Review: The Last One

The Last One by Alexandra Oliva
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The Last One is a weird book.

On the surface, we're talking about a story following the taping of a Survivor-style reality show. A lot of it seems sort of scripted and planned, but there's also some stuff happening that puts some doubt into the minds of the contestants as they work their way through the challenges and the show itself.

Especially since it's nearly Big Brother season as I read this, the way this handles reality TV does deserve some credit, as it places us right inside the production aspect as well as following people around as it happens. Unfortunately, this limitation makes for some difficult transitions as the story continues, and the level of unreality to get to accepting what's going on in the story as legitimate ultimately ended up being a bridge too far. Instead of an ambiguous scenario or a direct one, it takes its time getting to where it's heading and does so at the overall detriment of the narrative.

This was okay. Not great, but not bad, either. Fairly readable, but not one I would ultimately recommend. Closer to a 2.5.

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