Although survival reality shows are supposed to make you believe that the contestants are this close to demise at all times, in the back of your mind you know that a crew is filming them and should step in and intervene should things get especially dire, thus eliminating any real threat. But what about when things go horribly wrong on set and a team of players is thrown into a real game of survival? Allow me to introduce you to Blair Braverman’s debut Small Game, a novel about a Survivor-esque reality show gone wrong.

Civilization is supposed to explore how five strangers build a community and life for themselves in the wilderness over the course of six weeks. Dropped in the middle of nowhere and given minimal resources to survive, Mara (the survivalist), Kyle (the scout), Bullfrog (the outdoorsman), Ashley (the fame-hungry), and James (the professional) are expected to tough it out over the course of the reality show if they want to have a chance at winning the prize money. While things go as well as can be expected in the first weeks, the contestants encounter a plot twist that they didn’t see coming that throws their camp into chaos. How will they survive when all rules are off the table?

By any means necessary.

Small Game is a tautly wrapped tale of perseverance and ingenuity. Gripping and compulsive, Small Game keeps you turning the pages until the very last sentence to find out if Civilization’s contestants make it out alive. Much more literary than I expected, Small Game combines lyrical prose with thriller elements to create a story that I just could not put down. This is an engrossing read for fans of the survival sub genre.

Recommended to fans of Erica Ferencik’s Into the Jungle.

I’ve been on such a good reading streak lately! This is the third book this week that I’ve devoured in one sitting. I could not put this down once I got started, and I loved it until the last page (literally, but we’ll get to that).

There is a new reality show called “Civilization”, and that’s where the story is set. Five strangers are cast, blindfolded, taken by car and helicopter to a remote, woodsy location, in the hopes of winning $100,000. They aren’t competing against each other (otherwise it’s pretty much “Survivor”), but they are competing to keep together and start a civilization out of nothing in six weeks. Our cast is exactly who you’d see on survival shows. We have:

Mara, our protagonist and a wilderness instructor recruited for the show

Kyle, the young and naïve kid obsessed with Chris McCandless (“Into The Wild”)

Bullfrog, the token older man who stays busy and keeps to himself

James, the bullheaded know-it-all, and

Ashley, the aspiring actress looking for fame

This starts as any show like this does - they all meet, it’s awkward on camera, the crew leaves at night but relies on infrared cameras and personal cameras for footage, personalities come out, they get really hungry - everything sounds normal for a reality show. Until it doesn’t, when one day, the crew doesn’t come back.

Eventually, the group (halfway) realizes they are on their own in the middle of nowhere. After a few days of waiting for someone to come back for them, they set out for help … and that’s when the story went from great to fantastic. This was super creepy, and I loved every second of it (until the last page).

This was five stars for me, UNTIL THE LAST PAGE. I’m reading along, enjoying the story, excited to see what happens in the end and then … a paragraph. A paragraph out of nowhere sums up the ending, leaving me with a million questions. The writing in this was so great, so expressive, and then … that’s it?

Whyyy couldn’t all that info have just been written into the book? It wasn’t totally left up in the air, so why not spend another 50 pages to expound on it? I’m so bummed about that, and the questions that I’m going with 4.5, rounded down. Make no mistake though, this was a fantastic book, especially if you’re a reality show junkie, and I still recommend it despite the ending - oh I’m sorry, I mean, the PARAGRAPH.

(Thank you to Ecco, Blair Braverman, and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my review. This book will be out November 1, 2022.)

Mara didn't set out to get a spot on a new reality show, but after the producers contact the survival school where she teaches, she thinks she can make it to the end and collect the prize money. She's spent her entire life leaning how to live in the wilderness. Winning would open up a whole new set of options for her. The entire book is told from Mara's point of view and I genuinely liked her and wanted to see her succeed.

The characters and plot drew me in and kept me turning pages, but I was expecting something very different, especially after the book's description said that "something had gone horribly wrong." The team's six weeks in the wild don't go as planned, but I was expecting something completely different.

It should be easy for Mara as a child she was raised by her parents off the grid and as an adult teaches people how to survive in the wilderness. So when casting for a reality show called Civilization wants her to be on it she jumps at the chance to make some money. She is quickly whisked off to a remote location where she will have to survive with 4 other cast mates. While Mara is initially weary of her cast mates they all soon fall into a good routine and rapport with each other. One morning they wake up and something has changed something that puts them all in danger and tests their real survival skills.

I absolutely loved the reality show plot line in books. If you like shows like Survivor, Alone and Naked and Afraid this book is for you! The characters were well developed and the in depth research that went into learning about different survivalist techniques was on point. I loved 99% of this book but the ending was really abrupt and left me with a lot of questions. I know some readers like having these open ended endings but I like mine wrapped up in a neat bow. While I don’t think I could survive in the wilderness after reading this book I definitely was entertained and on the edge of my seat most of the time. I can’t wait for this author to write more novels!

I enjoyed this book a great deal. I raced through it. It's a terrific wilderness-survival story that includes an extraordinary level of verisimilitude about edible plants, and fish traps, and how to survive in the wilderness...and it's also the story of human beings who, when faced with the most extreme circumstances imaginable, come together and take care of one another. The people felt so real to me. Usually when there is this much action and plot in a story the characters suffer. Here the internal journies of the characters are as meticulously told as the outward survival story. I'm in awe of Blair Braverman's skill in simultaneously telling both a riveting adventure story as well as this inner story of human faith and resilience. Some books do it all and this is one of them.

This wasn't what I wanted, not in an I don't know what I want and I settled for reading it, but in the sense that I wanted more from the concept and didn't get it.

Oh my god, I'm never going into the woods again.
I liked the book and would recommend it to others, but I'd definitely give them a heads up that the ending is joltingly abrupt & there isn't much resolution. What happened! I need to know!
After I read it (on a stormy weekend), I found myself walking around my house being extra-extra grateful for 4 walls, a solid roof, and the ability to order takeout, and for that it gets 4 stars from me.

I love Survivor and the show Alone so I knew this one would be right up my alley. This story moved very quickly and was a definite page turner. The writing was exceptional and cohesive and the character development flowed seamlessly. Loved and recommend.

This book has so many of the things I love::
Reality TV. check
Survival story: Check
Strangers need to rely on each other: Check
Suspense: Check

I was so excited to receive an advance copy of this book. Any book about reality tv and I am there.. Add in the fact that this becomes a survival story and I could not resist.

The story starts pretty quickly and I was drawn in. It was an interesting variety of characters, and I needed to know what was going to happen next..

But then.... it got a little slow. I might have skimmed a chapter or two. But you have no idea how much I needed to know what happened. What happened to the crew? Who survives in the cast? I was all in..

That ending.. What?? It was like you were climbing a roller coaster and climbing and climbing.. But then you only went down a short hill and the ride was over. I felt a little disappointed in the end. I needed MORE than that.

That being said, I did enjoy the book, and would read it again, knowing what I do now. It gave me a few hours of escape. Did this book live up to the potential? No. Was it still enjoyable? Yes.

Thank you to the author, the publisher and #netgalley for the ARC which did not impact my review.

3.5 stars rounded to 4.

The premise of Small Game was so interesting, and the story throws you almost immediately into the action. While the pacing slowed down for most of the book, I kept on reading because I couldn't imagine what happened to the crew or how the story would resolve.

I appreciate an ending that keeps the reader thinking, but this one was so abrupt and so unfinished that it almost feels like a cop-out. Things were just getting good and then suddenly we're left with no answers and not enough clues to guess what could have happened. I feel more frustrated and disappointed than anything else, which is a bummer because the book had set itself up for a great conclusion.

Blair Braverman, author of the memoir Welcome to the Goddamn Ice Cube, brings her knowledge of wilderness and survival to this taut story. Mara, daughter of off-the-grid survivalists, is cast in a reality show pitting her against four strangers for a chance at enough money to change her life and make using the skills she's learned the hard way unnecessary to her future. From the beginning, she's suspicious and cautious, but there's more in store for this group than they bargained for. This story has chilling moments even for the most dedicated outdoors person.

It should have been easy – six weeks of playing a reality TV survival game should have been a breeze for Mara, the daughter of survivalists who grew up to take a job as an employee of a survival school.

And the promised payday at the end was more than enough to sweeten the deal – more than enough to start the life she truly wants to live. But the contestants wake up one morning to discover that something has gone wrong – or the producers of Civilization are throwing them one truly outrageous curveball. Either way, survival just turned from a game into something real – and Mara will have to call on every skill she has to keep herself and the group alive.

Small Game is the debut novel from Blair Braverman, though not her first book; she’s also written about her life as a musher, and she has a clear and well-honed voice. It’s clear that her own experiences shaped this novel – in addition to dog-sledding, she appeared on a special episode of Discovery Channel’s Naked and Afraid – lending an authenticity to the behind-the-reality-scenes aspect of this book that made it easy to speed through.

But for me it was the characters, and the emotional journey they faced alongside simply surviving, that made this book such a gripping read. They’re all very different individuals, with their own strengths and weaknesses, and the author had me so invested in seeing them overcome every challenge thrown at them. They felt real, as did their situation, and that’s the kind of investment the reader needs for a novel like this to really succeed. You have to need them to survive to feel the sense of dread that dawns whenever you’re allowed to remember that maybe they won’t – that for all their struggle, they’re not guaranteed anything.

If you’re looking for a story that will have your heart in your mouth, and keep you reading late into the night having to know what happens – look no further. If you want to share in the joys and despairs of a group of people giving their all to surviving – here they are. I really loved this book, and hope to see more from Blair Braverman soon.

I have read a number of "survive the wilderness' stories in the past few years, and there is something so terrifying about this genre while surviving a pandemic. The loneliness, the terror, the need to survive, all were heightened by the current reality, and this one hit all those scary notes, and left me thinking about the book long after I had finished it.

If you like Ruth Ware, Gillian Flynn, and Paula Hawkins, Braverman's "Small Game" is for you.

Mara is the daughter of borderline doomsday preppers. She grew up off the grid. With her current boyfriend, and coworker at a survivalist camp, she still lives off the grid. When “Civilization,” a Survivor-type reality show (except crueler) comes to her work to recruit, offering $100,000 for lasting six weeks in the wilderness, she’s happy to go through the interview process. She doesn’t expect to be picked but she wants out. Will the show be hard? Maybe. But for Mara everything is hard, and she’s always been good at putting her head down and suffering through it. So she’s pliant to producers’ direction and is soon picked for the show. She’s excited for the opportunity, for the ability to leave her boyfriend if she makes it to the end.

The problem is, there is no end. The game starts. There are successes and victories, favoritism among the producers, drop-outs, arguments among the cast. Mara develops immediate romantic feelings for Ashley, another contestant who openly admits she’s playing for fame. Mara provides. And everyday the camera crew shows up in the morning and leaves at night, only the cameras in the trees left catch the contestants’ interactions.

And then the camera crew stops coming. A new twist, maybe, meant to scare the contestants. Except the batteries run out on the cameras in the trees and no one comes to replace them. A contestant is injured and no one comes to help. Something has happened. The survival game is no longer a game.

There was so much to like about this. The author takes her time to flesh out Mara as a complex and interesting protagonist. The other contestants, too, grow into real people, far exceeding their reality tv archetypes. This is where this book sets itself apart from others in the genre, like The Last One, a 2016 novel with a nearly identical synopsis that I just happened to read this year. Small Game is not an apocalypse novel with a reality tv twist. It’s a book about the people who willingly disconnect themselves- why they leave, and what they find.

The author builds relationships and characters you want to read more about. The things that happen are believable- especially post-pandemic. The first half of the novel feels like a peek behind the curtain on a regular survival show, rife with manipulation and capitalistic intent. When the novel changes in the second half, dropping the pretense of a “game,” it feels natural. It’s hard to put down.

A merit badge. A good story. A way out. A new life. Reconnection with a loved one. Everyone who goes out to the wilderness wants something, even the survivalists that come to Mara’s day job to pay big money for one night outside. The desperately want to find something and bring it back to their real, civilized lives.

But as far as these contestants know, there may not be a civilization to which they can go back.

I know Blair and her dogs from Twitter, so I was really interested to see how her first novel would turn out. It takes a subject she's familiar with (wilderness survival) and gives us a pretty compelling, tense narrative. Blair is very good at building up the dread, and a good chunk of this book is spent hoping that it turns out differently for these kids. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about the ending - I almost would have rather been left hanging vs the sentence we got in the last paragraph, almost offhandedly, that drained a lot of the remaining tension out of the narrative. Still, well done for a first fiction novel, and definitely one I'll be recommending.

Ashley, Mara, Kyle and Bullfrog each have their own individual reasons for wanting to be on the new reality show, Civilization. Mara happily escapes her current reality for the reality show, especially with the lure of so much money on the line. She’s an ideal contestant, having taught survival skills to rich clientele. Contestants don prehistoric garb and are forced to forge a new community together. When Mara is dropped into the water from a helicopter, she understands that the game has begun. When things go awry, Mara and the others aren’t’ sure if it’s part of the show or if their lives are actually at stake. Who will they be when they get to the end of the game, and more importantly, will they all reach the end alive? This is a fast novel that reads like Hunger Games meets Lord of the Flies meets Survivor. Thank you to Ecco Press and to NetGalley for the advanced review copy.

Small Game is a quick read about a Survivor-like reality show where 5 blindfolded contestants are dropped off in an unknown location for 6 weeks. The prize money is $100,000.

Mara comes from a prepper family and now teaches at a survival school, so when she’s selected as a contestant, she figures she’ll easily win.

For the first few weeks, the group perform for the cameras and do as the producer asks. And then one day, everything goes horribly wrong.

I read this book in one day and couldn’t read it fast enough. I love survival stories and this one was everything I could have asked for.

This was the author’s debut book and I couldn’t get enough! Can’t wait to see what she does next.

*Thank you so much to Ecco Books and to NetGalley for like the advance eGalley. Pub date is Nov. 1st, 2022.*

Small Game
by Blair Braveman
Pub Date: November 1, 2022
Ecco Press
Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the ARC of this book.
A gripping debut novel about a survival reality show gone wrong that leaves a group of strangers stranded in the northern wilds
I thought I would give this one a try. I had not read anything by this author and the premise sounded interesting.
It is a quick read and it does get dark and suspenseful

4 stars

As a huge fan of Blair Braverman's writing, I was extremely excited for her debut novel. Small Game follows a group of four people starring in a survival reality show when they realize that something has gone terribly wrong in the outside world. This was a propulsive story with interesting characters, and it was fascinating to see all the aspects of survival depicted in this story. I feel that the ending could have been wrapped up a bit better, but I still really enjoyed the journey!

Listen, this book isn't for the faint of heart... it's definitely dark, but also a thriller page turner.

You know by now I love a vacation gone wrong and maybe you know I am a die-hard survivor fan. There was no way I was turning down the chance to review a book about four strangers cast in a reality show about surviving!

Mara is actually an outdoor teaching professional and is very surprised when the TV producers add her to the cast. When she joins the others, she really doesn't know what to expect of how to act. All she knows is that she desperately needs the prize money.

As she learns more about her fellow contestants, reality shows in general and how to get a long with other people, something goes very, very wrong on set. Can the survivors band together and survive this? If you like vacation gone wrong and reality tv based stories you will love Small Game#Ecco #BlairBraverman #SmallGame #Netgalley