What Mike's Reading

I admit, this book was not exactly what I was expecting. And that’s my fault really. I was expecting it to be a story based on a Survivor-style reality show, and that it definitely was. But for some reason, I had it in my head that this was more about a show where something goes horribly wrong.

Well, that pretty much happens too.

But for some reason I had it my head that the crux of the story was either a killer on the lose during production, or some sort of disaster that happened. There really was no reason for me to think that – but I did.

That being said, I still enjoyed this book. I have been a fan of Stephen Fishbach since his days as a contestant on Survivor and his post-playing days as a podcaster about Survivor. So when I found out that he had written his first novel and it was set around an island reality show, I was reading it no matter what.

Very happy to see that my local library, Nevins Library, had a copy (support your local library) and checked it out last week.

Without getting too spoilery, I liked this book but didn’t love it. I think the reason I didn’t love it was because I ended up not finding any character to root for. I thought at times – oh this is who I want to have a happy ending – and then that feeling would fade away over time. At certain points I found that I didn’t even like any of the characters. I thought the book was well written, so maybe that was intentional.

The characters you followed were a reality veteran, a reality new-comer – both written in third-person – and a reality producer, written in first person. As much as I love Survivor and some other reality-based competition shows, the book really goes out of its way to see how producers try to steer the narrative what what viewers are lead to believe is reality.

I have a feeling this was amped-up more for the book. After 50 seasons, I can’t imagine Survivor producers being this extreme and not being called out for it.

In the end, I would have expected more consequences for some of the characters (or maybe I just wanted more consequences), and none of their outcomes left me all that satisfied. As if to say “they got away with it,” though what it is varies.

Even with these criticisms, I still enjoyed the book and look forward to seeing what Stephen writes in the future.