A reality TV production company has the crazy idea to have a reality show in space with a bunch of teenagers. Of course, it's impossible to actual launch teens into space, so they hire NASAW (not NASA) and a special effects company to make the illusion complete. Ideally, the teens and all of America will believe the show is in space. Teens are interviewed, kidnapped, and sent to their "shuttle." In the meantime, others have their own interests in mind that threaten the success of the show and the lives of its stars.

Waste of Space shows the extremes of reality television. The producer and host Chazz Young is rich and connected. He says whatever is on his mind no matter how weird and makes it happen. Even when his ideas are crazy or expensive or hard to accomplish, he simply yells at people until they comply. He captures the demanding and uncaring nature of the stereotypical Hollywood businessman. The teens he chooses for his TV shows are based on stereotypes like the party girl, the overachiever, the hick, the artist, etc. Chazz cares nothing for their wellbeing and only wants to pull their strings to get ratings.

Each episode took a crazy amount of hours and stuffed into around 45 minutes of TV. I loved reading about the boring stuff where they just sat around, too awkward to talk to each other. The episodes are shown in transcripts of the dialogue and actions with indications on the side when the events are being broadcasted. Once things really go crazy, nothing is broadcasted or recorded and their entire setup goes missing. What follows is a zany chase around the desert as some escape, some stay trapped, and Chazz frantically tries to find his multimillion dollar show.

The brunt of the novel seems to show how relegating real people to paper thin stereotypes isn't realistic. The party girl turns out to have a lot more skill and intelligence, opting for that facade to guarantee a spot on the show. The only one who doesn't really break out of that is Louise who thinks they are in space (when everyone else figured out they weren't) and thought for sure her fictional sci-fi crush would come save her. The delusion was too complete and unshakeable.

Waste of Space has an interesting concept and way of storytelling. The characters stood out and had their own unique interests. It's a pretty fast read and has some real suspense in revealing what's actually happening on the set of this show. My only problem is that a lot of the situations and characters still come off as cartoonish archetypes despite the message to the opposite. This book is a fun read, but not one I would revisit. ( )

“...Reality is boring; abridged reality is not.”

Waste of Space is easily one of the funnest and most entertaining books I’ve ever read. I can only really describe this as Beauty Queens meets Big Brother. With a satirical eye, Gina Damico tackles everything we love, and hate, about reality tv. Waste of Space follows 10 teens chosen to participate in an out-of-this-world reality show, with the only catch being - everything is fake. We see the teens struggle with their new “reality” as the production team scrounges up new ways to torment our unknowing teens, until everything starts to go wrong.

Things I Liked
I would recommend this book to anyone purely for the humor and satirical value. I can only liken it to Beauty Queens by Libba Bray - both books tackle pop culture in a fantastically original way. You really get the larger-than-life personality of the tv hose, Chazz Young, who is one of the single most entertaining characters I’ve ever encountered. I loved the extravagant situational humor, and the confrontational humor between the contestants, the production crew and the scientists, and the believers vs. the non believers. This was so supremely entertaining - and truly laugh out loud hilarious.

Things I Didn’t Like
The “episodes” started to feel really long once I got into part two. Yes, there were some little excerpt info posts, but I just started to drag a bit for me. It honestly made me want to start skimming parts of the story, which is really absurd, because it was such an easy and quick read - but it managed to feel long.

Louise got so incredibly annoying to the point of being insufferable. I wanted to skip every scene she was a part of because I literally could not believe the world coming out of her mouth. It pushed past satire into delusional.

This was such an entertaining read, with a high humor factor, that it was really seems like the best way to spend your free time, is to read this book. Such an outrageous cast of characters brings life and drama to this astronomical take on reality tv.

I received a copy of the book from HMH Teen via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
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I really really loved this book more than I thought I would. I was randomly given this book by HmH Teen while at Yallfest and they totally sold me on it.

I loved the premise, however crazy and unbelievable it was, and found myself really getting into it. I loved how absolutely insane some of the characters were and how they reacted to the various events that happened.

The story and format was really fun and had me continuously coming back to see what would happen next. I absolutely blasted through the end of it and it earned a permanent spot on my shelf. ( )

I really really loved this book more than I thought I would. I was randomly given this book by HmH Teen while at Yallfest and they totally sold me on it.

I loved the premise, however crazy and unbelievable it was, and found myself really getting into it. I loved how absolutely insane some of the characters were and how they reacted to the various events that happened.

The story and format was really fun and had me continuously coming back to see what would happen next. I absolutely blasted through the end of it and it earned a permanent spot on my shelf. ( )

** I read an e-advance reader copy of this book obtained from Edelweiss **

For the most part I enjoyed this book. The premise (fake reality show set in space starring teens who don't realize (at first) that everything is fake) was amazing. The characters were purposely over-done and met all the criteria for a reality show -- the one you love to hate; the ones you fall in love with and just want to see get together and be happy; the one who is a bit slow but is so helpful and so nice; the slightly crazy one who you definitely sympathize with; and the beautiful, annoying (and way too smart for her own good) one. Oh, and of course, the evil producer. There were times though that the over-done characterizations drew me out of the story and that is my one real complaint about this book. The parts that dealt with the teens on the ship were perfect but some of the scenes set outside, in the 'real' world just fell a bit flat. Still, overall the story was fun and it flowed well and the tension held up well (gila monster attack!). The ending was also definitely out-there and was, at least to me, unexpected (and fun!). I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who likes action/adventure or fantasy with a lot of fun & crazy hijinks! ( )