Audiobook Review: A Survival Thriller

One Perfect Couple by Ruth Ware

Read by Imogen Church

Publication Date: May 2024

Summary from Goodreads:

Harkening to Agatha Christie’s classic And Then There Were None, this high-tension and ingenious thriller follows five couples trapped on a storm-swept island as a killer stalks among them.

Lyla is in a bit of a rut. Her post-doctoral research has fizzled out, she’s pretty sure they won’t extend her contract, and things with her boyfriend, Nico, an aspiring actor, aren’t going great. When the opportunity arises for Nico to join the cast of a new reality TV show, The Perfect Couple, she decides to try out with him. A whirlwind audition process later, Lyla find herself whisked off to a tropical paradise with Nico, boating through the Indian Ocean towards Ever After Island, where the two of them will compete against four other couples—Bayer and Angel, Dan and Santana, Joel and Romi, and Conor and Zana—in order to win a cash prize.

But not long after they arrive on the deserted island, things start to go wrong. After the first challenge leaves everyone rattled and angry, an overnight storm takes matters from bad to worse. Cut off from the mainland by miles of ocean, deprived of their phones, and unable to contact the crew that brought them there, the group must band together for survival. As tensions run high and fresh water runs low, Lyla finds that this game show is all too real—and the stakes are life or death.

A fast-paced, spellbinding thriller rife with intrigue and characters that feel so true to life, this novel proves yet again that Ruth Ware is the queen of psychological suspense.

Confession:

This is my fourth book by Ruth Ware and I think it is my favorite so far. I am not at all interested in reality TV, but that wasn’t really the point of this book. I did enjoy some of the comments about reality TV and how truely fake it is. (Sorry if I burst any bubbles) I also really liked that there was a nice balance between characters I could like and others that I could despise almost on the spot. The book went in a direction that I wasn’t at all expecting, but felt more authentic to me.

Imogen Church did a good job of bringing the characters to life. She had different voices for everyone and it was easy to tell most of them apart. I did have trouble with the way she pronounced Zana’s and Santana’s names though. They almost sounded the same and it did take me awhile to figure those two out as to who was who. But other than that she did a great job.

Although there are many characters in this book, we only get Lyla’s point of view from the start. I really liked her. She has her issues with how this whole show is set up, but she wants to be supportive of Nico and give it a go. She is analytical and decisive about everything that happens to her and the others on the island. She also does truly seem to care about the other people on the island, especially the women. I loved how many of the other contestants look to her for help, especially when someone is hurt, and even though she kept telling them she is not that kind of doctor, she really does a bad ass job of fixing people up.

The plot does start off a bit slow as we get a bit of a behind the scenes look at how people are chosen for these reality shows. Just like Lyla I had a lot of questions about what this show was really about and how it was going to work. I’m not sure I would have agreed to go with all the doubts she had. Once the storm hits the island the pacing does start to pick up. You can feel the tension between everyone and how things quickly come to a head as the realization that no one is coming to save them begins to sink in. Two of the deaths take place off page and it is only those two that I still have questions about, but not enough to make me not enjoy the story. Even though the story didn’t go where I was expecting it to, I really liked the ending. It felt more natural than the way most of these types of stories go. There was perhaps a bit more showing the whys at the end, but I was ok with that.

Overall this was a good story. If you are into reality TV this is one that you will probably enjoy. But even if you aren’t this is still a nice twisty survival thriller that will keep you guessing until the end.