Waste of Space: A High-Stakes YA Thriller Where Paranoid Teens Are Trapped in a Fake Reality Show

See more of my reviews on The YA Kitten!I don't watch reality TV. There was a time when I did and I'd marathon VH1's various dating and competition reality shows like Flavor of Love, I Love Money, and Charm School, but it lost its appeal as I got older and a little more cynical. That doesn't mean I won't read novels about reality TV because I absolutely will. They're usually tearing the genre to shreds in one way or another. In epistolary format, Waste of Space starts out as a funny, biting portrait of a faked reality show and devolves into something that touches the boundaries of horror and maybe even sci-fi. You're getting so, so much more than you expect this novel to give you.To be honest, I nearly gave up on the novel just before the halfway point. Our ten teens were gathered from mall auditions (at least two of them against their wills to fulfill ableist and racist casting quotas), made to think they'd been blasted off into space, and quickly got so bored of being in "space" that the CEO of the show's network demanded the scientists in charge of everything spice things up a bit with an enormous robotic arm. Though transcripts of unaired video footage flesh out some characters like Nico and Titania, others like Hibiscus are played straight as stereotypes.But I stuck around and it's at that halfway point that the novel really gets good. The scientists take over at the end of the fourth episode, the teens who now know the show is fake come to realize something else is deeply wrong, and all the subtle hints from the first half that Something's Not Right come to sweet, scary fruition. The six teens still on the "spaceplane" get the bulk of their character development as psychological horror enters the picture and three in particular aren't who they seem to be. Even the four teens who were cast out before the takeover remain active parts of the story, like Hibiscus trying to expose the show as fake.Still, readers shouldn't have to slog through a boring first half to get to a good second half no matter how good it all gets.The one character I take issue with is Kaoru, a Japanese girl who was in the US for a tournament and got carried away by DV8 staffers when she made the mistake of asking them for help in her native language. Though she understands English, she can't speak anything more than "This is a fine kettle of fish" and can't get across that she figured out they're not really in space. (She's my favorite.) Knowing full well no one around her can speak or understand Japanese, she still speaks to people as though they can instead of trying to communicate another way like physical signals.For instance, a woman asks Kaoru and another teen a question. Kaoru says no and tells the other teen to say as much, but because he doesn't understand Japanese, he says yes on their behalves. Seeing as the use of physical signals is a common way for people without a shared language to get across what they're saying, it doesn't make much sense Kaoru didn't shake her head in refusal or something similar. It might make for a funny scene, but that's just not how someone who doesn't speak the language being spoken to/around them tries to communicate!Gina Damico writes some of the funniest, most memorable YA novels around and Waste of Space is no exception. Her backlist may be a bit harder to find in print since her first book came out in 2012 and her latest in 2017, but they're books worth looking for. Go for her Croak trilogy in particular--they're some great paranormal YA about grim reapers and the finale of the series still wrecks my heart years later. If you enjoyed that old Lifetime series UnREAL, then you're probably going to love Waste of Space. Cynical of reality TV like me? You'll probably like it too! (I'd also recommend you read Reality Bites Back by Jennifer Pozner. Though it came out in 2010, it still has some relevancy for today's reality TV landscape.)

This book is a wild ride, and not because the characters are jettisoned into space. Far from it. It's a satirical look at "reality TV" giving the complete lowdown from the able assistance of a low-level PA who got fired and handed enormous amounts of raw footage of the Waste of Space TV show produced by DV8 studios.The premise is this: DV8 wants to make a show about regular kids on a space station, but that's unrealistic, and expensive, so they partner with NASAW--a shadowy conglomerate whose scientists know lots about space and time--to build a fake space station (complete with IKEA furnishings) that can house ten teens for two months. Along the way, DV8 management bullies and coerces everyone to insist that this show is taking place in space.Kids line up in malls hoping to become part of this cast; some a fame-hungry, some are looking for a way out, others are looking for a new life altogether. The teens are cast to fulfill certain roles, and the stereotypes they reflect. It's a weird mix of Big Brother and Space Camp, and the audience is in on the joke from the get-go. That said, there's still lots of surprises in store. Like, what happens when the uppity/vile nephew of the TV show's producer is going to get axed? (Bring on the big guns...) What about the party girl--any more bras to display? The token minorities are messing up the chemistry, and there's plenty of clueless to go around.The telling of this story is a disjointed collection of transcripts from video recordings, cell phone calls and business meetings. There are roughly 15 POVs, so that's a jumble. It took me a while to settle in, though I caught on to the sympathetic POVs in the early going. Nico and Titania are the heart and soul of the story--two kids who've been altered by tragedy. They are searching for more---meaning and acceptance, and they don't go in for DV8's shenanigans. The DV8 exec, Chazz, and his nephew Clayton are the typical reprehensibles, pulling all the strings and cutting despicable deals. I was pleasantly surprised by "Bacardi" and "Snout" and saddened by Louise. I had thought I wasn't touched much by the book, then the end hit me like a sledgehammer to the chest. The storyline was a sleight of hand that morphed from zany and unpredictable into intense and emotional.I'm not going to belabor the plot; some of the kids are desperately hoping to be a part of a space mission. Others know it's gotta be hoax. The DV8 and NASAW folks are doing their utmost to convince the world their show is "real." In the mix some true connections are made, and dare I say: the most fervent wishes of several of the cast are made real. I was pleasantly surprised how all the seemingly random plot threads were stretched and connected and eventually woven into an unexpectedly picturesque tapestry. For fans of reality TV, this book is a piercing commentary on the genre of entertainment, and how we consume fiction--in any medium. Expect plenty of showmanship, and deceit, and double-crossing. Expect subtle commentary on American xenophobia and racism. And if you read through to the end, expect to be surprised, and maybe delighted. Like I was. I received a review copy via NetGalley.