“I Want You To Stay Up Late To Finish The Book” — Juno Dawson On Her Chilling “Survival Show”
Juno Dawson’s Survival Show begins with an irresistible premise: a reality TV show where contestants vie for one of five spots in a band, with each week the lowest-ranking contestant gets executed on live television. Dawson centers the book around Taryn Beck, a gutsy seventeen-year-old who’s survived a climate disaster and war and now lives in a refugee camp with her father and critically ill brother. When Taryn lands a chance to audition for Starmaker, the television show that has become a global phenomenon and launched past winners to superstardom, it seems like the best opportunity for her to provide her brother with desperately needed medical care. Yet when she begins rehearsing with her fellow contestants, Taryn must confront the challenge of collaborating and competing with contestants whose success could mean her death.
