Four strangers and six weeks: this is all that separates Mara from one life-changing payday. Soon Mara and the others face terrifying decisions as "survival" becomes more than a game.
Small Game is the debut novel of writer Blair Braverman, previously known for her nonfiction Welcome to the Goddamn Icebox and Dogs on the Trail. Five strangers are dropped into the remote wilderness for a reality game show called Civilization. The game is to survive for six weeks with minimal supplies. Everyone who reaches the finish line gets a cash prize - but not everyone will make it.
The contestants are:
- Mara, a trainer at a survival school. For her survival tool she chooses the knife.
- Bullfrog, a backwoods antigovernment survivalist. He chooses the axe.
- Kyle, an Eagle Scout. He chooses the fire drill.
- James, a math teacher and weekend outdoorsman. He chooses the machete.
- Ashley, an aspiring actress and competitive swimmer. She chooses the pot.
This work provides examples of:
- Bears Are Bad News: The crew is aware of a mother bear and cub in the area and are all carrying firearms for defense. The survivors encounter her a couple of times.
- Big Town Boredom: Mara's parents caught a case. When she was ten they left middle-class jobs in the city to become homesteaders in the sticks for a more "authentic" lifestyle.
- Casting Couch: Late in the story Ashley admits that she had sex with Lenny to secure her casting on the show. Ashley is vague on how much she consented.
- Chekhov's Boomerang: Tom explains early in the story that all the crew members carry firearms as protection against a local bear. Tom's weapon is used to kill the bear, and then again to mercy-kill Kyle.
- Chekhov's Gun: Several.
- Tom shows Mara how a local mushroom will hold a scratch mark when drawn upon. Later this is used to point the survivors to stashed equipment.
- Both Mara and Bullfrog criticize Kyle for his choice of the fire drill, but it is used consistently to start fires throughout the story. Mara points out that it's difficult to use the first time they try but after that the survivors become skilled enough that it's not worth dwelling on.
- The crew set up cameras to watch the survivors from fixed points. Mara snags one to shoot some footage of Ashley, then grabs the same one later to film her final account.
- Chekhov's Skill: Ashley has the least training in outdoor survival, but her practice as a competitive swimmer makes her the only one who can reach the island to save the rest of the team.
- Crazy Survivalist: Bullfrog borders on one. He is introduced as an anti-government anarchist who is in his element in the wilderness. Later he advances apocalypse theories and admits he's estranged from his daughter. Nonetheless he's a team player.
- Dogged Nice Guy: Tom, who fixates on Mara during her transit to the shoot site. He smuggles her food repeatedly and offers perspective, but her understanding is that this is transactional for her attention.
- Foreshadowing: Mara mentions at the start of a scene that everything is different (worse) later.
- Friendless Background: Mara moved to the country at age ten and has been home-schooled ever since. She did spend time with a similar-aged neighbor but by her teenage years they had grown apart.
- How We Got Here: The book opens with Mara describing the five survivors for the TV show, then drops back to describe Mara's life that led to her being selected for the show.
- Lying to Protect Your Feelings: A blatant attempt late in the story when a grief-wracked survivor is comforted by an ally who "remembers" it differently. The ally was not even present for the scene in question and they both know it.
- Mercy Kill: One of the survivors is badly wounded and only gets worse over time. With no hope of recovery they are executed. Mara is not present to witness to the audience but the victim had previously wavered on their will to live.
- More Hateable Minor Villain: The survivors are struggling against Nature itself, but the showrunner Lenny is presented to give the audience someone to hate. Early on he lies to the survivors to get them into position for a better camera shot, causing them to waste time and energy. He also leveraged his power to have sex with Ashley.
- Naïve Animal Lover:
- Lenny warns the survivors not to eat rabbits because the network won't like it, referring to the TV show potential audience as this trope.
- Ashley adopts a baby fawn, even when she is warned that the mother has left the baby to forage and will return for it. She also expresses concern that fish left in the fish trap will be unable to escape. The other survivors are much more pragmatic.
- Nature Is Not Nice: More accurately, Nature Doesn't Care. The survivors are never actively targeted by hostile fauna or weather, but they are aware that hazards exist all around them and they must be constantly on guard. The hazards will continue whether there are people nearby or no.
- Oh, Crap!: Mara gets one when she wanders into the path between a mother bear and her cub.
- Plot-Mandated Friendship Failure: Lands as the survivors are attempting to walk out from their camp and disagree on the correct path. The resulting split separates each of them from essential gear when they need it most. Bullfrog does come back, at least partly because he realizes he needs Ashley to swim to the island he found.
- Show Within a Show: The crew is shooting footage of the survivors for Civilization, a reality TV show documenting five people rebuilding a society from the ground up.
- Reduced to Ratburgers: Oh, how the survivors wish they could eat rats. Instead they are reduced to foraging barely-edible greens and even earthworms.
- Robinsonade: The premise of the TV show, documenting a group of survivors working with almost no supplies in the wilderness. Later, their actual fate until they can escape back to civilization.
- Shown Their Work: Mara is happy to discuss the basics of foraging, as well as warn that experienced survivalists still need to study an area to learn its edible plants.
- Survivalist Stash: The survivors find a cabin on the island that offers food, shelter, and hope of rescue when the owner returns in hunting season. Mara eventually realizes that the nature of the stash means no rescue is coming.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: The fifth survivor is James, but he leaves the show on the second full day and is never seen again.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Mara's job involves watching over people on survival experiences. One of them disappears. Her boss offers only a vague explanation.
-
Write What You Know: Braverman has extensive experience in wilderness survival and worked as a guide for wilderness dogsled excursions. She also appeared on the real-life survival game show Naked and Afraid. - Wrong Genre Savvy:
- Ashley hopes to turn her appearance on the show into minor fame, which she can then leverage into appearance fees and product endorsement deals. She is very good at giving the crew what they need to make a television show but lacking in actual survival skills.
- Kyle insists they're in a survival situation and all available resources should be allowed, but Mara points out they're in a survival game show. He is proven correct as the story continues.
