If you've caught yourself starting conversations by saying "hey, can I pull you for a chat?" and gauging the strength of your relationships based on how good the banter is and how great someone is on paper, I think it's safe to assume you've been watching Love Island. Hey, I am too! With the US and UK Love Island seasons dwindling down, we'll all need something to do while we wait for the next iteration of the international media sensation: Love Island Games. Why not read a book? Check out these titles below; I hope you enjoy them just as much as the islanders love screaming "I got a text!!"
Set in the near future, every season of the dating show filmed on The Compound starts the same: after the previous season's end, 10 beautiful women wake up from a drug-induced sleep and start to clean up the prior season's mess, knowing sometime soon (hours? days? it changes with every season of the show), 10 eligible men are going to arrive. Lily is the first to wake and is anxious to get the show started; she's watched every season and wants to stay on the compound the longest. She knows that everyone is tuning into their TVs to watch and she wants people to like her and her match because the more people like her, the more companies are going to send her luxury rewards (champagne! a hair straightener! a diamond necklace!) to boost their own sales. It feels idyllic...until it isn't. Love Island meets Lord of the Flies in this absurdist take on performance culture and reality TV fame.
Islanders join the Love Island cast, are sequestered away in the villa for weeks on end, and often return home to burgeoning influencer careers. The Influencers begs to ask the question: are you truly able to be yourself while working as an influencer? Everyone knows "Mother May I" Iverson, the mom blogger turned social media mogul who has made a killing profiting off the lives of her 5 daughters. The sisters are all in their 20s now and have varying relationships with their mother: the eldest, April, is trying to sue her for putting their lives out to the masses, the twins June and July are influencers on their own, January has mostly kept to herself, and baby sister March is absolutely nowhere to be found. Their relationships with one another are fraught and it's all put on display when Mother May I's mansion goes up in flames and her newly wedded (gold-digger, if we're listening to her viewers) husband is found dead at the scene. Who killed him? Figuring that out isn't as easy as it seems, and in the weeks following his death, the public's view of the family is going to hit a fever pitch as Iverson family secrets come to light. Does inspiring the masses to become a better mother actually make May a terrible mother?
Both Love Island US and Survivor US are filmed in the islands of Fiji, and it always makes me smile to myself thinking an islander will stumble across an immunity idol. The early seasons of Survivor were hyper-focused on literal survival, and that's the case in Blair Braverman's Small Game. Mara is working at a survival school when producers from a new survival show come knocking on her door. Having to survive in the wilderness for six weeks to earn life-changing award money? Easy. Having to do that and trust the four people she's teamed up with? Not so much. Tensions are already rising between the group of five when they wake up one morning to find that something has gone terribly wrong. Is this part of the show or are they really on their own, fighting for survival?
If you're a longtime Love Island UK viewer, you'll know all about Destiny Chaldish, the name given to three men who were slammed for their poor behavior while on Season 5 of the show. You know who isn't slammed for their behavior? Tina Knowles, the mother of Beyoncé, a creative force and, amongst other things, Destiny's Child's incredible stylist. Matriarch is Tina's story, from her childhood in Texas to becoming the mother of one of the most famous women in the world. It's an incredible and poignant multigenerational story of family and a celebration of Black motherhood. Matriarch is just the palate cleanser you need after watching Season 5!
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