Praise for Last Chance Live!:
An Indies Introduce Pick!
A 2025 Booklist Editors’ Choice
An NPR 2025 “Books We Love” Selection
“This is quite frankly a perfect book. Powerful message, masterful storylines, and exquisite writing. If we live in a just world, this candid, reflective and explosive tale of race and reality will remind us all how possible the world of the story is, and how much work we must do to change that. Last Chance Live! is a chilling classic.”—Kwame Alexander, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Door of No Return Trilogy and Why Fathers Cry at Night: A Memoir
“A gripping examination of American justice that forces readers to confront uncomfortable truths about celebrity criminals and our fascination with watching people’s darkest moments unfold on screen.”—Rollingout.com
“An explosive young adult novel about a teenage girl on death row who competes on a reality show in hopes of winning her freedom, think Squid Game meets Dear Justyce!”—Nerd Daily
★ “Turn the channel to Last Chance Live!, where young death row inmates compete for America’s vote in hopes of seeing their sentence—and their competitors—eliminated…Henry’s debut delivers deft nuance with searing societal commentary. Readers will find themselves questioning their own values as they get sucked into the drama and disturbing entertainment of the show…A stunning mix of social and political critique with humor, eye-gluing tension, and, ultimately, empathy, this surprising debut should be eagerly shared with fans of Neal Shusterman.”—Booklist, starred review
“A dystopian thriller filled with issues of wrongdoing, justice, mercy, and forgiveness… A serious commentary on the obstacles, institutions, and society that teens face, offering a mirror and important issues.”—School Library Journal
“There are ethical questions here worth pondering around our deeply flawed criminal justice system, reality television pushed beyond current boundaries (but somehow still plausible), charging teens as adults, and how Black girls are treated in general.”—BCCB, recommended review
“Last Chance Live! is an astonishing literary debut that captures the desperate choices and unlikely possibilities that loom in our fatally flawed criminal justice system. Helena Haywoode Henry’s brilliant pen vividly conjures a world where truth, mercy and forgiveness battle dehumanizing indifference to demonized bodies. Henry’s masterly novel reminds us of the toll paid as we imperfectly mete out the justice we claim to cherish but hardly ever achieve.”—Michael Eric Dyson, New York Times bestselling author of Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America
“Last Chance Live! takes readers on a deeply humanizing journey of a teen on death row competing in a reality tv show to earn freedom. Told through past and present vignettes with biting intellect and moments of aching humanity, Henry confronts the machinery of identity, justice and youth with chilling clarity. Unrelenting, darkly funny, and quietly hopeful, this book demands to be read—and remembered.”—J.Elle New York Times bestselling author of Wings of Ebony
“This speculative story feels like a dystopia that is just within reach of the real world. Fans of Black Mirror and Squid Game will love this. Readers will learn to love our main character while she is on death row.”—Erin Decker, White Rose Books & More, Kissimmee, FL
“I felt sick the whole time I was reading this book. Helena sees so clearly a reality we’re swiftly moving to—one we’ve been swiftly moving to, echoed in books like Fahrenheit 451 and The Hunger Games and movies like Death Race—and she deftly managed to make us care about everyone and worry about the end. Try to read more slowly, to delay getting there. This one is going to stay with me for a long, long time and I can’t wait to recommend it to everyone I know.”—Grace Lane, Linden Tree Books, Los Altos, CA
“Like most dystopian books these days, this is far too close to real life for comfort. It’s heart-wrenching and deeply moving, but also fast-paced and funny. It may seem strange to relate so deeply to characters on death row, but that’s the point: we’re all just people born into vastly different circumstances, making the best or worst or only possible choices, able to heal and change and forgive. Maybe the only constant is our humanity. There were insights in this book that felt like they were pulled directly from my own life. Powerful.”—Frederick Rossero, Oblong Books, Millerton, NY
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