24/7 a Good Blend of Thriller and Reality

Picture this: You put Dame Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None and Mark Burnett’s Survivor plus a dash of Big Brother in a blender. Put on frappe. The result: Jim Brown’s new novel, 24/7, which qualifies as one of the best beach reads published in 2001.

Vassa Island, a small non-populated island in the Caribbean, has become the home of the latest reality show, 24/7. The premise is simple. 12 people on a deserted island. There are the typical stereotypes, you have a Gilligan type person, a Captain, a Professor, and a MaryAnn – who is the central character of the book. The contestants have state-of-the-art cameras – there are over 600 on the island. Every contestant has to wear something called a “choker cam.” Everything they do is shown live, 24/7, for a planned seven weeks. 11 contestants get booted off, like the Survivor premise or Big Brother. Like the first U.S. version of Big Brother (or the other world versions), the audience votes as to who stays and who goes. The ultimate winner gets two million dollars and their heart’s desire. Unlike the U.S. version of BB, you can vote via your computer. (Hear that CBS? No nine hundred number!) And like reality TV, you get cat fights, flirting and whining. Unlike reality TV (at least as I write this), it could evolve to something worse – namely murder. Live death on TV, and on the internet. All brought to the audience, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Dana Kirsten is the protagonist and also the last to arrive on the island because she is a last-minute replacement. Upon arrival, she is rushed through orientation as she is made up and kitted out with various cameras. And the show starts. The announcer introduces the premise of the show to the audience – and the novel to the reader. Some of the other contestants are introduced. And then in front of the cameras and the contestants, everyone on the island except the contestants run out screaming, dying horribly from an Ebola--like virus. Unlike Ebola, this puppy works fast. Real fast. They are dead within minutes. Then a Big Brother voice comes over and announces, “This is Control.” This disembodied voice, has taken over the game. Control says each contestant is infected with the same virus they just saw kill the crew, and they must receive an shot of life-saving serum at noon each day to stay alive. The player that gets the most votes is exiled and does not get the serum, and therefore dies a horrible death like they have just seen.

And thus, the greatest reality show in the history of the world is born. Of course the networks pull the plug, but the cameras are still live and all the “internet geeks” which the batch of BB2 contestants were complaining about are watching. 24/7.

“How do you know about this stuff?” Justin asked.

Cory laughed. “Not to be rude, how do you not? I mean, reality TV is everywhere.” (p. 218)

By the time the reader gets to the middle, it’s difficult to put this baby down. It really is that good. I lost a night’s sleep because this really happened to me.

The problem is getting to the middle.

When I read a book, I look at it as either the kind that’s a wonderful beach read (you don’t have to read it on the beach, of course – they are also great to read on the train when you commute to work), or as something your High School English teacher might have made you read – the kind of novel that causes students to hate reading.

Looking at this book the former, I found the beginning of the novel to be a bit weak – it should be somewhat tighter. The middle and the end were, as one recent reality TV contestant would say, fantabulous. Getting through the first few chapters to get to the good stuff was the only difficulty.

Jim Brown, the author, is an Associated Press Best Newscast Award winner for the NBC affiliate in Eugene, Oregon. This appears to be his first novel. At times he waxes poetically, at times he wanes with the thriller genre.

“Again the name. Again the jagged strike of memory and pain. Tucker lay his head back staring at the textured ceiling. A spider had built a web between the oval light fixture and the ceiling, the threads of which undulated softly in the push of central air. A moth, long dead, hung between the silken latticework. Dead. Suspended between heaven and hell. Just like Tucker.” (p. 56)

All and all, a great beach read. Entertaining. A must-read for any fan of the reality TV genre, and a must-read for any fans of the thriller genre.

Just make sure you have a lot of free time when you read it. Like I said, two-thirds of this book are so well done, you cannot put it down, and you almost have to read it in one sitting.

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