The Last One by Alexandra Oliva
This one was super weird but boy was I into it! “Zoo” is in a reality show, kind of like Survivor. She’s one of 12 contestants who are sent into the wilderness to engage in some really really hard endurance challenges. Of course, being in a reality show, they are completely cut off from the world. She hasn’t spoken to her family or heard any news about the “outside world” the whole time she’s there. Over the course of the challenges she goes into towns that are completely abandoned, and she thinks it’s because of the show. She sees dead bodies and she thinks it’s a put on to challenge her mentally while she’s going through the challenge. But then she figures out it’s not fake and something really terrible is going on in the world. Absolutely fascinating, a bit confusing but fascinating.
I Have the Right To by Chessy Prout
I’ve watched Gossip Girl, I’ve developed a slight interest in the world of boarding school. But this is definitely not like Gossip Girl, this is the memoir of a young woman who went away to an elite boarding school in New Hampshire—the same place where her father and sister have gone. At the end of her freshman year she was sexually assaulted by a senior boy just before graduation. She reports the assault, and an incredibly toxic culture of boys using girls is revealed at this school. Chessy steps up to bat and not only reveals the ugly “traditions” of this school, but shines a light on how girls are exploited in these environments. She is a hero!
These Silent Woods by Kimi Cunningham Grant
I listened to this one and was riveted. The narrator was Bronson Pinchot. Remember that show Perfect Strangers—he played Balki the immigrant who arrived to live with his cousin in Chicago, and culture shock hilarity ensued. His voice is NOTHING like that of Balki, btw. Anyway, in this story Cooper and his 8 year old daughter Finch are living in an isolated cabin. They are very strict with rationing supplies because they can’t just go to the store and buy more. They’re in hiding. Over the course of the story you learn that Cooper is a single dad whose custody of his daughter was being threatened by his in laws. So he took Finch when she was a baby and took off to live in this cabin. Now Finch is 8 and wondering why they’re there and why they don’t have any contact with the outside world. Their supply line, his friend, didn’t show, and they have no way of knowing why or asking why. This is a story of doing whatever it takes to be together, and then coming to grips with the fact that if they step into the outside world again, he could be arrested for kidnapping. An amazing story.
BJ Knapp is the author of Beside the Music, available for purchase here. Please sign up for the Backstage with BJ Knapp mailing list to get updates on events, signings, dog pictures and so much more.