Book Review for You Only Get One Shot by Kevin J. Kennedy and J.C. Michael
You Only Get One Shot, by Kevin J. Kennedy and J.C. Michael, is a horrific account involving four unfortunate authors who were subjected to a competition to see who can write the best story, all the while determining who lives and who dies.
The book begins with a mysterious woman, who is enraged by these authors that, she believed, drove her friend to suicide. She sends out four emails, saying that if they do not write and post their stories at the time of the deadline, they will die. Each writer comes up with their own specific story. And yet only one will make it out alive. In these terrifying story, Kennedy and Michael show just what happens when you push someone too far, and how, in the end, you always pay for your transgressions, whether you know them or not.
Personally, after I read this book, I was terrified. I kept checking my emails, because as a book reviewer, I’m supposed to critique people’s stories. However, when I read each of their works, I was afraid to like any of them. I thought Fiona’s story was good, but as the stories kept piling in, I thought to myself, I like all of them, but I don’t want any of the authors to die. Maybe Drexl, but that’s beside the point. I was honestly afraid to see what this woman would do to them. Still, I can’t help but feel that her retribution is a bit misplaced. Did she read her friend’s story? Or is she just completely psychotic? Albeit a bit annoying, she added to the book’s morbid charm.
When it came down to it, I thought Simon’s story, The Summoned, was the best, but that’s just me. Then of course, The Wrong Girl, Rezerection, and Feral all had their strong points too. It was then I paid attention to the writers behind the story. Diane’s apathetic attitude and Drexl’s sadistic nature already had me thinking that they should die first. Fiona was protective of her friends, and Simon was humble, so I rooted for them. But it’s this very mindset that chilled me. It was as if the author somehow knew that the reader might not want any of them to die based on their stories, so they created a system where they were still going to judge these authors anyways, regardless of how good the writing was. The ending was thus appropriate as it was bittersweet.
As such, I would give this book a rating of a 4.6 out of 5 stars. The mysterious woman was as haunting as she was insane, and though she was a bit annoying, her blatant targeting of innocents was frightening. The system of judgement the authors wove into the story was also wonderful, so much so I had a hard time believing I was trying to determine which person should die. Because of this, I would recommend this book to fans of Feast by Thomas Flowers and The Die-Fi Experiment, by M.R. Tapia.
