Society is now overflowing with reality television opportunities, with regular shows such as I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here taking Z listers to a remote location for a series of choreographed tasks.
In Samantha Allen’s latest novel, she has created a new reality TV show, The Catch, where four women are taken away with one man, and the final woman standing will get the chance to be with said man.
There is commentary around the image needed to be portrayed when the camera roll, and how those people are forced to act up and put on this facade all for the ratings.
For the most part, the story is about the relationships between the characters as they approach the remote island location. Allen is really clever about sprinkling in subtle elements of danger which will hint at a more horrific tone that will come into play later.
When the script flips, Patricia Wants to Cuddle is brutal too, and certainly earns its gore stripes.
The characters are well-written and fleshed out to the point, Allen could have mixed up the order in which they become targets of an unseen force, and it wouldn’t have disrupted the flow at all.
Patricia Wants to Cuddle has plenty of surprises and a bonkers finale that will make you wonder how the story all meshes together so well. Recommended.
Patricia Wants to Cuddle by Samantha Allen is available now in different book formats from Faber & Faber.
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