CATBIN FEVER is based on, and from the creator of, the hit Twitter account @CatBinLady as seen on Channel 4 News. It is a tale of momentary aberrations, friendship, jealousy, fraud, marriage and betrayal. Praise for @CatBinLady :- “...the pleasure she has afforded us all is a marvellous thing...” - India Knight, The Sunday Times. “...a huge online hit.” - Andy Crick, The Sun. “Whatever you do, follow @CatBinLady” - Claudia Winkleman. “You all already know this, but @CatBinLady is one of the funniest/best conceived things I’ve seen on Twitter.” - Chris Addison. “Everything about her is great.” - Graham Linehan. “Well funny.” - Jason Manford. “We love you CatBinLady” - Adult Swim UK. CatBinLady was among NME’s 25 best Twitter moments of 2010. CatBinLady won the 2011 Loaded LAFTA for Funniest Twitterer.
I discovered I had this on my Kindle years after buying it, and decided to see if it would hold up as a book after so long. I read it in short bursts here and there, and it often made me laugh. It's silly, but in that way smart people can write silly.
It helps if you're familiar with the original Twitter feed/news story, but I found it consistently hilarious, and absolutely loved it. A gem of a thing.
What started out as a good read quickly settled into something of a formulaic passing of time from Neighbour Watch meetings, a trip to the zoo, and regular abuse of Brenda and select family members. I think the main problem is that the transition from semi-regular tweets told is if in real time to a past-telling of the events just does not work in this instance. There is nothing wrong with the writing, I just feel that the task was a spot larger than the author was able to rise to. That said, I don't think that there are many authors who could create a story of any substance from the source material Rich Neville had to work with (even if it was his own character).
Overall it was somewhat entertaining but I'm glad that I got it for free in a promotion as I do not think it quite it justifies the £7.99 price that it had been attributed at the time.
I don't know what to say about this book really other than I didn't like it at all. I didn't find it funny and wasn't sure what I was reading, a book obviously, but I wasn't sure what the book was trying to say to me about the human condition. Is the lead character mad or just bad? I just felt embarrassed.