THE ONE

Who has what it takes to be a media sensation wife?

Twenty-four-year-old Emily Boylan has never seen The One, a ringer for The Bachelor, but she has just been fired from her dead-end job when a recruiter spots her on the street. In no time, she's entering the bizarro world of reality TV, stepping out of a limousine—one of a long line of limos filled with women—and meeting Dylan Walter, the show's potential love interest. Emily’s star quickly rises thanks to her producer, Miranda, who believes she will clinch the end-of-show proposal and works hard to make it so. And Emily befriends a group of contestants who keep her (relatively) sane and up to speed, developing a particular fondness for savvy Sam with the secret, tragic backstory. The women have no say in how their days go, so they have a dreamlike quality: There's extreme boredom, a helicopter ride, rule changes, and having to repeat themselves for the camera (they get unnervingly good at rephrasing their feelings in reality TV patois). Emily is a pliant good girl who goes along with everything yet cannot justify to herself why, try as she might. Does she want to marry Dylan, or is she just supposed to? A moment when the bubble breaks and the show learns of an unrelated mass shooting by an incel doesn’t do quite enough for the themes or plot to justify its inclusion. However, debut novelist Argy is fantastic at showcasing the subtle power dynamics among Dylan, the women, and the producers in all iterations. Alternating chapters from Miranda’s shrewd perspective illuminate the extent of her control, which is extreme but not complete. She cannot, for instance, prevent the growing bond between Emily and Sam that threatens her narrative.

A reality TV novel stripped of fluff and fantasy.