The Perfect Escape is a 2020 young adult romantic comedy written by Korean American author Suzanne Park. A former comedian, Park uses a humorous tone to tell the story of Nate, a tech-savvy Korean American teen, and Kate, an aspiring actress, who work together at a zombie-themed escape room. Seeking a better life for themselves and their families, they join forces in a lucrative survivalist competition, which leads to mishaps, revelations, and a deepening connection between them. The story touches on aspects of the Korean American experience, presenting challenges and nuances of cultural identity. The novel also deals with poverty and the shame that Nate associates with his family’s socioeconomic status. As he falls in love for the first time, he learns that misguided aspirations and dreams can sometimes prevent people from recognizing true happiness.

This guide uses the 2020 Sourcebooks print edition of the novel.

Content Warning: The source material features Korean American cultural stereotypes and bigoted language, which this guide describes and discusses.

Plot Summary

The novel alternates between the perspectives of both protagonists, Nate and Kate. The two meet on Kate’s first day of work at the Zombie Laboratory, a zombie-themed escape room of which Nate is the host. Kate plays the role of a zombie and is supposed to jump out at the participants whenever they solve certain puzzles, but the group in the first chapter never makes it to that point, leaving Kate with little to do. Later, Kate asks Nate for a ride home, and he agrees. On the way home, they grab dinner, and Nate pretends to like everything that Kate likes. As they chat, Nate is relieved that she doesn’t ask about his school. He is ashamed of his scholarship status at the prestigious Clyde Hill Academy, which has earned him the nickname “skid.” Kate forgets her zombie wig in Nate’s car when he drops her off. She lives in a mansion with her father, Robbie Anderson-Steel, who is the CEO of Digitools, a company that provides home security and other high-tech products. Their home is filled with smart-home gadgets, including a butler robot named Jeeves. Today is Kate’s 18th birthday, but her dad is gone and has arranged for a birthday cake to be delivered instead.

On the next Friday, Nate picks up his friends Jaxon and Zach on the way to school. They tease him about Annie, their mutual friend, on whom Nate has had a crush for years. At school, a wealthy and arrogant student named Peter makes Nate an offer. If Nate sabotages his own second-semester grades, Peter will pay him close to $30,000. Peter reasons that colleges don’t care about the second semester of senior year, and if Nate falls off the Dean’s List, Peter and his friends can move up to take his place. Nate is shocked but is nonetheless struck by the large amount of money that Peter is offering. Nate’s Korean American family has grown up in poverty, and their financial situation worsened five years ago with the unexpected birth of his little sister, Lucy. Nate is extremely frugal and dreams of being a CEO like Robbie Anderson-Steele one day.

Ever since her mother died of untreated pneumonia, Kate has had a strained relationship with her father. Her mother contracted the disease from Kate’s father, who refused to take her to the hospital until it was too late; Kate now blames him for her mother’s death. In her grief, Kate has isolated herself from her friends and fallen into depression. She loves theater and dreams of being an actress on Broadway, but her father disapproves of this ambition. He monitors her life excessively with his technology and expects her to follow in his corporate footsteps. Kate needs money to escape his control and run away to New York. When she hears about Zombiegeddon, a 48-hour zombie-themed survivalist competition with a $50,000 cash prize, she begs Nate to be her teammate. He accepts, enticed by the money as well.

Kate and Nate meet up several times over the next few weeks to discuss their survivalist strategy and get to know each other better. For fear of getting too close to Nate and forming unwanted emotional ties, Kate doesn’t share the entire truth of her situation with Nate. She also fails to mention the identity of her father. One day, Kate’s close friend, Raina, convinces Kate to attend a roller-skating party. There, she runs into Nate and Annie and gets jealous when the two skate together. Peter approaches Nate at the party to ask about Nate’s answer to the offer, but Nate asks for more time to consider. Back home, Kate argues with her father about her future. The next night, her father fails to show up to Kate’s theater performance, and she is disappointed but unsurprised.

At school, Annie seems more interested in Nate and asks to study with him. Later, Nate injures his ankle while climbing a ladder to assist his father. Nate has a phobia of heights, for which he feels shame because his father doesn’t understand. Nate is dismayed to discover that his father has lost his IT consulting job and the family is at risk of losing their house. He realizes that he needs the Zombiegeddon money even more desperately now. One night, Nate wakes to find a disheveled Kate at his door. She has just argued with her father again. Nate lets her vent as he comforts her, and she falls asleep. The next Friday at the escape room, Peter corners Nate and tries to force him into accepting his offer. They almost get into a physical altercation before a coworker interrupts.

The next day is competition day and Nate’s 17th birthday. At the competition campground, Kate gives Nate a gift that he plans to open later. They are bussed to another secret location and given smart watches that include GPS functionality; removing the watch would result in disqualification. During the competition, they encounter zombie robots and other competitive survivalists who seem extra motivated to disqualify Nate and Kate. They also discover that Annie and Peter have joined the competition and are working together. Peter wants Nate to be disqualified so that he will be forced to accept Peter’s money. When Nate and Kate confront Annie and Peter, Annie tearfully confesses to helping Peter but seems genuinely remorseful. Nate and Peter fight, and Kate jumps in to defend Nate, while Annie removes Peter’s wristband to help them.

Later, while Nate and Kate hide from zombies in a cave, they share a romantic kiss and confess their feelings for each other. However, the moment is interrupted when Kate’s father knocks both teens unconscious and kidnaps Nate briefly to make him an offer. Digitools and Zeneration (the Zombiegeddon sponsor) are merging, which means that Kate cannot win the competition due to the public backlash that her connection to Robbie would cause. Robbie demands that Nate break up his partnership with Kate in exchange for more money. If Nate refuses or tells Kate the truth, Robbie vows to destroy Nate’s family. Nate accepts the offer but demands to be paid in cryptocurrency.

Back in the cave, Kate has injured her ankle, and Nate uses this as an excuse to break off his partnership with her. He feels guilty but plans to give Kate some of Robbie’s bribe money. Kate is angry as they part and claims that she never wants to see him again. Later, she runs into Nate on a cliffside and must help him through his panic due to his fear of heights. They move forward together before they are attacked by the other remaining competitor. After the male competitor fights with Kate, causing her to lose her wristband and be disqualified, he nearly beats Nate to the finish line by knocking him unconscious. When Nate wakes, he learns that he has won by a few millimeters. His parents confront him for lying about where he was, as they believed he was at a friend’s house, and refuse to accept his prize money. His father has found a new job, and he claims they are content with their meager lives because they have each other. Nate realizes that he is in love with Kate but has lost her because of his obsession with money. He transfers some of his money to her anonymously.

Kate confronts her father one last time as he tries to stop her from running away. She escapes and makes it to New York, where she eventually gets a job as a theater assistant. Weeks later, Nate has learned that money isn’t everything. After Nate receives a postcard from Kate, he surprises her with a visit. Kate explains that her father has since revealed the truth about Zombiegeddon and that he paid Nate to abandon her during the competition, so she is happy to see Nate. They have dinner and make plans to continue seeing each other as Nate considers applying to colleges on the east coast.