This was so much fun! Blending The Hunger Games with The X-Factor and the myriad of talent shows made for a thrilling, dark and compelling read. I've been a big fan of Juno since day one and have seen on instagram her musical loves and all of the pop culture references featured just screamed Juno in the most delightful way. It was so fun to pick out the little easter eggs, from Beyonce to Adele and so much more.

I also loved the darker tones of the book. We've known for a while now that those pushed through the talent show system and spat out the other end haven't always had it the easiest. It brings to mind images of Liam Payne, the stories that former X-Factor contestants have told about their time on the show, from racism to being told to stay firmly inside the closet, from bullying to being told to go on a diet in order to get to the live shows and make their dreams come true. I found it to be very thought provoking about what we will do for fame, the lengths we go to in order to achieve even a slither of it and what we sacrifice to get it.

Taryn as a narrator was so fun. Seeing her go from excited to get into the competition to wanting to lead a rebellion against the system that's catapulting her into the public consciousness.

All in all I adored this book and cannot wait for the sequel. Bravo Juno, bravo!

My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for my earc!

Hunger Games meets X Factor. I inhaled this and loved every page. Clever writing with some truly horrifying scenes. Loved what it had to say about where the world could be going in terms of politics, the encroachment of AI and the seemingly untouchable super rich. Loved the Spice Girls references. Loved all the characters. Cannot wait for the sequel.

When Juno Dawson announced that she’d be releasing a book described as The Hunger Games meets the Spice Girls by way of Popstar Academy, I was so seated.

Survival Show follows Taryn, a 17 year-old from the UK, participating in a global talent contest to be part of a five-piece girl group. The consequence of being voted out is literal death. Say less. The promise of the premise was delivered with a killer smile and girl-power fist bump.

I had to devour this in one sitting, the escalating stakes as the contest continued to the bitter end making it impossible to put down. While girl bands and pop star contents with worrying ethics are a familiar landscape, especially for K-pop fans, Survival Show takes things that much further, pushing so far beyond the boundaries, you can’t even see them.

Perfect for fans of Aisling Rawle’s The Compound for its comments on consumerism and societal pressures on women, and Kiera Cass’s The Selection for the banding together of girls against an oppressive system. Just like Dollhou5e fans, I’m ride or die for whatever Juno writes and eager for a sequel.

I devoured this! It is everything you could want in a book! There’s suspense, passion, excitement, scariness , just perfection.
I loved the theme of hunger games x X factor , the reality tv show in a dystopian world is something that I always enjoy and this definately didn’t disappoint!!

✨ REVIEW ✨

Hunger Games + X Factor + a very scarily realistic possible future = this five star masterpiece by Juno Dawson

Absolutely brilliant and I cannot wait for the sequel.

My thanks to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster uk for the chance to read this arc

For the first time, I find myself rounding up and not down on a rating! Realistically, Survival Show was a 3.5 for me, but there's something about it that is so endearing, in its own way, that I couldn't resist adding that extra half a star.

Dawson's Hunger Games x X-Factor dystopia sounded right up my alley immediately, so when I dived in I worked really hard not to over-anticipate the read. I think this set me up well to enjoy it, because Survival Show won't really blow you away with plot twists and turns (except that one, I guess, iykyk!). But it's an easy read that I blew through in just one day.

The Plot
Generally, the plot is quite simple. 17 year old Taryn Beck is a struggling refugee who needs to help her sick brother, and when she enters a sing or die competition, she has the opportunity to do just that. If she can survive.
The premise is clever, but I found the execution to be a little clumsy - the pacing of the book feels a little all over the place, with the first half of it seeming to tick by slow and steady, and the second half rushing past. This left me stumbling on some of the bigger plot points because they aren't given room to breathe, and there's a fair amount of telling over showing. Taryn generally takes peoples' words at face value, and we're shown those to be true, meaning that overall, most of the information we need to know comes from conversations rather than anything particularly being discovered.
That said, it's a fun (Can you say that when teenagers are getting murdered?) plotline with a twist on the classic battle royale style of fiction that's been so popular recently.
There's also one particular plot point that is brought up, and then goes nowhere, which is a bit weird. Did Dawson forget about it, or did it just not quite make the cut to resolution?

The Characters
Okay, first of all, I'd die for Leela.
Now that's out of the way...The characters absolutely carry this book. Taryn's a little bumbling and frankly a little daft in her naivety, but it's quite endearing in its own way.
The other major characters are the girls selected to run this survival show gauntlet alongside Taryn, and each fit the usual stereotypes we might see in a teen high school film. We've got the spunky sidekick, the fiesty rival, the older quiet one, the shy one. It's a format that's tried and tested, and it works again here. The character dynamics are the majority of the book, and frankly, I'd read a high school teen book about these girls happily.
However, I'd have liked to get to know the girls on a deeper level. While we are given some depth to certain characters, it's not particularly fleshed out throughout, and it feels superficial. I can't say I felt much at any of the pivotal deaths in the book; I think this is for two reasons.
a) Obviously some folks are going to die. That's kind of...the whole point.
b) I didn't know these girls well enough. It's hard to form that emotional connection, because I know them only as stereotypes and plot points.

The overall vibes
As a summary, because I've rambled on far too much, the general vibes of Survival Show are pretty good. I could do without some of the heavy handed "the planet was destroyed, why didn't people know better?" symbolism (I'm all for this messaging, but I don't think it serves much of a purpose in the book, which makes it feel all a bit like an empty gesture), but generally I enjoyed reading it and I enjoyed connecting with Taryn's world. There's just some lovable qualities to the writing that I can't refute, and despite knowing that I've had a lot of "complaints" in my review, I can't help but love this one.

Is it a perfect book? No.
Is it more suited for a potentially younger audience than a chronically online 31 year old? Probably.
Would I recommend it to fans of dystopian battle royale style reads? Yes!

I enjoy this one it was definitely unique and a little different
I like the whole idea and it was executed very well
I liked the characters they were interesting and likable.

This is a neon‑bright, razor‑sharp dystopian thriller that takes the familiar machinery of reality TV and pushes it to its most brutal, glitter‑soaked extreme.

I absolutely DEVOURED this. Being a certified fangirl, books like this will always draw me in, but I think this might be the best one I've read so far. I loved the dystopian setting, the characterisation and all round vibe of the book. My only gripe is that I wish it had been longer, because I could have read 1000 pages of this. I think Juno did a great job of highlighting some of the horrors of the music industry, while maintaining the YA suitability of the story. I don't know what else to say other than I absolutely loved this and I've come to the conclusion that I would read Juno Dawson's shopping list and love it because she is yet to let me down.

This was definitely The Hunger Games meets the X Factor in the best ways! I'm not one for dystopian but this book weirdly did not feel like it at all. The premise was compelling with the game show-esque vibe with interesting commentary on girlhood, AI, the rich and famous, and so much more. I was fully immersed as I read this and I really didn't want it to finish as it was such a fun read..

Thank you to Juno Dawson, Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for letting read this great book.
I loved the idea of a X-Factor with trials. It intrigued me from the start.
I really liked some of the characters like the contestants like or FMC Taryn and some of the girls like Leela, Suki and, towards the end, even Madison. Other characters like her brother and Cade absolutely had my heart.
It starts a bit slow. I liked the auditions but it was a bit slow. When the girls were selected, action started for real. Some eliminations were like a gut punch.
The overall world-building was good, the plot was getting better as the book progressed and then, twists happened.
There were things I didn't see coming and were really surprised by.
Overall it was good book. I thought it would be a standalone and now I'm really looking forward for the next book.

Do you ever read the blurb of a book and think it was immediately written for you? That’s exactly what Survival Show was for me. As a Kpop adorer since 2007 when my Chemistry-class pal Laurette introduced me to the Wonder Girls, and someone whose University dissertation was on dystopian fiction, this felt like my two worlds colliding in the best possible way. So, for that, I want to start this review with saying THANK YOU JUNO DAWSON!

The world within Survival Show was what caught me first. As we live in a dystopia currently, there’s an interesting relationship with dystopias currently that has me questioning, when I read them, could this happen? And this is one, I unfortunately could see happening. With reality shows ever looking to raise the stakes in our world, it’s almost an eerie foreshadowing of what could come as a result of population control. That line is walked with eerie perfection by Juno Dawson, allowing readers to experience the gravity of the situation whilst also feel far enough away to feel a reprieve from this when needed. That being said, I think there is a LOT the world could learn from Juno Dawson’s writing in this novel.

Taryn is the PERFECT protagonist for this type of story, in my opinion. We understand why she needs to do this from the outset, but also why this world is so appealing to her and threatens to rope her in. She’s the type of fighter we love to see because of one main thing… Her fight is full of heart. I cheered for her, shed a tear for her, my heart broke for her, and so much more across Survival Show. Juno Dawson’s created one of those timeless dystopian YA protagonists that will be a figurehead in the zeitgeist for decades to come.

Without giving anything away (I don’t do spoilers!), the plot is so fast paced and ramps up so continuously, in an almost effortless manner (which shows the wonder of Juno Dawson’s craft). I was so thoroughly invested within the first chapter that I read the whole novel in two sittings and the only reason that was the case was because I had to sleep between. You will fall so incredibly mesmerised by this world, its people and its story that I can guarantee you won’t want to put it down either.

The dream YA read for any readers YA and above, this is going to be one that’s going to have people talking in the summer so make sure you’ve got a copy preordered. It’s one I’ve already told so many friends about, and I think it’ll be a novel that’ll have readers falling in love with it for decades to come…

I have enjoyed Her Majestie's Royal Coven series by Juno Dawson and when I saw that she was doing a new YA release, I knew that I had to request it on Netgalley. This was such a brilliant read, Juno always has a way to grip you from the very first page and doesn't let you go until you finish. It was so good that I read it in less than a day. I found the story brilliantly written and well paced. I loved the reality TV concept of the story, it was very well done. Plus there was a great cast of characters. I will definitely be getting a physical copy when it releases so that I can read it again. I highly recommend it and I look forward to reading more by the author.
💝 Thank you to Simon and Schuster UK children's, the author, Juno Dawson and Netgalley for my arc ebook copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.