In anticipation of the upcoming release of her debut memoir, “Nice Girls Don’t Win: How I Burned it All Down to Claim My Power,” “Survivor” star Parvati Shallow revealed that the title, set to release on July 8 from Random House, will feature passages that relive some of her most iconic, and traumatic, experiences on the CBS reality competition series.
Random HouseAccording to the official description of Shallow’s “Nice Girls Don’t Win,” the upcoming memoir will chart the star’s course as she “shares the stories that allowed her to transform her most difficult moments into potent catalysts for empowerment. From her childhood growing up in a Florida commune run by a tyrannical female guru, to her journey out of the South and into the L.A. casting rooms that would eventually drop her in the lush but brutal landscapes of ‘Survivor’.”
After originally appearing on “Survivor: Cook Islands,” Shallow quickly established herself as the show’s “Black Widow,” returning to compete on “Survivor: Micronesia,” which she won, followed by “Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains” and “Survivor: Winners at War.” Looking back at her time on the show, the star shared an excerpt of her upcoming book. In the passage, the former “Survivor” winner opened up about her “traumatic” experience during the final Tribal Council of “Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains.”
Parvati Opens Up About Allying with Russell on ‘Heroes vs. Villains’
The finale of “Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains” aired to CBS audiences May 2010. Despite containing a stacked cast of returning players, including series legends like Cirie Fields, Rob “Boston Rob” Mariano, Benjamin “Coach” Wade and Rupert Boneham, it was Parvati, joined by Sandra Diaz-Twine and Russell Hantz, who sat at the season’s finale Tribal Council ceremony.
Shallow opened up about her experience on the now-iconic season in a recently shared excerpt of “Nice Girls Don’t Win.”
“I was twenty-eight and it was my third time playing the game–and it skewered me unlike any other season of ‘Survivor’ I’d experienced. This latest season was an all-star cast of twenty people: ten ‘villains’ and ten ‘heroes’ from previous seasons. In a last minute switch, I was cast in the villains tribe,” Shallow narrates in the excerpt.
CBS/GettyShe continues: “On day one I was targeted as the biggest threat. I spent the rest of my thirty-nine days on the island starving and scrapping my way through the game with my trademark endurance and impenetrability. I aligned with the only people who’d work with me: the most notorious ‘Survivor’ villain of all time, Russell Hantz.”
“Part of me knew I was making a deal with the devil by working with Russell,” added Shallow. “He could be a controlling bully, but he was also strategic and cunning. He had an amazing ability to read people and knew how to play on emotions, mainly fear. I watched him lie through his teeth like a snake oil salesman and people would buy it.”
Despite her hesitations around working with Russell, Shallow claimed benefited from the alliance: “Russell loved me for some miraculous reason. He was willing to put his game on the line for me like some kind of ‘Survivor’ cowboy. I was grateful for his blind allegiance. When he and I were on the chopping block early in the game, Russell played his immunity idol for me, risking his own elimination. Where others bowed in fear or protested against him, I found I could easily negotiate my relationship with him by throwing him little nuggets of validation here and there. I called him my hero and gave him sweet hugs. The cheap sugar seemed a small price to pay to make it to the end of the game.”
Parvati Relives Traumatic Tribal Council in Memoir Excerpt
Despite playing as an underdog for the first time in her “Survivor” career, Parvati’s alliance paid off in the end.
“By day thirty-nine, I found myself sitting in the final three with Russell and Sandra [Diaz-Twine]…That night the power shifted to the jury–people I’d played with and voted out. They glared at me and Russell, practically salivating for their revenge,” Shallow reveals in “Nice Girls Don’t Win.”
CBS/GettyRecalling being questioned by the jury as to why she deserved to win the million-dollar prize over her competitors, Shallow writes: “One by one, they rose to speak. Amanda [Kimmel], who’d been my number one ally two years before in ‘Survivor: Micronesia,’ barely acknowledged my existence. When I opened my mouth to defend myself, she held her arm up to silence me. ‘No. I don’t want to hear a word out of you,’ she said. She hated me.”
“Two other ‘Survivor’ favorites, JT and Rupert, gave searing speeches about how Russell was the worst person of all time. And then there was Candice, my former ally and BFF from my very first experience on ‘Survivor’ in the Cook Islands, saying I had behaved like a victim of domestic abuse by aligning and working with Russell. Their words hit me like an assault, and I sat still on my stump, helpless to stop it–TV cameras trained on me like sniper rifles. All I could do was sit there, shut up, and take it. As each jury member spoke, I felt myself shrink until I was so small I was sure I’d disappeared. I was frozen–unable to think, move, or act. Incapable of doing anything at all,” the excerpt concluded.
In the end, Sandra became the first ever two-time winner of “Survivor,” defeating Paravati and Russell in a 6-3-0 jury vote. Despite not winning the season, Parvati returned to the series for Season 40 – “Winners at War” – and has since had successful runs on other reality competition series like “The Traitors” and “Deal of No Deal Island.” Later this year, Shallow is set to compete on “Survivor Australia: Australia vs. the World” alongside other fan-favorite castaways like Cirie Fields and Tony Vlachos.
Shallow’s debut memoir, “Nice Girls Don’t Win: How I Burned it All Down to Claim My Power,” hits bookstore shelves nationwide on July 8.
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‘Survivor’ Star Unpacks ‘Traumatic’ Final Tribal Council in New Memoir Excerpt