I just could NOT find my way with this story... From the opening pages it fell flat for me - I couldn't connect to the characters, the dialogue felt overly contrived, and the plot felt like a sitcom I'd seen before. I expected tongue-in-cheek wry humor but instead it felt like train wreck-watching and just wasn't a good fit for me...

An interesting read about the evolution of reality TV, fifty years from now into the future. Society has changed in many ways, mostly technologically, but has also remained quite the same in certain areas. In this book’s future, the ethics of reality TV and the existence of fake news is still a big issue.

Quite some words are spent introducing the characters, including those that make up the TV network, as well as the candidates of the TV show. This is a good approach; it gives the characters time to “sink in”. Some of the candidates have a not so obvious career, which is fun to read. Liam Argyle, the host of the show, has some moral issues with how things evolve, which is promising as one expects some plot twists because of that.

The author makes use of the etymology of words (explained in footnotes) to give sentences an alternative meaning that becomes clear once you have read the footnote. These footnotes, by the way, are actually “paragraph notes”, as they appear immediately after the paragraph that contains the referenced word. Weird at first but it works very well actually. The humour of it doesn’t last during the entire book, however. The author uses this trick too many times and the novelty of it wears off.

This repetitiveness also becomes an issue of the plot itself when it progresses. Everybody knows that the concept of these types of TV-shows is that candidates get eliminated by voting of the viewers. It is also clear from the beginning that Liam is not happy with how candidates are exploited. With these two main subjects in mind, a reader would expect some original plot twists, but there is little variation to be found. How candidates get eliminated and how Liam Argyle struggles with the ethics of it all, becomes predictable as the pattern is always the same. The superficiality of TV and fame are mocked, and the author also criticises how disposable people have become, but the entire plot is not funny, varying and entertaining enough to remain exciting until the very end.

Excellent story about a future ar reality game show and the goings on behind set. Loved the unique job titles and descriptions from a male porn star to a woman who cleans up suicides and the steady decline of stardom. Little bit political but the interesting parts make up for it. Can't wait for season 2.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC