Teenage Riley Ozumi has been kicked out of school and turned into an unflattering meme. When she signs up for a Survivor-style reality show, Reality Gold, on isolated Black Rock Island, she hopes to redeem her name, make some cool new friends, and… also, secretly uncover the ancient treasure hidden on the island.
Legends say that Black Rock Island is cursed, and pretty soon disasters start happening. I might be a bit older than the target audience, because I found myself sympathizing with Deb, the producer and creator, as everything went wrong on the show. She was just trying to do her job in the face of injuries, broken equipment, an outbreak of food poisoning, a predatory host, and other disasters. Poor Deb was just trying to make trash TV!
Like any reality show, there are way too many characters in Reality Gold to keep track of in the beginning. But some are voted off with marbles at tribal councils, and mysterious accidents bump off other players, which thins the numbers a bit. Soon distinct personalities emerge. There’s a section when it seems like the competitors on the island are one-note Popular Girl, Angry Goth and Cute Baby, but this turns out to be part of Riley’s own growth and character development. This is about Riley’s ability to look past her own anger and see other people complex individuals, not about a writer’s failure to develop characters. Soon Riley, and the reader, can see the other competitors as full, complicated humans.
While the players compete in reality-show games, Riley and a few others are also searching for the treasure. Riley’s also trying to rehab her image, creating a very teenage contrast as she tries to look friendly (and not like the awful spoiler-girl meme) while she schemes up ways to stay on the island and keep searching for the treasure. But soon, whether it’s the island’s curse or an unscrupulous treasure hunter, it seems like the TV show games are the least of the players’ problems.
Haunted island and teen reality TV might seem like a surprising pairing, but there’s a lot to enjoy in this page-turning YA story.
Fans of this one will also like One to Watch, about a plus-size influencer on a dating show, of The Book of Essie about a teen daughter on a Christian family reality show with some bombshell secrets, and Reckless Girls for creepy, maybe-haunted island suspense.