Oh boy, this was not good. Not even a little bit. I didn't like the setting, I didn't like the characters and I didn't like the plot. As interesting as it sounds it just wasn't good enough. Plus for some reason I found it a bit chaotic and sloppy.

Although the book is well written, I ended up quitting around 75 pages in. I just didn't find it interesting enough to continue.

This book sounded so good when I bumped into it on Netgalley. I was really curious and eager to read it, and when the moment was finally there, I felt very let down. I didn't understand much of what was going on, didn't find it funny at the least and just overall couldn't wait to DNF it... Really sorry.

Pros
Unique concept: The plot made me so curious and it would've been such a good book, if executed better. It's really something unique that I haven't come across and I think that the story is original in the sci-fi genre.

Cons
Funny?: I don't like funny books that try so hard to be funny. There are footnotes in this book that just bothered me and didn't add anything to the story, in my opinion. I already started ignoring them after chapter 3, because there were so many of them and they just distracted me. How can I get into the story with a footnote every page?
Confusing: The big problem with this book, for me, was that I had NO idea what was going on. The AR-stuff in this book was really unclear and I couldn't picture anything that was happening in this book. There were multiple pages that I had to re-read, just to understand what was going on.

Overall
Just not my book. If it takes too much work to read something, it's not fun and relaxing for me anymore. I did see a lot of people on Goodreads that DID enjoy it, so maybe this will be a book for you. Sadly I had to DNF this book. I felt actually kind of relieved that I could put the book away. That's when you know a book really wasn't for you.

I cherished this book. Numerous parodies I've perused have passed into adolescent senselessness, yet this book keeps up a level of insight blended in with humor. Despite the fact that I didn't discover the book roar with laughter clever, there were a lot of funny minutes to go around. Indeed, even the commentaries were educational and entertaining.

DNF - 50%
Another fantastic premise that I feel was let down by the execution. From the synopsis I was expecting and hoping for a really humorous, tongue-in-cheek style reality show, possibly featuring some millionaires complaining about being down on their luck, versus some from lower class, etc. Unfortunately, it was the exact opposite. This book is incredibly dark and morbid and aside from the porn star, I didn't catch any humor at all.

I liked the idea of the show, I liked the futuristic setting and I liked the advanced tech and the lenses. I'm sorry to say, that's where my list stops. It takes until around the 30% mark for the show to even begin and it was definitely a let down. The contestants really all needed nicknames because I could not remember who was who based on their formal names, which really did not make me feel invested in or connected to any of them.

The host - the protagonist. Way too much of him to be honest. All he did was drink and complain and I didn't feel like he added anything to the story. Too much of him and too little of the contestants in my opinion.

Lastly, most people seem to take issue with the amount of footnotes (understandable), but for me, it wasn't so much the footnotes as it was the need for this book to appear clever and witty. The constant analogies & over the top descriptions, really did my head in.

‘Liam didn’t quite feel up to another etymological punching bag session with the Editor’

Always Greener is an interesting concept, a ‘tv game’ set in the future where contestants try to prove they have the worse life. We follow Liam Argyle, an alcoholic weatherman thrown into the spotlight to host the brand-new show. I enjoyed the glimpses we got into life in 2072 with its automated cars, AR displays and filters. I was a little disappointed we didn’t really get as much of an overview of the world as I would like to have had though. We get to hear Liam questioning the world around him and trying to change it for the better but without the base line of knowing what that world is it didn’t have quite as much impact as it could have done.

There were other points about this book being set in the far future which annoyed me. There were a few pop culture references mentioned, such as Monty Python which very out of place in a world 50 years in the future. I don’t really think children now are being particularly introduced to it – let alone in the future!

The footnotes are something that are mentioned a lot in other reviews and I must admit I also hated them. The only thing I was grateful for was that they were well-formatted into the Kindle edition I was reading. However, they really do add nothing whatsoever to the story. A few of the etymologies were quite interesting at first but a lot of them just came off as patronising. They broke up the proper flow of reading the book and I found myself trying to skip over them as much as possible. I didn’t really understand the point of them – I thought perhaps we’d find out that the ‘Editor’ was actually narrating the book or something at the end but this is never revealed. The main character finds the Editor’s use of etymology annoying so I don’t really understand why it has to be inflicted on the reader outside of his conversations.

I also would have liked to get more of an in-depth look into competition and to each of the contestant’s lives. We start out being introduced to lots of people – both the successful and unsuccessful and then the next part just gives their first names which made it a little hard to follow. I would have liked to have seen a little more of what the audiences would have watched of their lives and how they dealt with issues so that when they got eliminated it actually meant something.

Overall, Always Greener is a good concept but the execution fell a little flat for me which was a shame. Perhaps with a vicious edit, removing the footnotes and some key additions the book would be an awful lot better. Thank you to NetGalley, Uproar Books, The IBPA and Mr Lawless for a chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is one of the timeliest and realistic novels to come out this year. I am impressed that the author was able to bring so many themes of technology and mix together the impact of technology on the interconnected world of social media and entertainment. It definitely highlights the fascination we have with reality television and portrays how compassion and a sense of community is often left behind in exchange for the fascination of the macabre and underprivileged.

Always Greener is about a reality TV show in the near future, where everyone is permanently glued to their screens through visual implants or Ar glasses (if they haven't got the money). How bad is your life? Because if it's REALLY bad, you're more likely to become a contestant on The Grass is Greener, where you'll be watched 24/7 through your visual implants. There's no off switch, there's no privacy - the public want to see everything.

The first couple of chapters were a little hard-going, but I'm glad I persevered. It's a satire of the reality TV that we have today, and J. R. H. Lawless has taken it to it's furthest point, it's most outrageous end. To be fair, I'm sure it could probably be even more heartless, invasive and damaging, but the contestants are saved, to a certain extent, by a host with a conscience.

I did really enjoy this - but I can't say as it made me feel particularly positive about the future: people used as guinea pigs for drugs and procedures untested on anyone else, with fatal consequences; suicide so commonplace, that has become a steady job for a group of people who clean up after them - what a way to make a living; the total lack of empathy for people who are less fortunate, reduced merely to a prime-time, all-the-time streaming slot.

Not a future I would want, but a great book, nonetheless. Its a good read!

Many thanks to NetGalley for my copy of this book to read and review.

It’s 2072 and most people have Augmented Reality lenses in their eyes allowing them to watch televised shows in their head. One network gets the brilliant idea of making a reality show where the winner is decided by a public vote. What is the criteria to be a contestant? Just have the worst life! The eight contestants selected clean up germs, make smart technology dumb, work as the last non-robotic porn actor, clean up after suicides, work in governmental collections, fix broken AR systems, are the last political science professor, and get paid to do clinical trials. The host is an alcoholic former weatherman and the narrator of this tale. The prize is a trip to Paradise Mars, where the Earth is called “Old Smoggy”. The thought is that it will make the viewers feel better after seeing these losers’ lives literally through their eyes with a new camera lens implant. After all, the grass is Always Greener on the other side.

I love the original plot of this book. However, the execution, especially in the first half of the book, is poor. The author’s almost continual use of footnotes about the etymology of words is literally the most annoying part of this book. I would recommend ignoring all of those but unfortunately, sometimes they are defining completely new words. I also felt that the world of 2072 wasn’t described well at all. Occasionally, something new would be explained but it was rare. I did enjoy the ending and though it was the best part of Always Greener. However, I don’t think I would have kept reading past the first 20% if I wasn’t obligated to read it for NetGalley. Therefore, I can’t recommend this book. 2 stars.

Thanks to Uproar Books and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.

Sort of a dry satire on the possible future of "reality" competition shows taken to the extreme. I didn't hate it but I never felt fully connected to the story. Maybe a few characters stood out more but I will say the endless footnotes left a weird taste in my mouth. I think they were an attempt at humor on most of them but they fell flat and made me roll my eyes more than chuckle. But this is the author's first book and it isn't a terrible first foray. Just didn't resonate with me as much as I'd hoped from the premise.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

Read it to fifty percent and then skimmed through to the end. I just couldn't get into it. The footnotes were awful, although I appreciate they're far more intrusive in an ebook than they would be in a real book. The background is only hazily sketched in, and I'm not a fan of cringe humour as a rule. I thought this book and I would get on much better than we did, but I'm glad I got the chance to try it and find out. I think it'll do well with some readers.

I just couldn't finish it, although I battled through to thirty percent. The author's trying to be Pratchett, but he isn't nearly skilled enough. World building is non existent and it just wasn't funny. I had to DNF.

2.5 stars rounded up to 3

This book is set in the future, a mere 50 years from now. Always Greener is a game show. When you become a contestant on this show, you are fitted with a augmented reality lenses. The viewers will then be able to see your world through your eyes. It's constant 24/7. The viewer had to find the person who is living the worst life.

The first few chapters in this book I found hard to get into. I really thought I was going to stop reading it. That aside, it got quite interesting. There is a lot of repetition. We get the definitions of some of the words the author uses, but they are sometimes a bit long winded. There is some humor. The author did a fine job setting the scene. We get mostly the host of the shows point of view.

I would like to thank NetGalley, Uproar Books and the author J.R.H. Lawless for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book is not for everyone. I get the feeling it’s very clever with lots of insightful commentary and satirical thought around corporations, reality TV and philosophy at large. Even though I’m a compulsive reader, I really struggled to get through this and I found all the “footnotes” distracting. While I appreciated the writing style it wasn’t an easy read. After numerous attempts I finally gave up half way. For each their own, but this wasn’t for me.

Darkly comic, this dystopian look at reality TV is highly entertaining and very disturbing at the same time.
Imagine being able to see through the eyes of the contestants, as they each live their daily lives. Trying to prove which has the worst life - from suicide cleaner to medical guinea pig and worse.
Some interesting etymological references and some horrifying looks at future government.

A book with lovely black humor and a look on (social) media to think about. I expected to have mostly a POV from the contestants, and was pleasantly surprised when it came from the host of this whole charade. I mean, I could have figured it out from the blurb, but somehow I didn't. It makes for just that different look on things with a topic like this, that makes this book more original. I also loved the ethimology-bits!

The book is set in the future and is based on a big brother style game show where the viewers have a live feed to the contestants, but instead of watching them in a studio, the audience gets to see out of the contestants eyes, watching them do their day job. The main character is the game show host and the book is from his perspective. I enjoyed the story, what I really didn’t enjoy was all the footnotes. I found they interrupted the flow and honestly, I stopped reading them fairly quickly, there was just too many of them. The book didn’t totally grab me, but I did want to find out how the game would play out. Thank you #netgalley

Always Greener had a very interesting premise, with that being said, the execution was a miss for me. It was painfully slow and the footnotes were ridiculous

Advance disclosure: I received a copy of this book for free in exchange for an honest review, via NetGalley. I believe my reviews are unbiased regardless of the source of the book. My rating guidelines are posted at https://startupdj.com/book-rating-rules

This is also an interesting review to write for another reason. After I posted on Goodreads that I was reading this, the author followed me. So I know the author will see it - which increases the attention I'm paying in my own writing.

I'm conflicted about this book. It has the appropriate level of science fiction interesting-ness. A near-future SciFi story, it asks us to accept technology advancement, but assumes humans are not changing as quickly, and we still have some of our fundamental behaviors.

In this case, our voyeurism is put to the text when technology allows us to literally see what reality show contestants see. And then asks "What do we do with that?"

And here's where my review challenge comes in. After the first chapter or so, the book narrows down to the views (physical, and opinion) of the host of the game show. I was slightly confused at that; initially, it wasn't clear this person was going to be the primary voice of the book, and this took a bit of re-adjustment. But, this wasn't fatal; adjustment made.

Over the course of the book - and game - our protagonist's changing views are the main backbone of the book. An in the end, those changes - and the point they reached - didn't affect the story, or me.

Yes, there were the sad characters in the show, and maybe describing their plight was supposed to show me something (that I missed). Instead, they were just that - sad characters that were somewhat predictable in sadness.

It seemed there was an opportunity to do something more with the process, or the end. And at the end, I just felt like "Gee - that's it? It's like there was this story going, and I was waiting for 'the point', and then ... the story is just over. Unsatisfyingly."

So, I guess this wasn't bad. The author's humor did bring some levity to the story, and that's unusual. I don't lament the time I spent reading it.

But being honest to my rating system (linked above), I can't give this more than three stars.

I really wanted to enjoy this novel - the premise sounded fantastic, however, I found that the execution was lacking. From characters that weren't engaging, humour that fell flat and, for me, the language etymology distracted rather than enhancing the novel. A good effort but not something I would find myself returning to anytime soon.