It's Only a Game - PREORDER

An emotionally charged and propulsive puzzle box novel by Sam Rebelein, where a recently split couple must solve a haunted escape room together--or die trying.

"Taken on its own, each tale is horror perfection, as dread seeps in slowly until it explodes, and readers are left in breathlessly horrifying awe...A stellar collection." -- Library Journal (starred review)

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A year after a bitter breakup, Julian and Millie are thrown back together by a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity: an invitation to play a legendary 72-hour survival experience with a huge cash prize. The challenge: solve a series of elaborate puzzles inside the remote and reputedly haunted Clate Hill Lodge. Only one other contestant has ever successfully escaped, and Julian and Millie are desperate to make history.

But as the weekend begins, the line between performance and paranormal quickly blurs. The puzzles are impossible, the ghosts feel undeniably real, and the hotel seems to have a mind of its own. Caught between confronting the horrors of the hotel and the unresolved issues of their own past, Julian and Millie begin to wonder how much of the Lodge is only a game and whether the prize isn't money--but their own lives.

Sam Rebelein's newest is both a satisfyingly inventive puzzle box and an equally terrifying thriller that readers won't be able to put down until the final clue is solved.

Sam Rebelein is the Bram Stoker Award-nominated author of Edenville and the short story collection The Poorly Made and Other Things. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Goddard College, with a focus on Memoir and Short Fiction. His work has appeared in PseudoPod, Bourbon Penn, Gamut, The Deadlands, Ellen Datlow's The Best Horror of the Year, and elsewhere. Edenville also received a Wonderland Book Award for Best Novel. Sam lives, writes, and teaches in Poughkeepsie, NY.