Thank you NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

The cover is just okay.. nothing crazy.

Sadly, I could not get through this book. I'm into reality tv, like so many others. So I had high hopes for this book. Unfortunately it just didn't work. The main character is boring and fairly annoying.


I don't think I'll read anything else by this author.

For a debut novel, Schild does extremely well. He creates a fascinating cast of characters and captures (what I would imagine to be) the absurd experience of Reality Television super stardom in a nutshell.

Interesting read.

The reality 'star' tells all.
A few years ago Mick was on a reality show similar to MTV's 'Real World.' This new show that he chronicles here is their reunion show and it is much like MTV's other show 'Road Rules' which is basically Real World in an RV traveling from place to place completing challenges like you'd see on 'Amazing Race' or in escape rooms.
I had high hopes for this book. As a reality TV junkie, I was drawn in immediately only to be severely disappointed. I really could not stand Mick at all and the other cast members were not peaches either. Mick is convinced that he was just caught in a series of unfortunate events that made him look bad. The show either made him look really really bad in editing or didn't really have to do much editing at all since he's naturally a jerk.
Mick is a comic book store owner and actually a bit of a snob. He looks down on people that are too mainstream and yet he doesn't like those at the other end of the spectrum that are more independently unique either. You can't go more than three pages without a superhero comic book or movie analogy or reference. It became very tiresome.
Toward the end of the book he had an epiphany of sorts but not enough to redeem himself in my eyes. And then he goes and says this :
"I was portrayed just as poorly as I expected. Just trust me when I say I’m not nearly as big of an a***ole as that show made me out. At first, it really made me mad to see how badly misrepresented I was. Then I realized it doesn’t really matter. It’s just a stupid TV show for stupid people. If you think that what you saw on your screen was real, and you hate me, I’m fine with that. You’re obviously pretty stupid, so I’m not going to sweat your opinion."
That last line was the typical retort of an immature social media troll and that completely did him in. He dug himself deeper in that hole than he even began with for me.

The only thing funny about this book is the depths of how reality TV isn't reality at all. Shocker, right? The producers call it 'unscripted' but they definitely steer it in the direction they want it to go and have all the right set ups to get where they want it to go. The rest will be worked out in editing.

Overall, I give this book a big "Nope." I didn't like Mick or the rest of the cast so that really didn't help. It also ended very abruptly with no kind of closure or explanation.
Thankfully, I received a copy of this book from NetGalley but will be deleting it.

I could not make it through this book. I tried, not once but twice. I thought maybe it would all come together sometime soon, but no. Just a jumbled mess. Which is really sad because it could have been SO GOOD.

This is the perfect read for the current moment, as it is just fun. No heavy thinking involved. You are not going to be sad or emotionally invested. It is just a fun and light read.

I'm a fan of some reality TV...can anyone say "Love is Blind?!" But this fell flat for me. I just couldn't root for the main character. I tried several times, and failed, to read the entirety of the book but it didn't capture my interest. The premise is great! It just didn't speak to me.

I have to say, to start out with, I LOVED the premise of this book. I am a sucker for reality TV and behind the scenes gossip so this fed every guilty pleasure I had. However - and this is a big "however" - I couldn't stand the constant comic book references, and that's where the problem lies. I think the author needs to pick an audience. Are you going to be targeting the comic book superhero types or the reality show watching types because those two worlds don't (or rarely) collide enough to warrant an entire book or grab the attention of the reader for its entirety? Especially when some of the comic book references are such deep cuts that it sounds like a foreign language. The book really just lost me. No matter how much I wanted to read about what happened between Mick and Molly I couldn't get past the random superhero references that neither push the story nor, because of the obscure nature of the references, help describe the situation. I got about 60% through and quit. Also, lots and lots of punctuation and typing errors. My advice, take out the superhero aspect of the book and focus on the story and you have a great book that I really really would love to finish.

I love love love anything related to reality television but I did not enjoy this book. First, I had never heard of the show House Rules or Redemption Road and a Google search brought up a different reality concept so I was not sure if this book was based off an actual show or whether it was completely made up. In any case, if it was based off a real show, I think the show must have been super boring because the book was really just a play by play of the show with more explanation and it just wasn’t all that exciting or entertaining. In fact, the play by play seemed overly mansplained and just pitiful. If the book was completely made up, then I would never suggest the author go into production on a real reality show as I think people would not care to watch. Towards the end of the book, it felt like the author came into a small amount of self awareness which was the only redeeming quality of the book. I wasn’t a fan of this one.

This is the story written by the point of view of an ex reality “star” about his stints on a reality show. He chronicles his and the other contestants who have returned for a redemption show. I really appreciated the idea of the book, but I didn’t feel any connection to the characters. The main character came across as always being the victim. The book did have some good parts and I really wanted it all to come together in the end.

Loved the premise, but this book was not really for me. I also feel like there needs to be a follow up book to answer some open ended questions I have.

This book was not to my taste; I only got about 10% through it, so cannot rate it fairly. Thank you for the opportunity to read it. I had a difficult time connecting to the main character and prefer more dialogue/ interaction between characters.

Based on the cover, I presumed that this was a graphic novel. It's not. This novel just didn't quite engage me and I ended up bailing on this one.

The pacing was a bit off and the way the characters acted was a bit unrealistic, however, overall, Schild's novel is a fun, enjoyable and one-sitting read.

Sadly I had to DNF this book! The description was very vague so I decided to give it a go but after reading 20% I had to stop. I really didn’t care about the characters or the story. This feels like a bad version of UnReal.

I received an advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion. Thanks #netgalley