Review: Reality Bites by Nick Lennon-Barrett

Synopsis: Doesn’t everybody want their five seconds of fame?

Daniel North, survivor of a gay pub bombing, wants to share his forgotten story with the world, but he’ll have to settle for millions of viewers in the 18-35 demographic.

Complex Neighbours is the latest ratings smash from billionaire media tycoon, Felix Moldoon. Think Big Brother meets the Hunger Games! To win the one-million-pound prize, contestants must compete in challenges that range from legal waterboarding to inducing projectile vomiting, or a showbiz quiz when it’s a low budget week.

Felix will do anything to ensure high viewing figures, even if that involves murder. As well as controlling the media, he also controls the edit. It is for him to determine who will be crowned the winner, and who will be “executed” from the show, with their lives destroyed forever.

Can Daniel resist the temptation of a younger man to achieve his goal? Will Felix sacrifice his own son for the sake of TV ratings? And just how far is the ultimate Reality TV villain willing to go for the grand prize?

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I read this in one sitting - it is that type of book - you literally cannot turn away in case you miss something.

What the reader is witnessing is life inside a Big Brother style TV program - all the alliances, back-biting, romance (or lust) - in which the contestants must compete against each other in a series of challenges. There are the inevitable twists - and along with immunity, one contestant can have more control of who stays and who goes. The losers are then"executed" and upon leaving the compound, their deepest, darkest, most personal secrets are revealed to all and sundry - oft times with devastating consequences.

The main characters are the contestants themselves - though Daniel North seems to be the main one - the callous TV producer and media tycoon, Felix Moldoon; Felix's fix-it and assistant Desiree; hostess Zelda; and the shadowy Mrs P. Just how far any of them will go to win - both the cash prize and the ratings - is anyone's guess. Sacrifices will be made all in the name of entertainment.

The reader's focus is centered on Daniel and Felix - and it is pleasing to reader that neither of them seen have it all their own way. Whilst the characters have no real depth to them - they are at times as shallow as their storylines - it was still an entertaining read.

I am looking forward to reading the second in the series to see where things lead.