“It’s catch twenty-two, you see. Anyone who would WANT to be in that damn stupid house is by definition not an interesting enough person to be there.” (p.41)

“That rarest of all events in reality television seemed to be developing: a moment of genuine, spontaneous drama.” (p.71)

“It was very strange to have to remember all the time that every conversation was a conversation between rivals who were competing against each other for the affection of the public.” (p.76)

Mijn eerste poging om een boek in het Engels te lezen was een grandioos succes. Ik heb luidop gelachen en heb zelden gulziger gelezen.
Waar is die volgende Ben Elton?

Took me quite a time to get through this novel. I'd say nothing too interesting happens til the last part of the book. The description sounded really intriguing but I'm quite disappointed with the content. The characters are stereotypical and there's no real development of the characters as far as I can tell. The main focus is the actual plot which was quite interesting towards the end of the novel but it is also apparent that the author wanted to mislead the reader.

I've seen a couple reviews that talks about the "Big Brother-" environment. I personally recommend 1984 over this piece to really get a feeling of what that environment entails. I do on the other hand enjoy Coleridge's cynic attitude. I would not want to read this piece again but everyone's opinion is quite different. My favorite kind of genre is romance, mystery and survival-novels which is probably one of the reasons I did not enjoy this novel very much.

This is on the main a bit of a let down, though I thought the ending was great. Very theatrical and 'old school' whodunit, a bit camp, even. The concept here is great, Big Brother with a murderous twist, and if you're a fan of the show you'll recognise a lot of the archetypal characters in this fictional recreation of it.

My main problem with this one, is while is the book is comedic, satirical at times, I feel there was an attempt at a message behind it - but an unwelcome one. The detective protagonist Coleridge is a grumpy misanthrope who is deeply cynical about the modern world, and a lot of the comedy stems from his observations about youth culture, and young people today (well, in 2002). I just wasn't feeling it. I hope Coleridge isn't a proxy for the author here - I only say this as many of his books seem to be of a similar 'the world's gone bad' theme. Though I am still excited to read them, as Ben Elton is a fantastic author and comedic writer. Just in this case, I did not enjoy the angle. It is largely for comedic effect, but at times it felt I was being lectured. Are we stupid for enjoying reality TV? Why read this book then? I wish it had just been more fun, but effectively the detective side of the story dragged it down. The ending was brilliant, as were the scenes of the house. I just wish it had been written from the housemates' POV alone.

The comedy itself was good, a few laugh out loud moments. There's a lot of content to fit for the purposes of the murder mystery though, so it does take a bit of a back seat. The problem with this is - as a murder mystery, it fails for me when the contestants are let back in the house. I suppose satirical thrillers can be effective but in doing this the credibility was stretched too far, beyond being totally absurd it just hampered the investigation in an unrewarding way. Maybe the book suffers from being thriller and comedy both, and neither. It is a very difficult balance to strike.

I will continue to work through Ben Elton's books though. High Society is the only one of his books I have read so far, but it was excellent and balanced the line between comedy and telling a story in a way that would've been great to see in this one.