Unfortunately, I have not been able to read and review this book.

After losing and replacing my broken Kindle and getting a new phone I was unable to download the title again for review as it was no longer available on Netgalley.

I’m really sorry about this and hope that it won’t affect you allowing me to read and review your titles in the future.

Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity.
Natalie.

Not for me. I read a small portion of it about 80 pages or so. Too confusing, too weird a concept and I didn't like the colloquial tone of the novel when the subject was quite serious. Too many characters, too many different points of view. I have no interest in picking it up again so calling this one a DNF

I love the premise of this and thought it was executed nicely throughout the book. Jackie is a really sympathetic character and I felt like we really got into her head. Definitely an author I would read again

Thank you very much for allowing me to read this title; I am trying to read as widely as possible ahead of the Carnegie/Greenaway nominations and awards for 2018 and your help is much appreciated.
As a Carnegie/Greenaway judge, I'm not allowed to comment about my opinions on specific titles so I can't offer an individual review on any title as I stated on my profile.

Life in a Fishbowl – Len Vlahos

Fifteen-year-old Jackie Stone is a prisoner in her own house. Everything she says and does 24/7 is being taped and broadcast to every television in America. Why? Because her dad is dying of a brain tumor and he has auctioned his life on eBay to the highest bidder: a ruthless TV reality show executive at ATN.

Gone is her mom’s attention and cooking and parent-teacher conferences. Gone is her sister’s trust ever since she’s been dazzled by the cameras and new-found infamy. Gone is her privacy. Gone is the whole family’s dignity as ATN twists their words and makes a public mockery of their lives on Life and Death. But most of all, Jackie fears that one day very soon her father will just be . . . gone. Armed only with her ingenuity and the power of the internet, Jackie is determined to end the show and reclaim all of their lives, even in death.

Every now and then I fall out of love with reading. I just can’t get into a book, I can’t face picking up my Kindle, I can’t face struggling through a book I have no interest in finishing (and I HATE DNF’ing a book!). Recently though, my mental health has been pretty shoddy. I’ve had a rough time at work which when coupled with a pretty ridiculous home life, things get very tough. The idea of escaping into a fictional world where I can think of anything but my own problems has become the crutch that I needed to help me keep myself sane. Life in a Fishbowl was this crutch. It was an easy read, I didn’t need to think too much but I was totally engrossed in what was happening.

The book had a number of narrators, this was difficult to follow at times. I felt it over-complicated things and I found it difficult to really establish that mental/emotional connection with the characters as you were literally jumping from one to another. The brain tumour even got his own POV – this was just weird.

For a YA novel, it featured a lot of heavy topics. Illness, death, manipulative media, money hunger and fame, corrupt nature of the world, and much more. This was refreshing, sometimes we tip-toe around heavy topics but reality is that in todays society all of these are present and should be acknowledged. YA’s need to know the realities of the world rather than being wrapped up in cotton wool I guess.

Overall, a fairly interesting read. It was my rescuer at a very dark/needy time. My love for reading has been reinvigorated and I’m ready to delve into my next fictional world now.

A worthy, 3 stars.

Thank you NetGalley for a free digital ARC in return for an honest review.

★★★1/2

This book was tragic and heartwarming at the same time.
I like the way the story was told from various viewpoints, even the tumor's!

This was so weird that I'm not entirely sure how to grade it.
Marketed as a book where a man sells the rest of his life when he's diagnosed with a terminal brain tumour - well, it is that.

But mostly? It's also not.
There's Glio, the conscious tumour eating up his 'tasty' memories.
There's absurd characters.
And there's a complete lack of depth - with the characters, between the characters, and with the illness. With the lack of grief or emotional involvement, it hardly seems like anyone's dying at all.

Thanks to Net Galley and to Bloomsbury Childrens for offering me an ARC copy of this book that I freely chose to review.
This novel, that although classified in the category of teen and young adult literature can be read by anyone, is the story of the Stone family whom we meet when they are at a moment of crisis. When the father, Jared, is diagnosed with a brain tumour, aware that he’ll lose his faculties and his family are going to be left without his support, he decides drastic measures are necessary. What follows is the story of how his decisions affect all around him and how we can achieve incredible things if we never give up and have the support of our friends.
The novel is told, in the third person, from a variety of characters’ point of view, including Jared (although he becomes progressively confused), Jackie, his oldest daughter, and the central point of the story, Deirdre, the mother, Megan, the younger sister, and a number of characters extraneous to the family, including a young girl whose main contact with the outside world is Warcraft, a millionaire who’d do anything to keep himself entertained, a ruthless TV executive, a hard and unforgiving nun, and even Glio, the tumour that takes over Jared’s brain.
When Jared’s plan of offering himself for sale in e-Bay doesn’t work out and he ends up signing a contract to become the star of a reality TV following the last days of his life on the screen, everybody’s lives end up in turmoil. Shy Jackie, whose only refuge is social media and her friendship with a Russian schoolboy (fantastic Max), can’t think of anything worse than having cameras at home. The way the television crew manipulates the images and creates a distorted version of her family and her reality makes her want to resist, and by the end of the novel she’s discovered that she’s strong and resourceful and she’s strengthened the link with her sister (who is seen as cruel and superficial at the start).
Most of the adults in the novel (other than one of the teachers and the members of the Stone family) are depicted as egotistical and self-serving, and they don’t truly care about others. Although some of the reviews comment that the description is not accurate as it states that the novel is Jackie’s story whilst the action is split between many characters, for me, Jackie is the heroine, the main protagonist of the book and the heart of the story. Some of the characters that occupy quite a few pages at the beginning disappear when they’ve served their purpose and others are there to either aid or mostly hinder Jackie’s attempts at helping her father end up his life with dignity.
There is a strong element of criticism of the invasion of privacy by media, in this case, a reality TV programme that, like the cancer, feeds on what it likes and leaves destruction around it. Their commercialism, manipulation and money grabbing tactics are resisted by Jackie and her friends, in a David versus Goliath situation. On the other hand, the novel also shows that social media and platforms like YouTube aren’t good or bad in themselves and they can be used to great effect to subvert the established order.
For me, the younger characters are rendered more realistically and are easier to empathise with (as is to be expected from the genre and its intended audience). The novel is particularly focused on less popular and more introverted characters, who aren’t happy in standard social situations and suffer the unwanted attention of their peers when they are not openly bullied. They get to shine through and are shown as talented, imaginative and loyal friends, in contrast with both the adults and the popular but superficial kid.
I am intrigued by the use of the tumour as one of the narrators. It allows us to share in some of Jared’s memories (and due to his rapidly progressive illness that’s one of the only ways we have of getting some sense of who this man was before his diagnosis) but most importantly perhaps, the destruction it creates (and the way it takes over his host) parallels what the TV programme do, progressively limiting the freedom of the occupants, eventually leaving them nothing. At least the tumour is not aware of it and has no will of its own. The amount of anatomical and functional detail is impressive without slowing the action or interfering with the development of the story.
An inspiring novel that deals with a difficult subject (several difficult subjects) and ultimately emphasises the importance of friends, family and of standing up for what we think is right.

Life in a Fishbowl is book full of black humour and clever satire. It's dark and snarky and smart ... and also occasionally quite confronting.

Dealing with a wealth of topical issues and moral complexities ranging from terminal illness and euthanasia through to reality TV and internet fame, this book managed to cover a lot of ground. Written in the third person from multiple character POVs (including a nun, a gamer, a billionaire and a personified tumour) by far the most interesting character was 15-year-old Jackie.

Jackie's father is dying of a brain tumour and has sold his life on eBay to a TV Producer. Now Jackie's family is the subject of a reality TV show. This is a compelling premise and the story unfolds with equal parts tragedy and comedy.

Life in a Fishbowl is provocative, clever and very bold. Skating that thin line between satire and mockery, this is a book that finds a way to make readers simultaneously laugh and cry.

Despite its subject matter this is essentially an uplifting and heart-warming book and written in a way that is ideal for young adults.
Fifteen year old Jackie Stone has a very close relationship with her father Jared. She kept a photo of her dad, Jared taped to the inside of her locker at school…Whenever the day got rough, which for Jackie was more often than not, she would sneak a peek at that photo. It had become a kind of visual security blanket.
Normally Thursdays are Jackie’s favourite night of the week because that is the night she and Jared watch TV together after dinner with the rest of the family. They refer to it as a ‘father daughter date night.’
Jackie is a bit of an outsider and tends to prefer to do her socialising on the internet as she is not as popular in school as her younger sister Megan. Otherwise her only refuge is with her father. Curling into the warmth and safety of her father’s shoulder gave Jackie a feeling of peace and comfort that she found nowhere else in the world.
This particular Thursday though Jared was late getting home so Jackie retreats to her bedroom so she can get away from her sister Megan who likes to torment her whenever possible.
Meanwhile Jared is receiving some devastating news. Jared stone liked his brain. He liked it a lot…Jared’s brain you could say, was his best friend. Which was what made it so hard to hear that his brain had a high-grade glioblastoma multiforme – or what have it hard had Jared known what a high-grade glioblastoma multiforme was.
I liked the way the author personalises the brain tumour and gives it a voice and a name Glio. The high-grade glioblastoma multiforme tumour liked Jared Stone’s brain. It liked it a lot. In fact, it found it delicious.
Jared does know how he is going to tell his wife and children that he is going to die so he keeps it to himself originally. Whilst he is trying to deal with the news he comes across an article about a divorced man who put all his personal possessions up for sale on Ebay. This gives Jared an idea: he decides to create a listing to auction his life on Ebay so that his family will have enough money to live comfortably after he has died.
*Human Life for Sale *
Fourty-five-year-old man with four months to live is selling his life to the highest bidder. You may do with him as you please – slavery, murder, torture, or just pleasant conversation. A human life, yours to control, yours to own. Buyers must live in a state or country with a law allowing assisted suicide and the buyer bears the cost of transportation and tax. There is a reserve for this auction.”
There were lots of really intriguing characters introduced at this point in the form of potential bidders or people who were touched in some way by news of his bid.
Hazel Huck, a 17 year old from Huntsville, Alabama lives in a community where the girls are only interested in their coming-out parties and things like that. Hazel was a square peg in a round hole. All she is interested in is playing Warcraft and other role playing games. She sees Jared’s add and for her it is a call to action.
Then there is Ethan Overbee, a 32 year old man who is lacking a DNA marker that was responsible for human empathy. He is the youngest man to ever hold the position of deputy executive in charge of programming for the America Television network ATN.
Sister Benedict Joan is a nun who feels like she has a higher calling and also has a slight addiction to the internet. You could say the only thing Sister Benedict Joan liked more than the Internet was Christ himself. She finds out about Jared’s listing on her blog Christ’s Cadets and she makes it her personal mission to stop him from ending his life.
Sherman Kingsborough is a stinking rich 23 year old man who uses his money to carry out all his whims.
“Sherman was incorrectly led to believe that his mother had abandoned him. With no siblings and no parents, and having grown up in a world of excess and extravagance, Sherman’s moral compass was left to drift unchecked. It spun round and round, never quite finding North. “
Sherman wants to bid on Jared’s life in order to get him to participate in a Hunger Games style event in which they will fight to the death.
This story is both humorous and heart-breaking, Jared’s tumour and the ensuing events bring the family closer together in many ways. The most touching scene for me was when Jared and his wife Deidre are discussing what is going on in his life.
'I won’t do anything you wouldn’t want me to do’
‘Then don’t die.’ She said it so softly she wasn’t sure Jared had heard her. When Deidre rolled back over she saw serpentine streaks of tears carving rivers on her husband’s cheek. ‘Oh, Jare,’ she said and took his hand.”
This was a great read. It made me think about all sorts of topics none of which I can discuss without revealing some major spoilers.

YA is a genre that has largely passed me by but I liked the premise of Life in a Fishbowl and thought I’d take a look. I’m glad I did.

Jared Stone, an Oregon state senator, is working on an assisted dying bill when he discovers he has a terminal brain tumour (glioblastoma multiforme). He doesn’t immediately tell his family, but he considers the financial implications of his death and decides, for their sake, to auction what remains of his life on eBay.

The novel follows the impact of events on his family – in particular his sensitive, lonely fifteen-year-old daughter Jackie (whose response contrasts with her pretty, popular younger sister Megan) and four people who make a bid for Jared’s life, for very different reasons.

Life in a Fishbowl succeeds in treading a very difficult line – it is full of absurdist humour but it also has compassion and doesn’t shrink from difficult issues such as bereavement and assisted dying.

It takes in a lot of zeitgeisty themes – reality TV, computer games, PR, as well as perennial topics such as the torment of not being popular at school. As you’d expect, Jackie is the focus of the novel (presumably because sensitive, lonely girls read more books than pretty, popular ones) but we get the perspectives of all the family.

Even the tumour, ‘Glio’, is anthropomorphised. I thought at first this might be too cute, but it means the author can show Jared’s memories as Glio devours them, and gives us Jared’s thoughts at a time when he cannot articulate them.

Life in a Fishbowl shines a satirical light on contemporary culture but also has great warmth. It is funny, engaging and full of life.

Sometimes a book comes along that is practically perfect and for me, this book falls into that category. It tells the story of a man with a brain tumor and the lengths he will go to, to provide for his family. That is the basic story, but what is so wonderful about this book are the nuances and quirks. We see things from many different view points, including that of the tumor as it eats through Jared's brain. We are introduced to many different characters, each of whom is well constructed and believable and the author has such a great prose style. There are certain lines that are repeated frequently as a running motif and this works so well. The themes discussed are important and thought provoking and are dealt with in such a way that while there is sadness here, the overwhelming emotion is joy. Everyone should read this book!

I just cannot understand who the intended audience for this book is supposed to be. Is it teens? Is it adults? I know from reading the author's Goodreads bio that he does not like the label YA, but the blurb and marketing make this sound like a story about a 15 yr old girl, but that's misleading.

There are way too many perspectives, I could have done without some of the bidders and the tumour. I found none of it amusing or funny, instead for most of the story I felt sickened and disgusted which made the decision to quit much easier.

DNF.

This book had me gripped throughout. I hated the concept of being spied on, especially as so many boundaries were broken. There were so many wonderful characters to love and hate and the relationship between the 2 sisters so well described. This would be great book for a group to discuss - young people or adults. Itmay only be January, but a definite favourite of the year so far.

Finding the right words for this book is a difficult task. I got a review copy of this book through NetGalley, and I'll just preface this review by saying that...I love this book.

The plot follows Jared Stone and his family after his diagnosis with a terminal form of brain cancer. He finds himself in the position that he cannot afford his medical bills and continue to support his family, so does what anyone would do; puts his life up for sale on eBay. According to the blurb (and we'll get onto my opinions on that in a moment) the TV station is the highest bidder and their life becomes a reality TV show, with every moment captured on film for the entire world to see.

So whilst the blurb says this about the TV station being the highest bidder, this whole eBay storyline is where we get to meet a host of our recurring characters.

Hazel Huck is a school girl with an obsession with gaming, particularly WoW. She uses this platform in order to try and raise the money to bid for Jared's life.

Sister Benedict Joan is, as her name would suggest, a nun. A very tech-savvy nun and one who runs a fairly successful blog called christscadets. She is obsessed with the idea of keeping Jared alive and therefore wants to bid on his listing so they can help him through his illness, either to help him recover or to make his journey to the other side much more peaceful.

Sherman Kingsborough is one of the best awful characters I've read in a long time. He's rich, living off a trust fund from his dead father, and without contact with his mother he grew to enjoy a life of excess with very little of a moral compass. He has this incredible idea that if he does something bad he can always balance it out with a good deed. One of them described in his introduction is that he told a 15 year old girl he loved her so he could sleep with her, only to balance that out with cleaning gulls who had been caught in an oil tanker spill. His reason for bidding is much more sinister than the others. His is to fulfil one of his fantasies, having a hunger games fight to the death scenario.

Yet the one who really gets to control Jared's life in the end is Ethan Overbee. He's the deputy executive for programming at ATN and sees Jared's listing on eBay. After discussions Jared takes the offer made by the network and his home becomes the set for a reality TV show where people would tune in nightly from the day it started, until Jared would die or recover.

What I think it is important to note it that, unlike how the blurb of the book would make it seem, this book has multiple perspectives, which is something I love in a contemporary novel. I feel that books like this need these perspectives because of the amount of people the issue effects. We get to see how Jared's two daughters, Meg and Jackie both deal with the situation and how their relationship with both their parents and each other falters and rebuilds throughout the story.

Yet the most interesting perspective to me what that of Glio, the anthropomorphised tumour inside Jared's brain. It looks at how the tumour affects memory and senses as well as movement, all without telling us how Jared is feeling. We see Glio eating these memories that Jared had of his family and you realise that this is no longer a memory that Jared has, and it's such a sad moment when you realise that this character, who has such an interesting view of the world, is destroying one of your protagonists from the inside.

But most of all what I love about his novel is the way it looks at television versus the internet. It's a very minor theme but I love it so much. Ethan and his team of producers and editors, are shown to be incredibly disreputable people who are more interested in their pay checks than people, often manipulating people and footage to show things that are contrary to the truth. Whereas Jackie, one of my favourite characters in the whole novel, is intent on showing the truth through a youtube series, showing the behind the scenes, which evolves into the uncovering of the truth behind the programme's lies.

This whole storyline within the novel is so incredibly fascinating to me because we get to see this strong teenage female role model, finally, who is fighting back against something she doesn't believe in. Hazel is the same in the way that they both utilise what they have to try and do some good in the world. Both have help from a young Russian called Max, but they instigate everything themselves. It's nice to read about strong female characters like this.

The writing in this novel is stunning too. I know a lot of people feel that they can't emotionally connect with a character through the 3rd person narration, but I feel that it lends itself very well to this novel, as we get the depth of knowledge about each character which then allows us to interpret them from that information, rather than from thoughts and feelings. I also feel that in places it would be wrong to connect with some of the characters. Sherman Kingsborough is not a character who's head I ever want to be inside, thank you very much, and I like that the third person narrator is very clinical when discussing him because he's not someone we should care for.

Overall this book is not the happiest of reads. Throughout I found myself tearing up, and I full on ugly cried at the end of this book, but it's so poignant and relevant, letting us consider how much we value our lives and the topic of euthanasia as well as being a book dependent on family values and what we'll do for love, be that of family, friends, God or ourselves.

Total pages - 336
Rating /5 - 4.5
Recommend - Yes

This book started off so well but it fell apart for me around the middle. I finished it, but I stopped enjoying it, and the image of the cancer gave me nightmares for weeks after! Not for me, but an interesting perspective.

If Walter White went on EdTV... superbly relevant, dark humour for YA readers about the media. And a brain tumour narrates!

Brilliant. Highly significant topic, very funny and rather moving - it starts with a diagnosis. Terminal brain tumour. Jared doesn't tell his family straight away, but, like the lead in Breaking Bad, thinks about how to provide for his family after his death. Rather than start up a meth lab though, he puts his body up for auction on eBay.

We then meet a range of people interested in the purchase, and Jared, his teenage daughter Jackie and some eBay buyers narrate. It would be funny (and it is) if it weren't also so tragic, but the story never becomes maudlin. A nun wants to save Jared's soul, a millionaire wants to experience murder, a TV executive wants to turn his death into a reality show.

And of course, TV wins. The Stones' lives are examined, edited and critiqued from coast to coast. Each member of the family finds this a different experience, and all the while Jared's tumour burrows deeper into his brain. And narrates his own journey.

I've only ever seen a parasite form any part of a narrative once before (Irvine Welsh's 'Filth'), but this is brilliantly done, as it tears through memories, brain parts, and even develops self-awareness and an emotional connection with his host. How Vlahos managed to make a tumour sympathetic, I'm not sure, but he's a character in his own right.

Jackie is the heart of the story though, Jared's older daughter who loathes the fishbowl of her family's life. She's fearless and resourceful, and how she tries to get the TV cameras out of her father's last days is entertaining and brilliant. You will her on.

Wonderful book, very funny all the while being absolutely gut-wrenching as Jared goes downhill. The characters are nutty (the nun was one of my favourites) but believable in the context of a reality TV show.

Any adult reader will love this, not just teenagers. It would work better with KS4 than KS3 potentially, but there is nothing unsuitable here for a secondary school reader.

With thanks to Netgalley for the advance copy.

I don't usually read YA books, but this one grabbed me as these days many people spend their lives watching other people live theirs.

Jared Stone has an inoperable brain tumour, and in an attempt to safeguard his family's financial future, he turns their world upside down with more then just his diagnosis and the prospect of them losing a father and a husband - he sells their lives to a TV station.

The book starts with Jared firstly essentially putting their lives on ebay. Then we meet various people willing to pay, people who are all rather suspect. Desperate, greedy people who will stop at nothing to get what they want. The TV show is probably the safest prospect that the Stone family has to face.

That Jared would even dream of doing such a thing without consulting his family seems to be a little far-fetched; though this could be an effect of the tumour on his behaviour. This tumour is a character of it's own, as it 'eats' Jared's memories and almost takes on a life of it's own.

The book tells of the struggles of a family dealing with the prospect of loss, but all in the public eye, and their lives are coldly manipulated and taken over by the producers. But there is help at hand...

It's a great story, if a little fractured being told from so many different points of view. The behaviour of some of the characters leaves a sour taste, and nothing can really redeem them.

I would suggest that anyone contemplating going on one of these 'reality' shows reads this book first!

Jared Stone is dying and has found out he only has about four months to live. Worried about his family’s financial future when he’s gone, Stone signs up for a reality TV show where cameras can follow him and his family’s lives until he dies.

This was a really interesting premise and for the most part I think it lived up to what I thought it was going to be. The story combines the heartbreak of a family losing someone they cherish with the almost comical strangeness of having the precious moments trampled over by film crews and fame. The whole thing is very Kardashian but with people who just want to be normal. I think it also highlighted our world’s dangerous and often unethical obsession with reality TV and raises the question of how far is too far? How private is too private? etc.

I thought the author’s decision to personify the tumour was really interesting and for me, it reminded me of cancer patients and survivors naming their tumours to make them seem less scary. I don’t know much about human neurology but I found the path of the tumour and what it did to Jared’s body fascinating.
I hated what happened to Trebuchet. I understand why it was put in for the sake of the storyline but just the thoughts of it hurt my heart so much :(

I didn’t really bond to any of the characters in this book to be honest. A majority of them I found a bit annoying, though I could definitely understand Jackie and her situation. I did think the obsessive, weird nun was a bit much too.

But this was a really fast read, I more or less read it in a day and it definitely made me think about some things in our TV-laden world and what’s important and what’s not. An entertaining book by all means (though not as sad as I thought it would be!)

When Jackie discovers that her father has been diagnosed with a terminal brain tumor, her whole world starts to crumble. She can't imagine how she'll live without him . . .

Then, in a desperate act to secure his family's future, Jackie's father does the unthinkable--he puts his life up for auction on eBay. Jackie can do nothing but watch and wait as an odd assortment of bidders, some with nefarious intentions, drive the price up higher. The fate of her entire family hangs in the balance.

But no one can predict how the auction will finally end, or any of the very public fallout that ensues. Life as Jackie knows it is about to change forever . . .

This is an emotional book but an absolute delight - I really enjoyed it.