BookBrowse Reviews Escape! by Stephen Fishbach

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Stephen Fishbach, who appeared twice on CBS's Survivor, channels his experiences into a propulsive debut novel about a faded reality television star who goes on a daring new show to prove that he can live up to his former glory.

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When Kent Duvall was first cast on Endure (a fictional reality television series modeled heavily after CBS's Survivor) years ago, he was the golden boy: long-haired and muscular, he stepped into the role of alpha male, won challenges, speared a boar in the jungle, and charmed his way into winning the season. Now, middle-aged, unemployed, and struggling with his marriage, Kent feels like a shadow of his former self. When he's given the opportunity to go on Escape!, a daring new survival show by well-known producer Jacob Malibu, Kent sees this as a chance for redemption—to prove to the world, and especially to himself, that he still has what it takes to be the hero of his story.

Disgraced reality television producer Rebecca "Beck" Bermann has also found herself unemployed after a scandal on her last show, Surf Dogs. When she gets a call from Jacob Malibu, offering her a production role on Escape! following the medical evacuation of another producer, Beck has reservations about this job that has seemingly dropped out of the sky. When she reads the story bible (the executive producer's outline for the show), it becomes clear that while Kent was cast as the hero of the season, a young chemist named Miriam was cast to be comic relief. Growing indignant as she reads about the sorts of humiliation Malibu has in store for Miriam, in whom Beck sees herself, she decides to take the job, vowing to produce Miriam into the show's star, and seeing this as an opportunity for her own redemption, too.

Beck and the contestants land on a beach on a small Thai island and soon the game begins. Like on any reality TV show, alliances form, backstabbing ensues, and behind it all, a production team is pulling the strings. "There are always two games," Kent observes. "The one you're playing against the other contestants, and the one the producers are playing against you."

We see, firsthand, how statements made by Kent and Miriam and the other contestants are warped and distorted until all meaning is lost. We see how Beck will ask leading questions and stop at nothing until she gets some version of the answer she wants to hear. We see how seemingly authentic moments are staged; how seemingly organic relationships are manufactured.

Author Stephen Fishbach makes it clear in his introductory author's note that the events depicted in Escape! are not literally lifted from his time on Survivor, but as a two-time contestant, it's undeniable that some of his own experiences seep into the narrative, and it's to the novel's credit. Escape!'s primary strength is that you can see just how much time and thought Fishbach has dedicated to studying reality television. The mechanics of it, the psychology of it. What makes an ordinary person decide to go on a reality show? How do a person's actions change when they know they're being watched? How does it affect your decision-making when you know every move you make is being edited into a narrative arc that will be viewed by millions? These are only some of the questions given careful consideration by Fishbach through the lenses of Kent, Miriam, and Beck, contestants and producers alike. (Cleverly, producer Beck's chapters are narrated in first person point of view, while Kent and Miriam's, the observed contestants, are in third person.)

As weeks go by in the jungle, Kent finds himself inexplicably drawn to Miriam, and as he questions the producers' motives, he starts to feel as though she is the only part of this experience that's real. But we see, as readers, that Beck is largely pulling the strings in that relationship; urging Kent and Miriam together in order to serve Miriam's narrative arc. Do the circumstances of their connection make it any less real? What kind of truth is there to be found in a landscape as manipulative and artificial as reality television? This is the paradox at the heart of Escape! with which Fishbach challenges the reader.

This review first ran in the February 11, 2026 issue of BookBrowse Recommends.