Review: The Perfect Escape (The Perfect Escape #1) by Suzanne park

Nate Jae-Woo Kim wants to be rich. When one of his classmates offers Nate a ridiculous amount of money to commit grade fraud, he knows that taking the windfall would help support his prideful Korean family, but is compromising his integrity worth it?

Luck comes in the form of Kate Anderson, Nate’s colleague at the zombie-themed escape room where he works. She approaches Nate with a plan: a local tech company is hosting a weekend-long survivalist competition with a huge cash prize. It could solve all of Nate’s problems, and Kate needs the money too.

If the two of them team up, Nate has a true shot at winning the grand prize. But the real challenge? Making through the weekend with his heart intact… ~ Goodreads

Source: E-arc provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review

Review: My friend saw this one on Netgalley and immediately let me know about it because it seemed the perfect *Karen read* – rom-com + zombies so I requested it on the spot.

Fast forward a few months and all the reviews are…this isn’t a rom-com, the ending left me wanting, there are no zombies.


via GIPHY

But I had already been approved and decided to just read it anyway and I’m SO glad I did. The reviewers were right about a lot of things but I enjoyed The Perfect Escape anyway.

Nate Jae-Woo Kim works as a guide for a zombie themed escape room and has dreams of starting his own survivalist company and making a boat load of money to support his struggling Korean- American family. Kate is an aspiring actress working as a zombie at the escape room and lives the financially secure life of Nate’s dreams with her father – a major tech industry player – and Nate’s role model.

Despite the surface appearances – Nate is super smart and seemingly has it all together but withers under his parents expectations financial hardships and bullying at school. While Kate seems to have it all with financial stability in her high tech home. In reality, her mom has died, her father is distant while having her under constant surveillance with his high tech toys and robots.

The two come together to team up for a reality show survivalist competition so they can split the cash winnings so Nate can help his family and Kate can make a clean break and go to NY to pursue her acting dreams.

So…this isn’t really a rom-com. Nate and Kate are adorable together and have funny moments but this doesn’t meet my definition of a rom-com. There’s attraction and that pull to each other but the romance is on the light side and the plot concerning Kate and her dad got very dark for me. Maybe the definition is changing or my standards are too high but I haven’t felt like a lot of the marketed rom-com is actually rom-com lately. but I digress….

Having said all that... I found Nate & Kate (it rhymes - too cute!) to be absolutely adorable and kind hearted. Do they make mistakes? Yes. But they try to do the right thing and often sacrifice their own happiness for each other. They are good people. I also loved their friend group.

The other thing I heard repeatedly in reviews was that there were hardly any zombies. Kind of true. They work in the zombie escape room so there’s a little bit of that in the beginning and how Kate tries to perfect her zombie make up. Towards the end is the competition with robot zombies that hunt the contestant’s down and like…shouldn’t that be illegal?? lol Zombies are more of a backdrop than a major element but I thought it all worked really well and was an interesting backdrop and catalyst to move the plot forward.

What took me by surprise is how sad both Nate and Kate’s life was. Again...expecting fun rom-com vibe. I know people loved Nate’s close knit family but his baby sister was so obnoxious ( I know she was supposed to be cute but ugh) and his father’s constant judgment finding Nate lacking hurt me to read. And don’t get me started with Kate’s dad. He was next level AWFUL. Never home. Literally creating a robot to watch over her and track her vitals. I wanted to wrap these two kids in a big hug and I was so happy they found each other.

Like I said, this is marketed as a fun zombie rom-com romp and it’s not exactly that. But going into it without those expectations I found The Perfect Escape to be a thoughtful look at class, families, grief with two refreshingly open and earnest teens and yes, with quite a few fun zombie moments. I’ve been struggling with reading but this book was the whole package for me – a little bit of everything – sweet, smart, fun and kept my attention – no small task these days.

If I had one complaint it would be that Kate’s resolution with her dad was off page and it seemed too insurmountable or important to be treated like that but otherwise I adored this one and would love to spend more time with these characters or in this world.

I know a few people found the romantic resolution a little lacking too but I was ok with it. It was sweet and promising. It was a fully fleshed out - but I know these two will be solid.

As long as you know what this is and what it isn’t going in – I highly recommend this one.