The Last One by Alexandra Olivia

title: The Last One

author: Alexandra Olivia

pages: 304

format: Audiobook

buy it: Amazon | B&N | BookDepository | Goodreads

rating: 4/5

genre: Thriller, Action/Adventure

topics: Apocalypse, Grief, Psychology, Reality Television, Road Trip, Survival

Questioning Reality

A young woman nick-named Zoo signs up for a survivalist reality television show, in which the goal is push the contestants into quitting using psychological stress. As part of this, they are subjected to mind games, faction fighting, and even faked catastrophes and "dead body" mannequins. So when Zoo sets out on a solo portion of the competition and the world descends into a genuine apocalyptic plague, she believes that her extreme isolation and the signs of devastation she comes across are just part of the show. While slowly losing her grip on what is real and what is fake, and with no idea of where 'the show runners' want her to go, she slowly makes her way east across an abandoned landscape.
Dual Narrative and Tonal Shifts

The story is told in alternating chapters. One is told in Zoo's first person perspective as she makes her way across the world, slowly discovering more and more proof that it's all real and trying to play it away. The other narrative flashes back to the actual reality show and is told from the POV of...well, of the camera. There's a lot of descriptions of exactly which shots are on the 'screen' in which order (including the whole opening credit sequence of the show) and a lot of awkward sentences about 'the viewers will see X happen.'


The juxtaposition of the very basic, very distant narration in the show parts, and the very dense and close stream-of-consciousness in Zoo's parts created quite a bit of whiplash for me. I appreciated the potential of both styles, but I didn't get much of a chance to really enjoy one or the other before being switched to something else. Furthermore, there didn't seem a reason for the dual narrative. The show parts did not impart any insight into Zoo's solo survival. Zoo's solo story didn't have any thematic impact on the story of the show. They were both interesting in their own rights, but they only thing connecting them were "this happened after that." They could have come from completely different authors, they were so disparate!


The set up was great...to a point

One of my favorite parts of the book was seeing Zoo's mental process of explaining away every bit of evidence she got about the apocalypse being real. To the reader, it's very obvious what's going on, but at the same time I had no problem believing that Zoo convinced herself otherwise. The close-in, first person narration does a very good job letting the reader into her head, into all of her confusion and the fact that she's clinging to this narrative she's built for herself as a defense mechanism. There were a few points where I was sucked into Zoo's perspective so much that even I wasn't sure what was real or what wasn't. Obviously there's an apocalypse, but where exactly in Zoo's memories does it start? The portions she experiences are pretty clear, but there's a section of the timeline that we only see in Zoo's memories and she's a very unreliable narrator at that point.


It also helps that, in the portions of the reality show that we see, it's very clear that they're doing all the can to mess with the contestants, even to the point of faking someone's death. So while the final conclusion of "this whole destroyed town is fake" is a leap, it is reasonable that Zoo would have started down this line of thinking.


The only complaint I have is...well, that missing chunk of the timeline. There's a bit between where Zoo leaves the show group and before her POV narration picks up which I would have loved to see, because that's the point at which she starts to crack. Instead of seeing the process of Zoo losing her grip on reality and succumbing to loneliness, we start with her already there. She comes into the book already worn down and desperate and single-minded. And then she stays that way. It makes the emotional tone of the book very one-note. Her emotional state is rich and delved into for a lot of soliloquies, but it also doesn't change much.


Will I read this author again? Maybe.

Will I continue this series? Not part of a series.

(to be posted 2/15)

While the premise of this book was great, the execution simply wasn't there for me.

I liked the writing style, especially with the forum excerpts interspersed throughout. I also really liked placing the real names with the nicknames in the book and letting the reader guess who was who. I also appreciated some of the skewed perspective of Zoo and the unreliability of the narrator.

I was disappointed by how the novel ended and didn't find enough unique in this novel to boost up it beyond 3 stars. While I enjoyed some of the other characters, there wasn't substantial enough characterization among them.

I had this book for the longest time before I got started, but once I got started, I really couldn't stop reading.
The premise appears to be that we are following a group of participants in a "Survivor"-like game show, except the challenges are considerably more serious and the consequences are more severe. There is a separate narrative in the book, that I had a harder time figuring out where that belonged compared to the main story.
That, however, neatly came together towards the very end of the book.
The story is incredibly well-told and, aside from sometimes confusing the side-narrative, a through and through page-turner.

I really enjoyed The Last One. It is built around the main character, Zoo, as a reality show contestant. It flips between what she is experiencing currently with different interactions and challenges she had with other contestants at the start of the show. It was interesting and fast-paced. It held just the right amount of intrigue that for a little while you can’t tell: is Zoo right, and the producers have gone to extreme measures and created an apocalyptic world for the contestants to navigate, or is all of this chaos, destruction, and death actually real?

I really liked Zoo’s character. She admits that her excuse for joining the show was a bit bogus and that she’s kind-of avoiding the reality of aging. Her relationship with her husband. There wasn’t much hit on this, but I really could feel how much absolute love Zoo had for her husband.

I am a huge fan of apocalyptic novels, and for me, this one did not disappoint. I liked the layout, the journey, and even the fact that the reader doesn’t know the characters’ real names.

I received The Last One from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

DNF. Couldn't get into this one, I didn't connect with the writing. I only made it a few chapters, so don't put too much stock in this review. Maybe the story is good, I just didn't want to keep trying.

This book has a definite appeal for those readers, like myself, who enjoy the craziness of reality TV and the lengths to which television will push people to the limits. I enjoyed this book, and I think readers who like contemporary fiction with a dark side will like this title.

Thank you for the opportunity to read and review this title. Unfortunately, I have lost interest in the title, partly due to trusted reviews, and will not be reviewing the title. I have, however, promoed the title through my weekly recap with links to Amazon. Thank you again, and I apologize for the inconvenience this may cause.

This is a great dystopian book. I was reminded of THE HUNGER GAMES, but to me, this was SO much better. So many aspects of this book made it a perfect read for me, especially the twist of the reality show. Two thumbs up.

I started and stopped this book a few times before getting about halfway through. And at that point, it was still a struggle to read so it is moving to my DNF pile.

There was nothing glaringly wrong with the book. I just personally could not get invested in the plot. Most of the time I spent questioning what the heck was happening. And I did find the viewpoint shifts between chapters to be beneficial to draw the reader in.

Maybe at a different time, with a different mindset I will return to the book. But this one dragged for me.

In this world filled with reality shows like "Big Brother" and "Survivor", what would happen if a brand new one came out only instead of votes, the contestants decide on whether to leave or keep fighting for a million dollars. But unbeknownst to the contestants, the world outside reality television is under an attack by a widespread pandemic.

We are given a wide variety cast of characters under specific names coordinating with their personality or their profession. The author cleverly hides their real names throughout the book, but you must pay attention in order to catch them. Each of them, though proves that they are more than what the mere names their producers give them and some have deep, dark tendencies.

Fantastic debut novel!

I received an eARC of this book via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of this review.

I struggled to finish The Last One by Alexandra Oliva. I wanted to like it. I really did. The premise sounded so promising. Reality TV mixed with true life apocalypse? What’s real vs what’s done for TV? I was all in. But the book is nothing like I thought it would be.

First off the blurb is a bit misleading. “Widespread destruction” needs to be replaced with “World-wide pandemic.” In the opening chapters we learn that Zoo is awakening after being really sick. She’s disoriented and trying to figure out how much time has passed and how to get to her next challenge. The narrator/TV announcer type (I’m not really sure what to call this narrator) lets the reader know that most of the world is dead because of some virus. Yet the contestants don’t know what is happening outside of the bubble of the show so they continue on. It’s a little confusing as it is told from alternating POV. Zoo is the main character and tells the story from the time she wakes up from being sick. The other narrator is like an outside participant/TV announcer/honestly I’m not sure that narrates from the time of the opening of the show. So basically as the reader we alternate chapters from past to present and it gets confusing fast. In addition to the odd narrator’s POV there are also some blog comment threads thrown in for good measure that really threw me off as well. It just didn’t flow well and disrupted the plot/pacing.

Zoo is an easy character to like. We never really learn her real name. She is one of 12 contestants who signed up to do the show. For her, it’s like a last hoorah before she resigns herself to motherhood (yes she looks at this negatively….I tried not to hold it against her). She’s smart, worked at her local zoo and taught classes to elementary students who visited. She’s also an outdoorsman. So she finds she can complete the challenges of the show. She’s competitive so she tries to glean as much as she can from her fellow contestants. I like her tenacity. Her competitiveness I think saves her from going crazy when she wakes up alone after being sick. As a reader, you’ll pick that up fairly fast.

However Zoo’s downfall is her neglect at recognizing what is going on around her. She somehow finds herself back in civilization and convinces herself that everything she encounters is produced by the show, staged bodies, even a preteen cameraman. It’s sad and as a reader you realize way before Zoo that something isn’t right.

For me, I could have enjoyed this book without the alternate POV chapters. These chapters lost me. There is no warning that you are in a different perspective and it is like the TV producer/announcer/editor is walking you through the challenges as the contestants do them. BUT occasionally he will give you a clue about what is happening outside the show, like the sickness that is rapidly spreading. If it wasn’t for the fact that I decided to buy an Audible copy of this book, I may not have finished it. The alternating chapters just didn’t work for me. At least with the audiobook, these chapters are recorded by different voices. If you decide to listen, you’ll understand why I call the one narrator a TV announcer.

Overall, this book was just ok for me. I took issue with Zoo’s unwillingness to recognize what is happening to her. Yes it adds an element of suspense/thriller to the book, but I thought it made her character unnecessarily cruel, especially when she interacts with the preteen “cameraman.” Not to mention the alternating chapters….it just made it hard to follow the plot. If you enjoy survival/post-apocalyptic novels, you may enjoy this book. It wasn’t for me.

Reviewed 6/6/16

Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I really liked the overall concept of this book, but I had trouble connecting to any of the characters. It started off strong and had a good ending. This is a strong science fiction/dystopian novel for the author and will appeal to many readers. It just wasn't for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Ballentine for this free readers edition. In exchange I am providing an honest review.

Whoa! What a read. Combining reality television with a pandemic Oliva details a world where reality and "reality" get mixed up.
Zoo, as the producers call her, is one of twelve contestants on a reality tv show based on wilderness survival. The game is easy, last one in the game wins. There's only one way to get out of the game and that's to utter a certain phrase in Latin, otherwise you are in until you aren't. After some time spent in team challenges the contestants are finally let loose (with a cameraman following them of course) for the big solo challenge. On day three of the solo challenge, Zoo wakes to find her cameraman gone. Thinking it must be part of the game she pushes on to continue searching for clues. But days turn into weeks, in the middle of it she drinks bad water and gets sick for a few days but recovers and pushes on. As she treks toward what she believes is her final clue she is amazed at the budget this show has for special effects and props. So real, they don't seem fake at all. What Zoo doesn't know is they aren't fake. Everything she is running into that she assumes is for the reality show is actually REALity. Survival isn't just for the tv show any longer.
This was a really interesting book. Oliva flips back and forth between the early days of the show filming, when everyone was still healthy and unaware of a coming wipeout, and Zoo weeks into the whole thing thinking she is still participating in the reality show and its various challenges. She creates a strong character in Zoo, one that does what she has to do in order to survive and be true to herself. Oliva perfectly portrays the tv show contestants, understanding that behind the scenes producers and directors are looking for certain kinds of people to fill certain roles. I loved the character of Brennan that Zoo eventually meets and he helps to soften the edges Zoo has had created through her circumstances. It's an interesting storyline to consider. For all of our technology, human interaction is still the most effective and reliable way of communicating urgent matters and when the humans start disappearing, the ones left behind are either in the dark or isolated out of fear. If you were the last one what would you do? I know I wouldn't fare so well. *grin*

Brilliant concept: 12 contestants are alone in the woods vying to be the last one standing with their struggles aired television. This isn't the Hunger Games where you have to kill in order to be the last one standing. Instead, you have to give up. Only you don't know how many people are still standing because the contestants are all alone. When a catastrophe happens outside of the game, contestants learn just how alone they really are.
This was a fantastic fast paced read with a much different take on the dystopian genre. The author not only gives a well fleshed out strong female protagonist, a rarity in the science fiction world, but poses philosophical questions about the role media plays in constructing our reality under the guise of a "can't put down" thriller. A brilliant debut novel and I am intrigued to read the author's next work. My only criticism is the lack of character introductions. It is possible that the author intended the reader to not know more about the back story of the 12 contestants but I felt like I could have benefited from a little more information in the beginning.

The Last One is a great read! The writing style is very well done. The main protagonist is through in their background of who they are, in the game and outside the game, explaining how and why she is the way she is in good detail. There is plenty of suspense, twist's, turns, confusions among the "contestants". The ONLY thing I didn't really like at first was the nicknames given to the players. As you get into the story, it bounces back and forth using nicknames given BEFORE you "get" the real names of the players. So, as you bounce back and forth, at first, you're left thinking "well who is who again"? It takes a bit to get used to that. But overall, the writing is clean. It's well thought out and the story flows well. I enjoyed this book and would recommend it to people who enjoy thrillers, drama, and good scares.
*I received a E-copy for my unbiased review. Thank you to the publisher for the opportunity to read it. ~M.S.

Dour. That's the first word that comes to mind to describe this book. I did not enjoy it for a couple of reasons. One - it was dour. Two - I think I prefer to watch reality TV shows over listening to all the monotonous descriptions of every little expression or movement of the contestants. Just blah.

Thanks to Netgalley, Alexandra Oliva and publisher for this ARC.I did read it when I first received it but I don't know how my review didn't show up. Sorry.
I'm not much for reality shows or survivor shows so this read was slow going for me. But the contestants where interesting and the main character was what I like, a kick butt kinda person. A new concept of departure for a few characters and the invite of a plague was a page turner. I did like the back and forth of the times and that kept me reading. My review is also on Goodreads.

When NetGalley offered this novel, I was so psyched! This genre is my groove. Behind the scenes in a carefully produced Survivoresque reality show? Events outside the show blurring the lines between fiction and reality? Sign me up!

This story is creates a thoroughly original dystopia -- don't you mind those comparisons to Hunger Games -- and the character development is wonderfully rich. It has its humor and also its sadness, a whole bunch of feels up in here. Not knowing what the characters don't know creates a thrilling story, one I was so excited to tear through. There were times when I wanted to scream at Zoo, the main character, and open her eyes to what was really going on, but that was part of the thrill. It's eye-opening to realize how just the smallest misperception can have such a huge impact on one's "reality". (As Archer would say, "There's your fridge magnet.")

I loved the nicknaming of the contestants, like Zoo, Tracker, Exorcist, and such, but it did get a little confusing when, in the Zoo-view chapters, she identified players by their "real" names. Not knocking anything off the rating for that, because I was already in the grip and felt compelled to figure it all out.

Regardless, I do believe Alexandra Oliva is a writer to watch. She's going to produce some excellent stuff, for sure. It was clear The Last One was left open for a sequel, and for that alone I can't wait.

Title: The Last One
Author: Alexandra Oliva
Source: NetGalley
Links: Indiebound |Goodreads
Rating: three-stars
Summary: This was a lot of fun and somewhat insightful about reality TV, but overall it was also light and predictable.

I always enjoy a fresh take on disaster/dystopian novels and I’ve been enjoying reality TV lately, so I couldn’t resist this story of a reality show contestant who begins to be uncertain whether a disaster is real or part of the show. While Zoo participates in an endurance and survival skills challenge, the lines between reality and the show begin to blur. Determining which is which may make the difference to whether or not she survives.

Initially, I was very excited by the diverse cast the author introduced. I liked that she highlighted the characters’ races, since A) I think I assume characters are white unless otherwise mentioned and B) I think the way she categorized people by race and profession match how we tend to identify reality show contestants. Throughout the first part of the book, the author did a great job showing how people might view these contestants as fitting certain stereotypes. She also shows how the producers play into those stereotypes and shape story arcs for each contestant. I enjoyed this section a lot. I found it insightful and funny. The foreshadowing was fantastic at the beginning too. It definitely made me want to keep reading!

The second part of the book wasn’t as good. We lose track of most of the fascinating characters. Some of the survival stuff is kind of gory, including a detailed description of skinning a squirrel that I found completely unnecessary. I also thought the line between the show and reality was too clear to me as a reader. I realize the story was about Zoo figuring it out, but I would have loved if the author had made me question what was real. That didn’t happen. I did like that Zoo was competent, but not unbelievably so. I also liked that Zoo got her period and it was mentioned and wasn’t a big deal. I would have liked that she didn’t want children, but her creepy nightmares about kids were a little too weird. Overall, this was a really fun read and I’d recommend it if it appeals to you. It just wasn’t quite what I was hoping for.