Podcast: Naima Brown on Exploring the Dark Side of Reality TV

Podcast: Naima Brown on Exploring the Dark Side of Reality TV

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Naima Brown talks to Cheryl Akle about her experience living in the Middle East and how her time in the reality TV industry inspired her debut novel, The Shot, which is out now.

About the author:

Naima Brown holds degrees in Middle Eastern Studies, Anthropology and Religious Studies. Her non-fiction has appeared in Vogue Australia, the Guardian Australia, and more. She has spent over a decade working in news, current affairs and documentary – save for her brief stint in reality TV, which inspired this novel. She was born and raised in Northern California before living and working in Yemen and Afghanistan, and now lives in the Northern Rivers of New South Wales with her husband and her dog. Naima, alongside Melissa Doyle, is the co-author of How to Age Against the Machine: An Empowering Guide for Women Ageing on Their Own TermsThe Shot is her first novel.

 

Buy a copy of The Shot here.

Publisher details

The Shot
Author
Naima Brown
Publisher
Pan Macmillan
Released
30 May, 2023
ISBN
9781761260780

Synopsis

How much would you sacrifice for another shot at the perfect life?

Producer Mara Bolt is the queen of reality TV. Ambitious to the point of ruthlessness, Mara will do anything for ratings. When she meets Kristy Shaw, Mara is certain she's found the star of her newest series, The Shot.

Kristy is languishing in her small hometown and a dead-end job, pining for her first love, Max Irving. The Shot offers her a Total Body Transformation – extreme plastic surgery to render her unrecognisable – as a way to recapture Max's affections under a new identity. But there's a catch: if she doesn't secure his heart in thirty days, she must have her surgeries reversed, and go back to her previous life.

As the cameras start rolling, Mara and Kristy both feel there is something happening behind the scenes – something that threatens to reveal old wounds and create new secrets. If they are going to keep the show on track, they must repress the truths and desires that lie just beneath the surface.

The Shot is a rollercoaster read about our obsession with beauty, the trappings of success, and the desperate, outrageous lengths we will go to for love and ambition. It asks the question: where is the line between entertainment and exploitation.

Naima Brown
About the author

Naima Brown

Naima Brown holds degrees in Middle Eastern Studies, Anthropology and Religious Studies. Her non-fiction has appeared in Vogue Australia, the Guardian Australia, and more. She has spent over a decade working in news, current affairs and documentary - save for her brief stint in reality TV, which inspired this novel. She was born and raised in Northern California before living and working in Yemen and Afghanistan, and now lives in the Northern Rivers of New South Wales with her husband and her dog. Naima, alongside Melissa Doyle, is the co-author of How to Age Against the Machine: An Empowering Guide for Women Ageing on Their Own TermsThe Shot is her first novel.

Books by Naima Brown

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