Simon Spotlight, $4.99, ISBN 0-689-87708-0
Contemporary, 2005

Survivor: Thailand is a gamebook based on the reality TV series of the same name created by Mark Burnett. But because this is a gamebook aimed at kids 9-12 (or so the promotional material tells me), we have kids in this one instead of buff guys and hot women in bikinis with the occasionally ugly people or two. Also, the cutthroat aspect of the game is nullified altogether – you’d think by playing this gamebook that Survivor is just one big physical telethon set in an exotic setting.

So, we have ten kids sent to the beach in Thailand, Koh Turatao, where they are divided in two tribes. The Reward and Immunity Challenges are there. These kids are all standard young adult stereotypes, and, unfortunately, you won’t be playing any of them. You just make choices for them. The choices don’t really affect much of the determined storyline, however, and it is pretty predictable from early on who is going to win and there is nothing much you can do to change that.

This is not really a decent gamebook, therefore, due to its rigid linearity. Unless you have a fondness for pre-teen books, this one will probably turn out to be too dry and insipid for your taste.