This week's novel is The Last One by Alexandra Oliva. I heard about this one because it was nominated as a Goodreads choice award nominee for 2017 in science fiction. I have problems with the science fiction label, but that's not anywhere near the point.
Twelve contestants go on a wilderness survival reality show, where part of the way through an epidemic hits the country. Or does it? Maybe it's part of the show. The production company is infamous for their last reality show where they used props and special effects to create a volcano, and this show has a $100 million budget. The only way off the show is to ask to leave by using a safe word, and he show is said to be about finding the contestants' breaking points, and the host makes it clear the contestants don't know everything that's happening. But then again...the dead body special effects are very good.
This book is upsetting. You may know how much I like books about reality shows, and I liked this book. But it was upsetting. I came to the end, and even though it had been clear for a couple chapters how it would end, I got to the last line and started crying. In retrospect, I think it's because the tension was finally released.
The structure of this book makes it work. There are alternating chapters between an omniscient point of view that mostly follows the episodes that air, and chapters from the first person perspective of "Zoo" (which is what the producers have nickname one of the contestants, who is a zoologist). With the first person chapters, we see what Zoo knows and follow how she makes sense of what she's seeing, starting a few days into a solo challenge while she walks mile after mile through abandoned towns. With the omniscient chapters we see how the producers are cutting the events together and warping the narrative, and we get to meet the other contestants. Knowing that the producers arranged tricks and props and actors to mess with the contestants adds weight to the theory that it's all part of the show. (It's also fun to see all the work the production assistants and the editor and camera operators do.). While the first person chapters show us how Zoo is rationalizing everything and why she keeps going. It personalizes the journey.
And there were several times when I had to stop and say, "Wait. Is this real?" I wasn't sure for a long time. I was hoping it was all part of the game for the sake of Zoo and for the sake of humanity, and also because that would have made my horrible, popcorn popping self cackle at the evilness this production company put Zoo through for my entertainment. Zoo thinks of episodes of misadventures as Challenges. The Rabid Coyote Challenge. The Marauders Challenge. And she thinks of her good luck as rewards for doing well on those challenges. The Abandoned Camping Gear Store Reward. She gives everything a cause and effect. She believes things are planned and people are watching her and if things get too bad a production assistant will appear with a med team. And she believes she has an out: if she says the code word, she'll be done and it'll all stop and she can go home. But at the same time, she doesn't say it, because she can take it. Or maybe she's not saying it because she thinks it's not part of the show and doesn't want that coping mechanism taken from her. She wants to stay in denial.
But my favorite part of the book was how deftly the omniscient point of view was used. It was great. It tells us that a contestant was thinking something harsh, but because they were trying to go for Fan Favorite, they said something more reasonable, to which a different contestant responded and third contestant said something snarky, which was later removed by the editor. It shows what the host is doing just before contestants make it to the finish line and how the contestants react on finding out they're last, and how the producers cheer that those contestants' coming in last will set up drama that the viewers will eat up, and then what the viewers think about the challenge and what they write online about it in the comments section. It moves organically and gives an image of what's happening that feels complete.
But this also gets into my least favorite part of the book, which is that these omnicisent sections are male gaze-y and weirdly racist. These sections refer to the contestants only by their nicknames, which include "Asian Chick" and "Black Doctor." (There are no other doctors.) These sections linger on the women bending over or drinking water, because the show lingers on these moments. They are almost in the producer's voice, but not from his point of view. So it's a statement about the people making this show, but, again, it's not explicitly from anyone's point of view. And I don't have to enjoy something that's problematic even if it's an accurate reflection of a point of view.
***
Next week: A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan.
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