Review: Tick Tock Unlock – The Library Of Broken Books

I have a 10 year old who thinks she is into escape rooms, but is actually super wary of being in a locked room in case things jump out at her, and a 7 year old who doesn’t like the idea of being timed when doing anything – so when we heard about Tick Tock Unlock it seemed like there was finally a family activity that would please them both!

So off we went to Leeds, just around the corner from Trinity Shopping Centre to see what this one hour, immersive experience would be like. It promised to be family friendly, that there were multiple rooms, and that it absolutely was not about escaping, but about collecting keys. We couldn’t really picture what it might look like, and to be honest I think any guesses we would have come up with wouldn’t have come close.

We were met by our librarian guide, Franz after finding the side door we had been directed to, and he explained everything to us. Personal items safely deposited in a locker, we went into the main area. The premise was essentially that these magical librarians who were in charge of all the books (rooms) had lost their magic, and the only way to get the magic back was to find as many magical keys as possible. This sounded like our sort of mission.

We went into three rooms in our one hour session, each themed loosely around a book, with a short narrative on entry to explain more about the context. There were puzzles and activities in each room, some were harder, some easier and some physical tasks too, on completion of the tasks, keys would reveal themselves. There were also keys hidden around the room, at all heights, which meant that there was something for everyone to get involved with.

The attention to detail in each room was excellent, and despite there being three teams in the session at the same time, all in different rooms, we could barely hear the others and became immersed in the rooms very quickly.

The time went so quickly, and we were guided between rooms by one of the three librarians, ensuring a smooth transition. We especially liked the get out of the The Witch’s Post Office – you’ll have to go to find out what happens!

This is a great family activity that I would highly recommend for children ages 7 plus and their adults. As a family of four we found that initially the children kept wanting us to help them (lots of Mum, Mum!) every few minutes – but they soon got the hang of having a go at different puzzles themselves, working together when needed and we all ended up cracking different clues – it was a great way to get the kids listening to each other and praising each other when they did well.

Currently Tick Tock Unlock has 4 rooms, once it has more rooms we will be back for a second go!

There is currently a Raring2go discount code available for Tick Tock unlock, a family of four is £60. Use the code LOBRTG22 at www.ticktockunlock.com