The Finalists

· Penguin
3.0
1 review
Ebook
400
Pages
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About this ebook

The competitive selection process for a prized college scholarship turns deadly in the latest thriller from USA Today bestselling author David Bell.

On a beautiful spring day, six college students with nothing in common besides a desperate inability to pay for school gather to compete for the prestigious Hyde Fellowship.

Milo—The front-runner
Natalia—The brain
James—The rule follower
Sydney—The athlete
Duffy—The cowboy
Emily—The social justice warrior

The six of them must surrender their devices when they enter Hyde House, an aging Victorian structure that sits in a secluded part of campus.

Once inside, the doors lock behind them. The students are not allowed to leave until they spend eight hours with a college administrator who will do almost anything to keep the school afloat, and Nicholas Hyde, the privileged and notoriously irresponsible heir to the Hyde family fortune. If the students leave before time is up, they’ll be immediately disqualified.

But when one of the six finalists drops dead, the other students fear they’re being picked off one by one. With a violent protest raging outside, and no way to escape, the survivors viciously turn on each other.

The Finalists is a chilling and profound look at the lengths both students and colleges will go to survive in a resource-starved academic world.

Ratings and reviews

3.0
1 review
Joelle Egan
June 22, 2022
David Bell’s novel The Finalists calls to mind the “Breakfast Club” movie, but instead of sacrificing an afternoon to detention, these students might have to sacrifice their lives. Bell sets up a prototypic small New England college, which is facing financial straits like so many institutions are today. The narrator is a sycophantic mid-level administrator who is organizing a traditional scholarship competition while hoping to parlay it into an opportunity to lobby for a donation to the school.
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About the author

David Bell is a USA Today bestselling, award-winning author whose work has been translated into multiple languages. He’s currently a professor of English at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, Kentucky.

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