Waste of Space by Gina Damico

A reality TV production company has the crazy idea to have a reality show in space with a bunch of teenagers. Of course, it's impossible to actual launch teens into space, so they hire NASAW (not NASA) and a special effects company to make the illusion complete. Ideally, the teens and all of America will believe the show is in space. Teens are interviewed, kidnapped, and sent to their "shuttle." In the meantime, others have their own interests in mind that threaten the success of the show and the lives of its stars.

Waste of Space shows the extremes of reality television. The producer and host Chazz Young is rich and connected. He says whatever is on his mind no matter how weird and makes it happen. Even when his ideas are crazy or expensive or hard to accomplish, he simply yells at people until they comply. He captures the demanding and uncaring nature of the stereotypical Hollywood businessman. The teens he chooses for his TV shows are based on stereotypes like the party girl, the overachiever, the hick, the artist, etc. Chazz cares nothing for their wellbeing and only wants to pull their strings to get ratings.

Each episode took a crazy amount of hours and stuffed into around 45 minutes of TV. I loved reading about the boring stuff where they just sat around, too awkward to talk to each other. The episodes are shown in transcripts of the dialogue and actions with indications on the side when the events are being broadcasted. Once things really go crazy, nothing is broadcasted or recorded and their entire setup goes missing. What follows is a zany chase around the desert as some escape, some stay trapped, and Chazz frantically tries to find his multimillion dollar show.

The brunt of the novel seems to show how relegating real people to paper thin stereotypes isn't realistic. The party girl turns out to have a lot more skill and intelligence, opting for that facade to guarantee a spot on the show. The only one who doesn't really break out of that is Louise who thinks they are in space (when everyone else figured out they weren't) and thought for sure her fictional sci-fi crush would come save her. The delusion was too complete and unshakeable. 

Waste of Space has an interesting concept and way of storytelling. The characters stood out and had their own unique interests. It's a pretty fast read and has some real suspense in revealing what's actually happening on the set of this show. My only problem is that a lot of the situations and characters still come off as cartoonish archetypes despite the message to the opposite. This book is a fun read, but not one I would revisit.

My rating: 3.5/5 fishmuffins