Monday 17 July 2017

Book Review: The Last One

Book: The Last One



Summary: 

Survival is the name of the game as the line blurs between reality TV and reality itself in Alexandra Oliva’s fast-paced novel of suspense.

She wanted an adventure. She never imagined it would go this far.

It begins with a reality TV show. Twelve contestants are sent into the woods to face challenges that will test the limits of their endurance. While they are out there, something terrible happens—but how widespread is the destruction, and has it occurred naturally or is it human-made? Cut off from society, the contestants know nothing of it. When one of them—a young woman the show’s producers call Zoo—stumbles across the devastation, she can imagine only that it is part of the game.

Alone and disoriented, Zoo is heavy with doubt regarding the life—and husband—she left behind, but she refuses to quit. Staggering countless miles across unfamiliar territory, Zoo must summon all her survival skills—and learn new ones as she goes.

But as her emotional and physical reserves dwindle, she grasps that the real world might have been altered in terrifying ways—and her ability to parse the charade will be either her triumph or her undoing.

Sophisticated and provocative, The Last One is a novel that forces us to confront the role that media plays in our perception of what is real: how readily we cast our judgments, how easily we are manipulated.

Pages: 281
Chapters: 27
Published: 2016

Opinion:
I came across this book in a Russian forum! (No I don't speak Russian, I accidentally stumbled upon it while googling M.R. Carey), the premise interested me; a TV show with 12 contestants who have to survive in the woods and finish all the challenges to win million dollars, but there is a catch: The show will continue until only one person remains, and the only way out of the show is to quit!

but things go sideways when a pandemic happens while the contestants are on solo challenge.. people starts getting sick then die, and the filming stops. But Zoo doesn't know that!

the book chapters went back and forth between the contestants doing challenges, and Zoo wandering on her own.. it was easy to follow up with it, it wasn't confusing except for the names; on the show they give each contestant a nickname, while when Zoo talks about the contestants she uses their real names.

overall this book was fun to read, especially the chapters about the show, everything was so detailed and described beautifully, it felt as if I was watching the show, and I loved reading "behind the scenes" and how editors manipulated what happened to make it more appealing to the viewers.


It was addictive to read, but there are times when I had to put the book down because I was soo frustrated with Zoo and her stupid decisions and delusional thoughts which bothered me a lot. But that shows you how good the writer is because she could invoke such feelings yet keeps you wanting to read more.




Favourite character: Maybe Engineer, or the husband

Least favourite character: Zoo

Favourite Quotes: "I feel as though my anger will split my skin, flay me alive from the inside."


Did I like the ending? I sorta figured it'll end up similarly, but honestly I wished for something else, something bad..

Rating:  4.5/5 
Buy it here or Add it to your goodreads here

 ♥