Format: Hardcover, 368 pages
Release Date: April 16, 2024
Publisher: Chicken House
Source: Publisher
Genre: YA / Dystopian / Horror
A brand-new game show that offers young criminals the chance at freedom has been greenlit. Little do they know, winning is their only chance at survival. A captivating examination of the dark truths around the criminal justice system, Ben Oliver, critically acclaimed author of The Loop trilogy, delivers an action-packed thrill ride with deadly high stakes.
Fifty contestants. Five mental and physical challenges. One winner.
In a near-future where a virtual currency of digital content fuels a fame-hungry society, a brand-new experiment that combines social media and reality TV has been greenlit.
Voted on, and contestants are sent to a maximum-security reform camp on an island where they can have no contact with the outside world. To lose means prison. But to win is to be free. The most popular young offender with the most upvotes by the end is given both a second chance in society and a cash prize.
This kind of money could mean everything to Emerson and her family who live in the Burrows, one of the subterranean villages where the government have buried affordable housing. It's more than freedom. It could mean the chance to change her family’s circumstance and finally find a place in the society they’ve never been allowed into.
But what Emerson doesn’t know, what the viewers don’t know, is that the prison on the island is empty. Those who lose, those who are voted off aren’t incarcerated. Each challenge will leave more and more contestants to die. And the only choice they have is to win over viewers before it’s too late.
Ben Oliver's The Kill Factor is a twisted young adult centered dystopian horror mash up featuring 16-year-old Emerson Ness who is a Burrower. A Burrower is a person
who lives in the tunnels below the city. Emerson has scraped and dug and, yes, stolen, trying to
support herself and her brother Kester, with minimal help from her father, a
would-be influencer convinced that someday, his cast will take off and they can become one of the Topsiders living in luxury.
After she is arrested for theft, arson, and manslaughter and a huge bag of money she planned on using to help her younger brother who is hearing impaired, she is visited by a man known as the Producer. He claims he is part of a brand-new game show that offers young criminals the chance at freedom has been green lit. Little do they know, winning is their only chance at survival. Fifty contestants. Six mental and physical challenges. One winner.
In a near-future where a virtual currency of digital content fuels a fame-hungry society, a brand-new experiment that combines social media and reality TV. Contestants are sent to a maximum-security reform camp on an island where they can have no contact with the outside world. To lose means prison or death. To win is to be free. The most popular young offender with the most upvotes by the end is given both a second chance in society and a cash prize.
This kind of money could mean everything to Emerson and her family. It's more than freedom. It could mean the chance to change her family’s circumstance and finally find a place in the society they’ve never been allowed into. But what Emerson doesn’t know, what the viewers don’t know, is that the prison on the island is empty. Those who lose, those who are voted off aren’t incarcerated. Each challenge will leave more and more contestants to die. And the only choice they have is to win over viewers before it’s too late.
*Thoughts* A captivating examination of the dark truths around the criminal justice system, Ben Oliver, critically acclaimed author of The Loop trilogy, delivers an action-packed thrill ride with deadly high stakes. This concept is Hunger Games but a prison reform camp version, or even a Black Mirror episode mixed with the TV show Survivor where you face elimination by the number of likes you receive. A big chunk of this is a social commentary about how modern society has become dependent on likes and follows on social media which I refuse to adhere to.
If you follow
me, thank you, if not, that's okay too. I am not a fan of learning that
this is not a standalone. How can it be when the author leaves a
roundabout way of saying it's not over yet after a brutal ending that leaves more questions than answers. Like, who created the show? Was it the government? Was it a powerful corporation? Was it some billionaire who has too much money and is able to change the laws with a bribe here and there to certain politicians?
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