Jared Stone, a 45-year-old father diagnosed with a terminal brain tumor, is worried about leaving his family penniless, so he decides to auction off "not his things, but his actual life" on eBay. His auction listing reads: "You may do with him as you please--slavery, murder, torture, or just pleasant conversation." The reserve price is set at a cool million, and he has some takers.
Len Vlahos's (The Scar Boys; Scar Girl) third-person narrative has a deadpan, reportorial style, reflecting the perspectives of multiple characters (including the giddy, memory-eating brain tumor itself) with a curiously absorbing detachment. The eBay bidders interested in the "Human Life for Sale" are Hazel Huck, a sympathetic gamer; Ethan Overbee, "utterly devoid of empathy," who smells a hot reality TV series; Sister Benedict Joan, who disapproves of Jared's public views on euthanasia and sees an opportunity; and the predatory Sherman Kingsborough, a "stinking rich" young man who follows every dark indulgence with a "noble gesture."
It's Ethan who eventually "wins" by getting his reality TV show, and soon the Family Stone--including Jared's wife and two teenage daughters--is living in "a cruel kind of fishbowl, and all they could do was pucker and swim." While centering on the emotional struggles and remarkable fortitude of introverted 15-year-old daughter Jackie, Life in a Fishbowl is a riveting, witty, skillfully crafted exploration of terminal illness, euthanasia, memory, love, grief, greed, obsession, the exploitative, deceptive nature of "reality" TV and the power of an engaged global community to right wrongs. --Karin Snelson, children's & YA editor, Shelf Awareness