The One
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3.0 • 1 Rating
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
A razor-sharp and seductively hypnotic debut novel about the very fantasy of falling in love.
Emily didn’t join the cast of The One for fame or for a relationship. She simply didn’t have anything better to do. Newly fired from her dead-end job, it doesn’t take much convincing when she’s recruited as a last-minute contestant for the popular reality dating show. Emily has been performing her entire life—for her family and friends, former boyfriends, and coworkers. How different could it be playing herself in front of cameras?
But the moment Emily arrives, it becomes clear she’s been tapped to win it all. Emily’s producer Miranda sees her as the golden ticket: generically pretty, affable, and easily molded—all the qualities of a future Wife. Emily herself is less certain. It’s easy enough to fall in love under romantic lighting and perfectly crafted dates, but it’s harder to remember what’s real and what’s designed. And as Emily’s fascination with another contestant grows, both Emily and Miranda are forced to decide what it is they really want—and what they are willing to do to get it.
A brilliant send-up of our cultural mythology around romance, The One examines the reality of love and desire set against a world of ultimate artifice and manipulation.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Argy skewers reality TV in her smart debut. After 20-something Emily Boylan loses her admin job, she's approached by a casting associate for The One, a Bachelor-esque reality show with a last-minute opening. Four days later she's on her way from Boston to Los Angeles to meet Dylan Walter and the other 29 women vying for his proposal. Supporting Emily is Miranda, one of the show's three producers, who needs a win and sees Emily as her ticket, a "fresh package of Model Magic." Over a grueling six weeks of production, Emily struggles with her insecurities and people-pleaser tendencies while grappling along with the other women over what it means to be desired for superficial reasons rather than being loved for who they are. Through it all, Emily tries to figure out who "Real Emily" is, aware that "Screen Emily" will remain cast in history. Argy takes on voyeurism, feminism, and gender norms, as Emily wonders if she really ought to put all her energy into finding love, which is what she was conditioned to do all her life. It makes for a winning portrait of a young woman trying to come into her own.
