Cut Off

June 1, 2020

Gr 7-10-Finlay's second novel is a psychological thriller that takes characters on a journey to understand their deepest fears and desires. When River Adan and Cameron Jaimes sign up for the reality TV show Cut Off, they think they're playing to see which teenager can outlast the others in the rugged outdoors. Instead they find themselves confronting a mystery: Where did the game hosts disappear to and what are the malevolent whispers Cam hears in the forest? To survive, the one-time competitors must learn to trust each other-and face the darkest parts of their personal histories. Readers will appreciate the narrative range in this book as it echoes survivalist themes while mixing in tropes common to horror and romance. The plot delivers a number of satisfying twists while slowly revealing the motivations of the main characters. The use of shifting perspectives keeps readers guessing about the story's direction, but it also means the plot evolves slowly at the start, with some of the strongest character interactions coming near the end of the book. VERDICT A genre-bending story that engages with themes of anxiety and trauma in imaginative ways. Recommended for readers who enjoy thrillers with elements of horror and romance.-Talea Anderson, Washington State Univ., Pullman, WA.

Copyright 2020 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 15, 2020
Teenage contestants. Unfamiliar wilderness. A reality show pushing the boundaries of viewership. What could go wrong? Cut Off is a new survival show with a revolutionary three-dimensional component. Contestants, injected with virtual reality ions that transmit their biological data to viewers' devices, are trailed 24/7 by drone cameras as they attempt to outlast one another to claim a $10 million prize. Trip Johnson--a clinically anxious gay boy--is a contestant as well as the millionaire inventor of the show's 3-D immersive tech. Other contestants include defensive, jaded California girl Cam Jaimes; solitary, outdoorsy orphan River Adan; and practical, mysterious Liza Rojas. After the competition is wiped out, these four survivors team up when they discover that their emergency GPS trackers don't work and they are isolated from the showrunners. As they navigate a remote British Columbia island, hoping to rejoin civilization, they begin to suspect the wilderness has a mind of its own...and that it's manifesting their worst nightmares, from spiders to earthquakes to abandonment. The stakes rise ever higher as Cam and River's mutual attraction heats up while Trip considers the broader implications of his 3-D streaming app. The narrative begins a day after the first earthquake and is told from several contestants' third-person perspectives, interspersed with interview transcripts and official documents. Whiteness is situated as the default for most characters; Liza is cued as Latinx. Strikes a delicate, and ultimately optimistic, balance between action, suspense, and philosophy. (Thriller. 12-18)

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June 29, 2020
Finlay (Your One and Only) keeps the action bucketing along in her sophomore novel, thanks to an intriguing setup, a sparky romance, and rapid-fire narration from multiple points of view. Cameron “Cam” Jaimes, River Adan, and Trip Johnson, all 17, are living rough on a remote island as they compete for $1 million in the inaugural season of Cut Off, an immersive, Survivor-like show and “social experiment” powered by sophisticated virtual reality technology that transmits sensory experiences through an app. Snippets of their pre-show evaluation interviews provide a glimpse into the teens’ thorny personal histories and motivations for participating. When a series of near-catastrophes throw the three together, they reluctantly form a team, along with Liza Rojas, another contestant. The plot zags into the first of several twists when the group discovers that they no longer have a way to signal readiness to leave the island: the GPS beacons they were originally issued seem unable to reach the show’s producers. The novel’s characters—particularly Cam and River—are sturdy and distinctive enough to keep readers persuaded as the story line builds from sly commentary on reality television to trippy exploration of reality’s very nature. Ages 14–up. Agent: Adam Schear, Defiore & Co.