Hello everyone and welcome to a brand new edition of Lil Red’s Book Club! In a spoiler free setting, as always, we are going to be discussing a thriller by Taylor Adams called No Exit. I recently read Her Last Breath by the same author and really enjoyed it so I wanted to read more of her work. Unfortunately, No Exit was very lackluster and it was honestly a really difficult read to get through. You will be able to tell by the big fat trigger warning I’ll be placing for sexual assault, animal cruelty, graphic violence, disturbing content, and life threatening illness. You ready? Let’s get to it:

Darby had absolutely no intention of returning home for Christmas. However, her mom is very sick and cryptic texts from her sister about their mom’s condition put Darby in her beat up car to drive to Utah from Colorado. All she has to do is beat the incoming snowstorm in her ancient ride. As Darby drives towards her estranged family, Snowpacolypse begins in full force and she must stop at a remote rest station off the highway because the weather won’t allow her to go any further. At the rest stop, there are four other weary travelers. Ed and Sandi who are cousins, a strange man named Lars, and talkative Ashley. All of them stranded for the night until the snow plows clear the way.

Cell service is shot but Ashley tells Darby that there is a certain area in the parking lot where he was able to grab one blessed bar. Darby trudges through the cold and snow to search for service so she can let her mom and sister know the change of plans. The phone call doesn’t happen but as she walks back to the rest stop, she notices something in the back of one of the vans in the lot. A little hand. Surely her exhaustion had her seeing things so she goes back into the warmth to formulate a plan on the off chance that there really is a life at stake.

Under the guise of looking for service once more, Darby returns outside and her worst fears are confirmed. There is a little girl in the back of the van and her name is Jay. She is confined, bleeding, and dirty and someone in that rest stop is responsible for it. The snow is falling fast and there is no way out for another ten plus hours. All Darby needs to do is get the girl to safety and survive the night amongst a handful of possible kidnappers. What happens next? A deadly game of cat and mouse. A game that Darby has to play all alone because she can trust no one or let her guard down for even a second. Will Darby and Jay escape the rest stop in the morning? Or will someone in the rest stop get away with an unspeakable crime? Read No Exit to find out!

As I started reading No Exit, I was loving it. The plot was gripping and urgent and Darby was a remarkable heroine. It was twisty, downright terrifying, and every passing second felt like an eternity as Darby tried to figure out what to do next. Then, when the identity of the kidnapper was revealed, it all became too much. The criminal was the definition of a sadist and all of that suspense turned into something far more disturbing. Every risk that Darby took was foiled and as the kidnapper delighted and let their true colors come forward, No Exit became increasingly hard to read. Indeed, this book is NOT for the faint of heart.

For all of the horrible things in this book, the one redemption it had was Darby. She. Was. AWESOME! Darby was a bit of a thing at barely over five feet tall and she was scrappy as hell. I was so there for it! As she stared literal monsters down, she never faltered. She was calm, cool, and kept her head the whole way through. The criminal played checkers while Darby played chess. Thinking one step ahead, risking her life, and taking pride in being Jay’s guardian angel. Every time a plan failed, she came back swinging and it was impossible not to root for her. Darby was an excellent leading lady but it just wasn’t enough to make me say that this book was good. No Exit coasted on shock value alone and it was not the reading experience I expected after Her Last Breath.

Overall, I am going to rate No Exit with a two out of ten stars. For all of the good of Darby, there was just too much awful in this book for me to recommend it. This is one you can definitely skip on!

What did you think of No Exit if you have read it before? Did you see the movie on Hulu? I want to hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah