Book Review | Star Survivor

I’m on a roll with reading good books recently, lets hope I can keep this up.

Star Survivor
Lisa Brace

The designer luggage is packed. The bodily fuzz removed. It’s time for Star Survivor.

Hollywood star Zoe Stenson, TV darling June Sharp, author Toby Masters and mumfluencer Emily Chase, are ready to take part in the world-renowned reality TV show Star Survivor.

The plan is to pretend to survive for the cameras, safe in the knowledge they’ll be retiring to five-star comfort amongst the palm trees and sparkling blue sea when filming stops.

But when the four celebrities are accidentally left on the wrong South Pacific island – a truly deserted one – no amount of Instagram followers or box office sales will help them.

Forced to swap the spotlight for spearfishing, their Bollinger for beach finds, and with the world’s press clamouring for them to be found, will it be the making or breaking of these washed-up celebrities?

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This is a surprising book, I think from the cover and the description I thought it was going to be a lighthearted, comical survival story but it is so much more than that. Whilst Star Survivor does have humour and manages to keep a hopeful edge through the darker parts of the story, it is a wonderful exploration of what it takes to survive in the world as it is now.

I loved that I couldn’t predict what was going to happen next, I was amazed at how the story changed in such unexpected ways. It was brilliant, I didn’t want to put it down and could never have guessed the outcome.

Even though the pace changed a little throughout the book, I felt that worked well. When the characters are first on the island the pace seems unhurried and then as the story progresses it really picks up and matches what is happening to the characters.

The characters, June, Emily, Zoe, and Toby, really make this story, they are all so different and slowly as they realise their situation have to build a bond to make sure that they all survive. I liked that it was a bit of a struggle for them to find that bond, it was so genuine that they would have issues, and it made them all much stronger for it.

Even when they were all struggling they were constantly lifting each other up and sharing how grateful they were for each other. I think that’s why even when the story does get a little dark you still feel hopeful whilst reading it, knowing that they are still cheering each other on.

I also loved how these characters developed throughout the book, you have a brief idea of what each of them will be like but then all of the perceptions change as they have to accept their new reality. It was great to to see how they grappled with their own transformation at different points in the story, even Toby who at one point I thought was past the point of redemption.

I wish I could say more but this is a book that you want to go into without knowing too much so that you get the full impact of the story, but I will say that I was hooked.