Seyoon and Dean, Unscripted
Reality TV meets rom-com when confident-but-competitive Seyoon and shy-but-smart Dean are thrown together on Forest Feud. With more than their parents’ legacies on the line, can the rivals team up long enough to make it to the final – and the chance to win a million dollars?
From the first chapter (with its brilliant title), this novel is full of laugh-out-loud quips, genuinely touching moments and page-turning tension. Dean and Seyoon are total opposites but, despite a rocky start, they soon become a formidable team. It is a joy to see them learn from and challenge each other, all while keeping up some truly excellent banter. Many of the shining moments in the novel are when the relationship hits an obstacle and we see the two protagonists struggle to overcome it.
As entertaining as the novel is, it is certainly more than a simple enemies-to-lovers romance. Underpinning every interaction between the contestants is the inability to fully trust the people around them, especially the host and producer. Layered over that is the clever use of performance, for the cameras and fellow contestants, that makes differentiating between what is real and what is a trick almost impossible. Witherspoon’s characters, and the reader, are left to sift through it all and decide what they can believe, how far they are willing to go to win and what they will sacrifice when they do.
Smart, sincere and with a good dose of humour, Seyoon and Dean, Unscripted is a must-read.
