The personal and professional experiences of a two-time Survivor player and television-industry insider are on full display in Stephen Fishbach's Escape!, a debut novel that explores the driving forces behind reality show contestants and the producers who manage them.
In a new reality show that promises to push the envelope like never before, eight contestants will live in a jungle on an island, subject to limited rules and competing to win keys that will unlock unburied treasure. Among them is Kent, who is middle-aged, depressed, experiencing a break-up, and longing for his glory days on a previous survival-based reality show. Miriam is a pharmaceutical marketing professional mistaken for a chemist, throwing caution to the wind for what was pitched as a grand adventure. On the other side of the island, Beck lives in production housing. As a producer who gained an infamous reputation for always getting the shot even as tragedy unfolds, she's desperate to reclaim the narrative of her career, even if that means influencing the contestants' relationships and actions to a degree that begins moving the production needle from unscripted to scripted.
As each player's established stereotype--the nerd, the villain, the hot girl, the has-been--begins to play out, their choices become more and more frantic, building toward a conclusion that feels inevitable and preventable. Propulsive and affecting, Escape! is a love letter to and indictment of the reality television ecosystem, inside and out. --Kristen Coates, editor and freelance reviewer