparent; Jaidee is gay; Thai, an immigrant struggling to find his place in a Nebraskan high school. Simmering with suspense, this read slowly draws out what led each individual to that fateful night at Quigley House.
Nothing is as expected in this novel, with twists and turns awaiting readers in each cell of the escape room. Be warned, there’s more than a few frights along the way, making Reprieve the perfect read for lovers of horror and thrillers.
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