Last Chance Live!

Last Chance Live! has a fun book description, but don’t let that fool you into thinking this won’t be one of the most thought-provoking, heavy-hitting YA speculative fiction you will ever read. I encourage everyone to read it, especially teachers, to use this book when you need to tackle persuasive writing or debate teams with themes such as the death penalty, mental health, social media, and racial justice, to name but a few topics that this book may help formulate a stance and perspective.

Eternity Price is 18 and on death row. Her parents died tragically when she was younger, and she grew up without the basic love and nurturing that a family should provide. No one has ever treated her as worthy or acted like she was seen. She is fat, poor, and black, which has always been used against her to make her feel “other” and no one to tether her to better decisions. The scenes where she is an inmate cut like a knife with lethal precision to make us all see her.

Eternity was never the best in school. As she got older, she didn’t understand what she didn’t understand. Now she has a lawyer who tries to explain the legal process to her, but he is so far removed from her experiences and education that she doesn’t understand what he is saying. That leads her to forgo the chance of appeals and years more in jail to get on the second season of a reality show called Last Chance Live. One winner will have their record erased and set free. The losers will have no chance of appeals and will be executed within the week of being voted out by viewers. She doesn’t understand the legal system, but she does understand TV and feels like this is her best chance.

The setup of the show is believable. Through it, we see that reality TV is not so real. The adults meant to “help” contestants manipulate encounters and circumstances to get dramatic shots and good ratings. The therapist professes to be there to help them, but is digging up emotions for good TV. Eternity tells several people they are not good. They say they want to help, but they don’t actually mean it. She finds out that viewers have posted that “Eternity is all of us,” and this is true.

Most of the time, the difference between reading the book in print and listening to it on audio doesn’t change the story's impact. However, this book should be done as an audiobook. Putting a voice and emotion to Eternity’s story takes an already strong work of fiction and makes it feel like a memoir. The narrator does a phenomenal job of imparting Eternity’s frustration, rejection, denial, rage, uncertainty, and humanity. Then follow up by reading the author’s note to help you put into words the number of topics that are artfully woven into every part of this story.

This is not an easy read, but it is a worthwhile read. The overall message is we are all Eternity Price. We all have rage and the capacity for darkness. What mercy and kindness could have changed her outcome? She is both a villain and a victim. Instead of preparing ourselves for a cruel world, what part can we take to meet fundamental needs so the cycle of violence stops? By reading this as a teen who has the most capacity and promise to make a change in the world, what wisdom will you gain by asking yourself who you are, and what can you do to pay the cost of harm so that wrongdoings are redeemed?