Synopsis (Amazon)
Harkening to Agatha Christie’s classic And Then There Were None, this high-tension thriller follows five couples trapped on a storm-swept island as a killer stalks among them—from Ruth Ware, the New York Times bestselling author who “is turning out to be as ingenious and indefatigable as the Queen of Crime” (The Washington Post).
Lyla is in a bit of a rut. Her post-doctoral research has fizzled out, she’s pretty sure they won’t extend her contract, and things with her boyfriend, Nico, an aspiring actor, aren’t going great. When the opportunity arises for Nico to join the cast of a new reality TV show, One Perfect Couple, she agrees to try out with him.
A whirlwind audition process later, Lyla finds herself whisked off to a tropical paradise with Nico, boating through the Indian Ocean towards Ever After Island, where the two of them will compete against four other couples—Bayer and Angel, Dan and Santana, Joel and Romi, and Conor and Zana—in order to win a cash prize.
But not long after they arrive on the deserted island, things start to go wrong. After the first challenge leaves everyone rattled and angry, an overnight storm takes matters from bad to worse. Cut off from the mainland by miles of ocean, deprived of their phones, and unable to contact the crew that brought them there, the group must band together for survival. As tensions run high and fresh water runs low, Lyla finds that this game show is all too real—and the stakes are life or death.
My Take
This novel is an interesting reflection on the creation of reality TV shows. As we know, these shows rely heavily on factors like surprise "tests", contrived romances, losers and winners, the embarrassment of participants, early ejections and so on. In this case the storm that strikes the island soon after the group's arrival complicates the scenario beyond all predictions. Not only does the boat that dropped them all at the island depart soon after their arrival, taking with the first ejection, the storm causes huge destruction and a couple of deaths.
The novel is very well written, and structured with a couple of very interesting plot lines.
Highly recommended.
My rating: 4.7
I've also read
No comments:
Post a Comment