Member Review

Warning: may be some mild spoilers. Such conflicting feelings about this book. Entertaining but massively overlong. So long I began skim reading parts of it. I get the message that people are prepared to degrade themselves for what? money, fame, notoriety but some of it was very unsettling. I guess it still happens. We don't go to the same lengths but we still love to see celebrities degrade themselves on programmes like I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here. They might not be prepared to stuff dead rabbits up themselves (hopefully), but they still get showered with rats and creepy crawlies and eat kangaroo's genitals.

In fact one wonders how far some of them would be prepared to go for fame and money. Even Big Brother and Love Island have moral messages. Do we love the contestants to win or do we cruelly want to see them fail and be ridiculed? Or just want to see them have sex on live TV? As for Naked Attraction. The lowest of the low. Or just watch Jeremy Kyle if it ever returns. The clever use these programmes to their own ends but the less clever are thrown into the arena like the bull or the 'cat-eaters'. And anyone whoever watched The Word in the 1990's will know just what I mean.

However, back to the book. Though well-written and thought-provoking, much of the philosophising and descriptions of London life were far too long and that is where I started skipping paragraphs. Not that much actually happens. I wanted to know more about Zachary's relationship with Anne for instance. That was far more interesting but there was too little about it. When I knew something interesting was going to happen I skimmed to those parts.

I am in fact more inclined to give it 3.5 stars. I would give it 4 stars but I have a feeling the lengthy paragraphs may cause some readers to drop out part way through.

Many thanks to NetGalley for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.