I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

The world just seems to take and take from Taryn Beck, but there’s one thing it’ll never have: her voice. Only when she’s singing does Taryn feel like she can escape her reality—free from the aftermath of the War, free from the Scottish refugee camps where she and her family now live, and free from the responsibility of making ends meet for the sake of her sick brother.

Taryn’s voice is her one ticket out, and that’s why she enters to be a contestant on the world’s most watched television program: Starmaker, where kids from the New Peace Global Alliance compete for the chance to join an all-singing, all-dancing pop group. Rise to the top, and a life of luxury, stardom, and money awaits.

There’s only one small catch. The lowest ranking face a televised public execution. Starmaker thanks their participants for their noble sacrifice to Project Population.

Taryn’s about to sing for her life.

Short and Sweet Review

Taryn Beck has spent her life trying to survive in a world still recovering from war, where she and her family live in a Scottish refugee camp and struggle to care for her sick younger brother. Her incredible singing voice offers what feels like the only way out, leading her to compete on Starmaker, the world’s biggest reality competition. Winning means fame, wealth, and a better future for her family, but contestants who rank at the bottom aren’t simply eliminated. They’re publicly executed. As the competition grows deadlier, Taryn realizes she’ll have to do much more than out-sing the other contestants if she wants to make it out alive.

I was immediately sold on the premise. A dystopian survival competition centered around creating the next pop group is such a fun twist on books like The Hunger Games, especially if you’ve ever watched shows like Dream Academy or other idol survival programs. The concept is incredibly creative, and once the competition officially begins, the story becomes difficult to put down. The performances, rankings, eliminations, and behind the scenes politics all captured the high pressure atmosphere of reality television while raising the stakes in the most brutal way possible. The characters were another highlight. Taryn is an easy protagonist to root for because her motivation never feels selfish everything she does is for her family, especially her younger brother. While I enjoyed her journey, I found myself becoming even more attached to some of the supporting characters, particularly Leela, whose friendship added some much needed warmth to an otherwise tense story. I just wish we had spent a little more time developing the relationships between the contestants as a whole. There were moments that should have hit emotionally, but because some of the girls weren’t explored beyond their initial archetypes, a few of the eliminations didn’t have the impact they could have. The pacing was a bit uneven. The first portion of the novel takes its time establishing Taryn’s life and the world before the competition, while the second half moves incredibly fast. Once Starmaker begins, the momentum never really slows down, but that also means several major plot developments and emotional moments don’t get as much room to breathe as I would have liked. I also found myself wanting more world-building about how society reached this point. The setting is fascinating, but I was left with quite a few questions about the dystopian world outside the competition. I also wasn’t completely sold on the romance. While I could see what the author was aiming for, the relationship never fully clicked for me, largely because of the age gap between Taryn and Cade. It made it difficult for me to become invested in that aspect of the story, even though I appreciated that romance never overshadowed the main plot.

Overall, Survival Show delivers exactly what its premise promises: a fast-paced, high-stakes dystopian survival story with plenty of tension, memorable characters, and a reality show setting that feels both entertaining and unsettling. It isn’t perfect the pacing, romance, and world-building leave room for improvement, but I still had a great time reading it and I’m definitely interested in seeing where the sequel takes the story.