Everything Is Sinister by David Llewellyn
'Violence is the new language. Celebrity is the new currency.'
Written in 2008, this novel is set in 2010 and portrays a realistic bleak viewpoint of a London that is not a million miles away from how we see it now. Our narrator Ed Raynes is a showbiz journalist of The Voice Of The People; a trashy rag that I likened as an equivalent to our The Daily Mail. Ed is told a disturbing secret about one of the contestants of the nation's favourite reality TV shows, Lockdown. As the contestant is also the favourite to win, Ed realises the consequences of what is about to happen and as it is his job to keep the secret under wraps until the show is over, he begins to have a mental breakdown. Becoming a recluse in his flat, he observes the workers of London from his balcony and knows that there is 'something wrong with people'. It becomes his mission to put an end to the madness before it spirals out of control.
A dark witty story that grips the reader throughout, it is in parts reminiscent of Orwell's 1984 and has touches of Bret Easton Ellis and Chuck Palahniuk here and there. It comes complete with a fantastic little twist at the end and showcases how shallow and self-consumed modern society has become (or what direction it is heading to in this case). I will definitely read David Llewellyn's debut novel, Eleven and look forward to keeping on eye out for his new books. [9/10]
