Fiction-Net > Book Reviews > Living In The Box

Book Review Title Author Publisher Living In The Box Dean O'Loughlin The Gameford Files Fiction-Net Rating Buy It - Buy This Book Cover Story An adventure in reality TV, Living In The Box brings the Big Brother house back into our memories as a former housemate describes the experience. We Say If you watched series two of Big Brother, widely acknowledged as the best series of the show's entire run on Channel 4, then you may remember 'boring brummy' Dean O'Loughlin. Well, he wrote a book about his experience in the Big Brother house and the events that followed. Sounds bloody awful, doesn't it? At least, that's what I expected. Thing is, Living In The Box is a superb read. Dean O'Loughlin is a highly talented and very, very funny writer. On several occasions and despite my continuing efforts to dislike the book, I found myself laughing out loud. In the early stages of Living In The Box, we are provided with a brief autobiography of Dean O'Loughlin and you can't help but like the guy. He's funny, intelligent and interesting to read about and absolutely nothing like the 'boring brummy' character we were supposed to believe he is. The first part of this book is definitely the most light-hearted part. It's funny, good-humoured and enjoyable to read. It takes a very serious turn when we get onto O'Loughlin's time in the Big Brother house. Yes, it's still very interesting to read but the humour has for the most part become despair and frustration. This is by no means a criticism but simply a reflection on how time in the house was experienced. Dean O'Loughlin takes us week-by-week and event-by-event through his time in the Big Brother house. Many incident are clarified and others are completely changed in your mind. Once you've read this book, you will never trust the show again! Endemol do not come out of things well and your viewpoint on events you thought you knew well, and characters you thought you'd understood, will definitely change. One unusual criticism comes in the form of typing mistakes. We'll usually forgive one or two typos in any book but Living In The Box is absolutely littered with them. In fact, we don't think we have ever seen so many typing mistakes in a book - and that includes reading countless uncorrected advance copies. Review by: Rob Cook Buy It - Buy This Book