Lost Inside the Blue Line by Harry A Wozzeck

Genre(s): Drama, Game Show

Age Rating: PG-13 for some heavy topics

You might like this book if you enjoy

• Reality TV, especially Survivor

• Stories about the gay experience

• Teamwork and newfound friendships

• Sabotage and betrayal

• Eating bugs to win fun prizes

Available in Print and eBook

Full Review:

I greatly underestimated Lost Inside the Blue Line. I’ve never been one for reality TV, and I don’t know the first thing about Survivor, so a book that follows a season of a Survivor-like reality TV show was about as out of my wheelhouse as it gets. I knew I may not be the target audience here, and it didn’t help that I found the audiobook quality lacking and had to switch to print to stick with it. Basically, Lost inside the Blue Line didn’t make a great first impression on me. I was worried that impression was going to negatively color my experience with the book from then on.

Then, around the halfway point, something in this book changed. I suddenly realized what kind of story I was actually reading, and I was totally hooked.

Lost Inside the Blue Line follows Avery, a gay hawk appearing on a very Survivor-like reality TV show called Scavenger Hunters. In Scavenger Hunters, members of two “tribes” compete in challenges, form alliances, and stab each other in the back (metaphorically) for a chance to win a million dollars. This season, Avery and his friend Kyle sign up for the show and are both accepted, meaning they may have an advantage right out the gate if they can form an alliance. However, they are sorted into separate tribes, which means they must survive the game long enough to get to where they can form their alliance and win the million.

At least, that’s how Avery sees it.

So, when the book starts with a flashforward of Avery having a mental breakdown in a hotel room because Kyle has betrayed him during the game, one has to wonder why the book is giving the game away so early for the sake of trying to hook the reader. Even if it’s leaving what the actual betrayal was a mystery, it’s just a game of Survivor, right? This character must be overreacting, or they’re being written in a too over-the-top way.

It slowly became apparent that thinking this was a total underestimation on my part, and the book began slapping me in the face for my audacity about 100 pages later.

This book does a great job of weaving a tangled web and then unravelling it in ways you don’t quite understand the significance of until later. In retrospect, it reads like a backwards mystery. And you may not even understand why it’s a mystery until the detective unmasks the killer in the end (metaphorically). Kyle’s eventual betrayal is far more significant, yet also entirely plausible, than you might expect, and I did not see the sheer extent of it coming. You’re just going to have to trust me on that while you get through the first 100 or so pages of setup.

Those 100 pages are serviceable, at least. Avery himself is the perfect character for this particular season of Scavenger Hunters, which is themed “Artists vs Tradespeople”, because he used to be an art school student but dropped out and became a custodian—a relatable struggle that makes for a lot of inner turmoil. Mai, another player, is an interesting supportive figure who uses her background in psychology to help her in the game. Kyle himself is rather interesting as well, because he sort of haunts the narrative for the first 3/4ths of the book, which builds the anticipation of him inevitably showing up in a larger role. It is a bit hard to keep track of everyone in the beginning since there are so many characters, but as the cast gets whittled down by the game the stars really start to shine.

There’s also a wealth of unique challenges that I’m sure fans of Survivor will appreciate, not to mention any and all references to the show that probably went right over my head. Luckily, I didn’t need to catch these to get a positive impression of the book in the end, but perhaps this alone would have improved those first 100 pages if I had.

Ultimately, Lost Inside the Blue Line is a slow burn, and it’s well worth it to stick around for the whole ride. I can tell it’s going to remain a memorable one for me, and one I’m sure I’ll reference for its unique storytelling tactics in the future.