Book ~ "Show Time" (2012) Phil Harvey

From CypressHouse ~ Future TV audiences have become totally desensitized to violence and entirely dependent on sensation to escape their boring workaday lives—an addiction nurtured by the media with graphic portrayals of war and crime and with so-called reality programming. Now TV execs in pursuit of the only things they care about—higher ratings and bigger paychecks—have created the ultimate reality show: Seven people, each bearing the scars of his or her past, are deposited on an island in the middle of Lake Superior. Given some bare necessities and the promise of $400,000 each if they can endure, the three women and four men risk death by starvation or freezing as the Great Lakes winter approaches. 

The island is wired for sound and flying drones provide the video feed, so everything the contestants do and say is broadcast worldwide. Their seven-month ordeal is entirely unscripted, they can ask for help or they forfeit the prize, and as far as the network is concerned—the fewer survivors the better. 

I'm a fan of Survivor so thought this book sounded interesting.

Seven people (three women and four men) are put on an island in the middle of Lake Superior for seven months (from August to March) with just three months of food each.  Whoever lasts 'til the end wins $400,000.  Two are given a rifle, another is given a map and another is given access to the others' backgrounds.  With different backgrounds and issues, one has a gambling habit, another has a drug habit, another has left her husband and daughter, and another has been abused.

At first, they kind of get along and plot against the the show ... which is boring and makes for poor ratings.  So the producers shake things up a bit to dire results.

I enjoyed the writing style but thought the book was just okay.  I don't mind sex in books but this focused too much on the sexual relationships of the seven when the story itself could have been so much better and calculating.  By the end, they were starving and freezing ... I would have liked to have read more about what perhaps one did to take advantage of the others in true survivor style rather than the details of who was doing who.

I received a copy of this book at no charge in exchange for my honest review.