zumbador reviewed Life in a Fishbowl by Len Vlahos
Review of 'Life in a Fishbowl' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
This book was good enough to make me read it to the end, but severely flawed. A fragile and insecure girl discovers that her father has a brain tumour and only a few months left to live, and on top of thiat, he has signed himself and his family over to be a reality show. So they have to live out the last weeks of his life in a blaze of publicity with no privacy at all. There are many characters, including the brain tumour itself, which has a point of view role in the story.
I'm pretty certain the author loves Roald Dahl! The story has a Dahly feel about it, but doesn't quite convince. Several of the plot threads (there are many) feel like things that should have been removed or combined. The baddies (there are many of them) are outrageously, cartoon level bad without any redeeming qualities, …
This book was good enough to make me read it to the end, but severely flawed. A fragile and insecure girl discovers that her father has a brain tumour and only a few months left to live, and on top of thiat, he has signed himself and his family over to be a reality show. So they have to live out the last weeks of his life in a blaze of publicity with no privacy at all. There are many characters, including the brain tumour itself, which has a point of view role in the story.
I'm pretty certain the author loves Roald Dahl! The story has a Dahly feel about it, but doesn't quite convince. Several of the plot threads (there are many) feel like things that should have been removed or combined. The baddies (there are many of them) are outrageously, cartoon level bad without any redeeming qualities, and I get a sense that the author finds good, decent people boring and so doesn't really know how to write them. That said, the core plot, in which the teen girl main character turns the tables on the evil reality show director with the help of her Russian pen-pall is gripping and deeply satisfying. And the brain tumour's point of view story is oddball and quirky, but it works.
On the nose, not particularly subtle, but interesting enough.