I've loved Blair Braverman's voice as she narrates the adventures of her sled team over on Twitter, and it turns out that translates excellently to writing a survival-game focused thriller. This is slim but effective, and I wouldn't have minded spending more time with these characters mid-predicament. The ending on this felt a little rushed/hand wave-y, and I also kept expecting the "game" to turn more sinister/supernatural than it actually was, but it turns out there's nothing more sinister than the way humans treat one another.

Mara's unconventional, off the grid childhood taught her all there is to know about survival. As an adult, she spends her days teaching those skills to wealthy clients at Primal Instinct, a survival school aimed at replicating a true overnight survival experience under the guidance of experienced instructors.

When a TV production crew comes to Primal Instinct to scout potential cast members for an upcoming survival reality show called "Civilization," Mara's mundane daily life is suddenly shattered with the glittering possibility of prize money beyond her wildest dreams--a ticket out of her life into a future of endless possibilities.

Under both the cameras and near-constant supervision of the crew, Mara and the four strangers chosen with her find "Civilization" an interesting albeit challenging replica of true survival: an undisclosed location, no shelter, one item of their choosing to aid their efforts, and 6 weeks to last for the prize money. Simple enough for Mara, whose entire life has prepared her for survival.

That is, until one morning everything mysteriously changes and "Civilization" takes a sinister turn nobody (readers included) could have predicted.

Even for someone like me who has only mild (at best) interest in outdoor survivalism, there's a lot to love about Blair Braverman's "Small Game." It's a quick, immersive read that seems plausible enough and boasts an intriguing cast of characters. While the first half of the story is mostly atmosphere-setting and character-building, there is a very palpable moment where the story is totally spun on its head. I dare you to see if you can put the book down at that point.

Something to note that's bound to emerge in other reviews; the ending (no spoilers here!) does not do the story as a whole justice. It feels rather abrupt and incredibly unfinished, but I was okay with that because of the unsettling mystery that kind of ending brought to the story. I interpreted the end as simply not knowing--and that felt like an intentional rather than lazy choice from the author to me. Others may disagree, but I wholly enjoyed this & think others will too, so long as they prepare themselves for the inevitable untied loose ends.

“Ashley wanted to be famous. That’s not an insult, it’s the truth.” Right from these opening lines, Small Game drew me right in.

There are 5 strangers brought together to be on a reality show called Civilization. They are out in the wilderness for six weeks and need to survive on their own. Everyone who lasts the six weeks will leave with $100,000.

I really enjoyed most of the book - would pick it up just planning to read a little and I couldn’t put it down. Unfortunately I was disappointed by the ending and some unanswered questions - but overall still really enjoyed the reading experience. Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the advance reading copy.

In the first half of Small Game, Mara joins a survival reality show as an escape from her unpleasant life. She encounters a unique group of castmates, including the beautiful Ashley, who entrances Mara. (Side note: While Ashley is blatantly not a rugged survivalist, Braverman doesn't distill Ashley down to a shallow ditz; her openness and adventurousness is treated as a strength, which I appreciated.) In the second half, the cast members find themselves alone, and surviving from scratch isn't just for the cameras. Throughout, I was interested in Mara and those around her, and my curiosity how it would all play out for them propelled be through this book pretty quickly. I recommend this if you're looking for the mountain vacation equivalent of a beach read; the stakes are high enough to keep you reading, but it isn't overly serious or realistic.

But I had some major frustrations. Spoilers ahead as I get into those.

The first half of the novel sets up a massive question (WHY did the crew abandon the cast?) with odd little clues scattered to answer it. I was expecting the second half to investigate this question *somehow,* whether it became a mystery or a thriller or even if it took on paranormal elements. But the second half almost entirely shrugs off this question and it becomes a relatively straightforward (not boring, just straightforward) survival story. If Braverman wanted to write a survival narrative between a handful of unlikely friends (and lovers), there are so many other (and less misleading) ways to set that up. This leaves the first half without resolution and the second half without the dramatic setup to give it much pay-off.

Everyone wants to be famous right? And how do we do that? Reality television of course.

Mara is handed an opportunity to make a new future for herself on just one such show. She just has to work with her teammates and walk out of the forest alive and she will have money to do what she wants to do.

But of course things begin to go wrong and how do you survive when you have no idea what you are surviving?

It was just a great story that kept me intrigued until the very end.

Small Game by Blair Braverman is a superb and engrossing read with a great plot and engaging characters. Well worth the read!

Small Game by Blair Braverman tells the story of Mara and four other participants in a reality television show about survival called "Civilization." They are blindfolded and brought to an undisclosed location in the woods to live off the land for six weeks. Any "survivors" will win big money. But one day they notice the television crew doesn't show up, and the cameras appear to be missing. Is this part of the game, or is something more sinister afoot?

The premise sounded intriguing, and the book's pacing started out strong. I was invested in what would happen to these characters, and the short chapters kept me hooked. Unfortunately, at about 75%, something happened that changed the course of the story as well as the pace. The rest of the book seemed very different in that it was less suspenseful and led to a completely unsatisfying conclusion. What started out with a very strong start ended with a very weak finish.

Thank you to Ecco Press and NetGalley for the DRC in exchange for my honest review.

I really hate reality tv survival shows, but this novel about one was so centered on the characters that I was captivated. Five strangers have signed up to be filmed as they survive for 6 weeks in the wilderness, which is made more complicated by the presence of the film crew and possibly smarmy producer. This book read like a thriller but didn’t descend into sensationalism or even focus on the central mystery too sharply. Instead, there was an engrossing study of Mara and her teammates as they tried to navigate the rules of the game. We’ll done, Bler!

The premise for the book is a good one. At the beginning it almost felt a tad Hunger Games-ish, except the "survivors" were on a team together, not against each other. They were competing against nature to survive 6 weeks in the wilderness. Cool concept! And the main character, Mara, has the experience to survive and the desire to start her life over again. But that's it. Even with the things that happen, it feels flat after the concept is introduced. Somehow the peaks and valleys were flattened out. The story drags on, even though the book is less than 300 pages. Finally when it gets to the end, everything is wrapped up in a paragraph, and not even really wrapped up, just finished.

This book is set in a reality type show called Civilization, which is similar to Survivor. Except instead of competing and eliminating, you work together to survive.

Five stranges. Six weeks to compete. All five are there for different reasons.

Mara is our main character. She wants a fresh start and needs the money to leave her boyfriend and go after the life she wants. She was raised by off the grid parents and works in a survival camp, so she seems the perfect candidate for the show. The others are Kyle (nineteen and an Eagle Scout); Bullfrog (he's grouchy and not super friendly); Ashley (who tells them immediately she's there to be famous - she is beautiful but has no clue how to survive); and James (a teacher who self eliminates).

After a few weeks, the contestants find the crew isn't showing up and the cameras aren't recording.
They aren't sure what happened but now it gets real. Surviving is not longer a tv show. Their life depends on it.

It's fast paced and wild from here on out, and to know what happens, you'll need to read it. Any additional info would definitely be a spoiler!

Many thanks to Netgalley and Ecco for an ARC in exchange for my honest review!

3.5/5 A group of survivalists are cast on a survival reality TV show, but one day all of the crew members disappear leaving the survivalists to figure out what to do next. Overall, I loved the idea for the book and it had me thinking about the difference between being alone and being lost- the difference being that there's nothing scary (at least for me) about being alone. I wish there was more to the ending though. I am a fan of having closure and not just letting things fizzle out.

Sigh.
This book started off SO well. It reminded me a lot of Stranded, where a group of people are set up to participate in a Survivor-style reality show. I was captivated and eagerly turning pages to find out what would happen. Mara has all of the survival skills necessary to make it for the six weeks to win the prize. Five people and a camera crew are filming in the wilderness. One contestant leaves the first day.

And then we get to halfway through the book and the camera crew vanishes. Where did they go? Is it a test? I was so excited to see what was next as the adventure gets more dangerous.

Then...the ending. Which was a big, huge letdown.
5 stars for the first 95% of the book. 1 star for the ending. Averaged to 3. I really liked it but hate the end.

As soon as I saw the author’s name, I knew I wanted to read her debut novel. For years I’ve followed “Dog Sled Twitter” (yes, there is such a thing) and because of it, I knew Blair always told funny, amazing, delightful stories, and really, really loves her dogs. And the people who follow her also love Grinch and Jenga and Flame and Pepe and the rest of the pack because the author imbues each dog with a distinct lovable personality. Ms. Braverman has also taken her pups to compete in the famous one thousand mile Iditarod dog sled race in Alaska, so she definitely knows about survival skills. And, as I learned a couple years ago through Twitter, she was a contestant on “Naked and Afraid” and it was quite the harrowing experience (including being surrounded by hyenas on the second day).

So, with that in mind, we have a novel about a survival reality show and the main character is Mara, instructor at a sort-of survival school (one night in the woods and you get a leather bracelet) and presumably a great candidate to be recruited for one of these cable shows. In this case, it’s a show called “Civilization” that puts 5 people in the wilderness for 6 weeks in “fast-fashion prehistoric” garb and expects them to build a community. Mara knows this is really about entertainment and also about money ($100,000 if you make it to day 42). Sounds familiar. Except, that suddenly after a couple of weeks, the support staff, cameramen, and potential emergency food and medical assistance disappear.

Along with Mara there are four others:
Kyle, the Eagle Scout
Bullfrog, the anarchist and grouch
Ashley, the beautiful, inexperienced wannabe star
James, the math teacher and early escapee

If you watch TV survival shows, you always have it in the back of your mind that the producers would never let anything really bad happen (oooh, lawsuits!), but that's the nightmare that happens in the novel (in real life, the author had to exit her show early because of a really awful medical emergency — search her Twitter feed).

This book is also as much about the author’s wry takes on reality television as well as a commentary on the whole strange industry — what kind of person volunteers for a spotlight that can include embarrassment and connivery? What goes on behind the scenes when the cameras are turned off? It’s not quite a traditional thriller and I was a little miffed by the abrupt ending, but it crosses the finish line with 5 stars!

Thank you to Ecco and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review!

Literary Pet Peeve Checklist:
Green Eyes (only 2% of the real world, yet it seems like 90% of all fictional females): NO Unusually, no eye colors are mentioned anywhere in the book.
Horticultural Faux Pas (plants out of season or growing zones, like daffodils in autumn or bougainvillea in Alaska): NO Mara is a proficient horticulturist, can determine which foliage might be poisonous, and knows that strawberries don’t bloom that early in the spring

Small Game by Blair Braverman. Thanks to @eccobooks and @netgalley for the gifted Arc ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

A survival reality show gone wrong leaves four contestants in the forest to fend for themselves.

I love a good survival book and this one had it all. The characters were all well developed and I enjoyed getting to know them and rooting for them. My only complaint was that I would have liked the ending to unravel a bit more, and there was one piece missing for me. Besides that it was still a five star read.

“Look, im not trying to rebuild society. Im just trying to get out of it.”

Small Game comes out 11/1.

The show is called Civilization. The contestants are tasked with not just surviving but also with creating a new Civilization. The six contestants must forgo all comforts and find a way to live on their own with nothing but the clothes on their back and what the forest can provide. If they can hack it for 6 weeks, they can win $100,000. Mara teaches survival classes for a living and is confident she can survive the 6 weeks but when the crew stops showing up and the cameras go off, the remaining contestants are left far longer than the 6 weeks they expected.

This is a well written debut but for me this wasn't a thriller. This goes back to my compliant about labeling books thrillers just because they have one dramatic event. To me thrillers are page turning suspense reads, and while I guess this one had some suspense, it read more as literary or contemporary fiction to me. The pacing here is much slower, from a purely stylist perspective reminded me more of What Comes After and These Silent Woods. I really enjoyed both of those books and they were in my top 2021 reads. Do these books all have a mystery tied to them? Yes, but they're so much more than the that and labeling them as thrillers really does them a disservice since they don't fit the typical mold of a thriller. Now that I have that rant out of the way…

I really thought I was going to love this book and it started off really strong for me. I'm all for a survival book especially when the descriptions and writing is so incredibly vivid. I was hoping for multiple POVs, especially since it’s all about a reality TV show. I was surprised by the choice to just show Mara’s POV and to be honest she’s the least interesting of all the characters. I feel like we got a ton of information about the actual contestants throughout the books but nothing that helped puzzle together who each of them were. So instead, we really just get Mara’s thoughts and musing throughout the whole story. That could have been fine, but Mara’s character seems to be a bit ‘bleh’, for lack of a better term. Her behaviors and viewpoints could all certainly be crafted from her upbringing, but she lacked emotion and tended to be naïve.

Pacing wise this one is a bit slower and is more an atmospheric read than a plot based one. Which is going to work for lots of readers, but it doesn’t work great for me, since I’m such a plot-based reader. I was constantly waiting for something to happen, that never materialized. That might have been from my assumption this would be more a traditional thriller, than because of the actual story itself. The ending also felt abrupt. Without getting too far into it, I got zero answers to what happened. I know this was a direct choice (and some people love a good open ending) but I just have too many questions left.

For a certain type of reader, this is going to be a great story to get your hands on. For those of us that need more concrete endings, and are plot based readers, this won't be a perfect fit. I will say again though, that the writing was wonderful especially for a debut. I'd definitely give Braverman another shot but this one just didn't fully deliver for me.

Small Game comes out November 1, 2022! Huge thank you to Ecco Press for my advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion.  If you liked this review please let me know either by commenting below or by visiting my Instagram @speakingof.books.

Okay… Where do I start? First, let’s start at what drew me to this book. I was instantly fascinated with the idea of this book because I love survival tv shows and grew up loving the book Hatchet. This book is about a group of people who go onto a survival tv show and it goes epically wrong.
If you like: Naked & Afraid, Hatchet, survival books/movies, fast paced books with short chapters, this is for you. All of that works for me too and I was very much enjoying this book. For the first 50%, I would give this book a 4 or 5 stars.

What lost me is that the book literally did not have an ending… I understand books with ambiguous endings that make you create your own idea of what happened but that absolutely cannot work here. MAJOR plot points were not addressed at all.
Without giving away spoilers, there were also some scenes in this book that were completely unrealistic. I’m sorry but if I’m stranded in the woods for months, the last thing I’m thinking of is starting up a casual sexual relationship with the people I’m stranded with.
I’m so disappointed because this book had SO MUCH POTENTIAL and I literally was loving it but it just feels like the author got tired of writing and didn’t feel like explaining how the characters even got in the situation they were in. Seriously, almost every plot point was left unfinished.
I was ready to rave about this book and tell all my friends to read it. Instead, I’m going to have to advise against reading it because the ending will make you so mad. I have SO MANY QUESTIONS that will go unanswered. I will be thinking about this book in a negative way for a long time.
I’ll definitely give this author another shot, as long as they learn how to flesh out their stories.

5 people sign up to be on a reality survival show called "Civilization". They are expected to spend 6 weeks in the wilderness while being filmed by a crew for the show, anyone still there at the end wins prize money. Some members of the team are very experienced in living off the land while others are novices. When the crew fails to show up one day for filming the contestants soon realize they are truly on their own to survive.

While I did enjoy the survival aspect of this story there was minimal character story or development. Characters ended pretty much the same as they started (weak and depended or strong and self sufficient). There was no real explanation of who the characters were before the show. The ending felt rushed (summed up in 1 paragraph) and the reader is left with NO explanation about what happened to the film crew, the producer or the TV show. Was the plan always to leave these people in the woods until they saved themselves? Why, especially with no cameras for the majority of the time, would a TV show do that, they wouldn't? So were these people not actually a part of a TV show, they must have been as lawsuits are referenced in the end. Which comes back to the unanswered question of what happened?!

I found this book well written but frustrating in how some parts went on forever with too much focus and other parts, of more importance, were glossed over. I would not recommend this book simply because the lack of any sort of an ending is very frustrating for a reader.

I absolutely loved this book. Couldn’t put it down, I loved the plot and characters. Well written and good character development. My only complaint is the ending felt way too sudden and rushed. There was so much more story to tell.

Atmospheric and engrossing, I was immediately captivated by the story and couldn't put it down. Braverman does an amazing job fleshing out characters by showing you details of their thoughts and behaviors, and the escalating, menacing tension that slowly creeps over the story was delicious. I wished we followed the story through to more resolution, but we get enough that I wasn't unsatisfied by the rather abrupt ending.

This was a surprisingly good survival thriller that gave me panicked breathing at times!

I loved the premise of a reality show gone wrong and people being actually abandoned in the woods--very Yellowjackets/ Lord of Flies vibes, but with adults. Not gore filled, but use your imagination and you'll be freaked out

Definitely recommend this for thriller fabs or anyone who likes a good survival style story.