Pun Salad

I've read and enjoyed a number of Ruth Ware's novels in the past. (Specifically, that number is "two": my reports here and here.) And this one got a good review from Tom Nolan in the WSJ!

The narrator, Lyla, is an aspiring virologist whose research is going poorly. Her longtime boyfriend, Nico, is an aspiring actor whose entire career is going poorly, and he grabs at an opportunity to be one of the participants in "One Perfect Couple", a reality show where five couples are to be subjected to all kinds of stresses and strains on a remote resort island near Indonesia. And contestants are eliminated, one by one, until the promised "Perfect Couple" remains. Lyla semi-relulctantly agrees to go along if she can take a dive and get eliminated quickly.

The whole thing sounds dodgy, and (worse) things don't go as planned, as foreshadowed by radio and diary transcripts interspersed in Lyla's narration.

Eventually, a big storm causes death and destruction, and the survivors are subjected to plenty of physical and mental torment. Kind of the thing I'd tune in to watch! There are notes of Lost and Lord of the Flies aplenty.

It's a page-turner, until… well, I was underwhelmed by the ending, and I can't really say why without further spoilers. Your mileage, etc.