No Exit, by Taylor Adams

I’m a huge fan of all things suspense. Stories like No Exit, by Taylor Adams, are typically the kind of books I gravitate toward. And when I read the blurb for this one, I knew I couldn’t pass it up.

Darby Thorne is driving through Colorado on her way to Utah when she gets caught in a blizzard. She’s forced off the road and into a rest stop where she stays to wait out the storm with four other strangers. While outside of the rest stop building, she happens upon a van in which she sees a little girl’s hand reaching out of a locked cage. Darby is forced to start questioning the strangers at the rest stop….to whom does the van belong? Who is the little girl? Why is she locked in a cage? Which one of these four strangers is responsible?

This book is jam packed full of all the things I love in a suspense, but also full of things that make me irrationally angry. This was a very fast paced read. I honestly couldn’t put it down. Full of action. Witty banter and dialogue. Lots of tension. And gore. And because I don’t want to say too much that would give it all away, I’ll say that the characters did things that didn’t make a lick of sense and a few things happened that were too unbelievable and would’ve been better left out altogether.

That said, I felt a lot like this one was written for the big screen. I kept reading thinking, “this would make such a great movie!“. And it turns out it was and you can find it on Hulu. But I absolutely wouldn’t waste your time. I watched it after reading the book and feel like I’ll never get those two hours of my life back. It’s hard for me to believe the author was okay with the movie rendition of his novel. Of course, this is just my opinion…but man. It was just not good at all, LOL.

I originally gave this one a 4.6 out of 5 stars, but went back in and changed it to 4.

An overall really enjoyable, fast paced read that I think you’ll enjoy!

TW: kidnapping; harm to a child; graphic violence; language; gore