Gradually, the number of contestants is narrowed down, teams change, tasks grow more difficult. Trying to figure out which real name goes with which series nickname is part of the fun it's a bit like solving a puzzle.Īt first, there are rewards for successfully finishing challenges, with the winner receiving the best prizes (generally survival tools, the best place to sleep, or food). Each of the contestants is given a nickname of some sort (Zoo is not the heroine's real name) and during the chapters that are written from Zoo's point of view, she refers to them by their real names.

Their tasks are simple, at first, and they work in teams. It's been a few weeks since I read the book but I believe the series begins with 12 contestants. How did Zoo end up alone and unaware that a deadly illness has ravaged the country? Is anyone alive at all? To find out how events unfolded, the second storyline takes you back to the beginning of the reality series, where you meet the entire cast, the host, the experts, and other people involved in the production of the new survival series. The reader knows, though, that the dead person is real. She thinks it's a prop, not a real dead person.

In her first scene, she's looking for food in a convenience store that's mostly stripped bare. The heroine, Zoo, is a contestant in a reality survival series. The Last One by Alexandra Oliva has two parallel storylines. My copy of The Last One doesn't look like the image above, but I ordered a copy from Book Depository (probably the British release) and was unable to find a decent image of it online.