Escape by Emma Egglestone | Review

SYNOPSIS: Laila is Richardsville High's quirky girl. She's just biding her time until graduation when she has an unusual encounter with Matty, the all-American boy next door. When Matty and Laila start to talk, he shares a secret with her. He's a part of a clinical study for a medication called effugium, and it can really transport him to other places and times. Will Laila trust Matty enough to try the effugium?

AUTHOR: Emma Egglestone

Escape by Emma Egglestone is a book about two teenagers, Laila and Matty. Both have their own set of problems to face even though they had seemingly a "perfect" childhood. They use the drug Effugium to escape to other scenarios. Also, I want to issue a Trigger Warning in this book about Depression, Anxiety, and Drug-misuse (Anti-depressants.)

Both Laila and Matty's characters were highly relatable because mostly the books I have read have a relatable lead, but their story isn't. But with Laila and Matty, the introductions of the characters were relatable to some extent.  Laila was an only child and was an outcast at school. 

"Alternatively, Laila leaned into her long-time love of reading books until early in the morning, listening to music no one else cared for, and escaping into daydreams or creative activities whenever a fascinating thought passed through her mind." 

This whole paragraph describing Laila literally describes me, and I was so shocked when I read this. 

Matty's character is one of the "golden boys" of the school with perfect grades and being a member of the soccer team and captain of the Track and Field team. He was a popular boy, and as soon as I got to know it, my interest wavered slightly because I thought it would be that cliche "Nerd girl and Popular Guy" type of book, but I was so wrong. Matty's character soon becomes a lot more relatable as he says that he started becoming depressed for no reason once he reached the age of 15 and 16. He had a feeling that his life was "perfect," so he had no reason to be depressed. He was also lonely but not alone, which was the opposite of Laila as she was not lonely.

He told his mother about it, and they made him go to therapists and all, but it just became worse. He went to a drug trial for "Effugium," He used the drugs a few times and discovered that he escaped to a completely different scenario every time he took it, may it be his past or his future or a completely different scenario. He thought to tell Laila about it, and she joined him. 

Throughout a few chapters, Matty and Laila enjoyed each other's company and escaping to different scenarios together. But the problem came when Matty's parents decided that Laila was a bad influence when he was getting better because of her and the drug. At his parent's order, Matty withdraws himself from Laila and goes back to become the shell of the person he was with his fake smiles, and that pleased everybody. 

The book was pretty small, with about 150, but I feel like this is a good book for teens because it tells them about; first of all, it makes space for discussion about Mental Health, which is good. Second of all, it warns about Drug-misuse which I am also going to warn people that if they have any unusual repercussions, you should inform an adult, and you should not get addicted to it. And Lastly, this book's ending, especially Matty's, tells people how we want to live in that "perfect life." Trying to live in the reel-world instead of the real-world causes damage to the real world we live in. 

As a person who uses books as some sort of "escape," I cannot lie and say that getting lost in the books forever doesn't sound great. But this book tells us and warns us about the amount of time we spend there and how it can affect us mentally. 

Overall, I don't usually read books like this. Still, this book was a fantastic write and had various unique imageries about where to escape to and deciding the limits on escaping reality. I feel like this an excellent read for age groups of 12-18.