Stunt Double is a brand new Young Adult series from Tamsin Cooke, and I was so intrigued to read it as soon as I heard about it - film sets! Stunt doubles! Hi-jinks! I WAS IN. And this was actually a pretty amazing read, and I’m even more excited that Finn’s back with more adventures in January 2018 (why so far away, though?! *Weeps*). It could probably be read by 12+, because there’s not a lot of swearing or mature content, although there’s a bit of violence, to put it mildly.
THE GOOD
- STUNT DOUBLES! I love the movie industry, I loved getting that peek behind the scenes, how actors do their jobs, how other people *DO* the actor’s jobs because actors are too fragile (ahem) to perform their own stunts. So it was even more interesting that this featured a teenage stunt double, and while it never quite sat right with me, probably stunt doubles (especially teenage ones) likely have to go through rigorous training and stuff to be able to actually do it, it was still fun.
- Papua New Guinea. Okay so I had to Google where Papua New Guinea actually was, what a stunning location! A lot of the book is set there, and it just sounded magical. I loved the sound of the hotel Finn and the crew stayed in *Dreams of lagoon-style-pools*
- Finn. Finn is adorable. He seems quite young for fourteen, all things considered, but he’s pretty good at the stunts he does and I liked his narrative, it’s the kind of voice you remember, that isn’t intrusive, but is firmly there and it’s a voice you like. I liked that it was narrated in first-person, too, so we really got to know Finn!
- It’s just a pretty fun adventure! I love adventures and this was right up there. The travelling, the film stuff, the stunts themselves (which seem terrifying with, or without, the jerk shirt thing), it was all pretty fast-paced and frantic and I lapped it up!
THE BAD
- Not bad, but the book did seem to take an unrealistic turn. It kind of hit this point like three quarters through the book where it like took a turn?!??!?! And I kinda didn’t know if it was all part of some Punk’d style stunt? Where everyone would jump out and be like GOTCHA. And I kept waiting for it to happen and it didn’t?!?!?! I still don’t quite know how I felt about where the book went. How it seemed to be this harmless story of a lad becoming a stunt double and then it became…. Like crazy. Like WHAT. Like where you wonder if you’ve missed a few pages or been drugged, basically.
Overall, I loved Stunt Double. I’m excited to see where Finn’s story takes him, especially after all the crazy stuff that happened at the end of this first book. Plus there was a bit of an excerpt from book two where there was *another* crazy reveal and it’s like SLOW DOWN. Finn can hardly have recovered from this book, never mind more shocks! But I’M INTRIGUED. So it did its job! I am very excited for book two, and this was a brilliant start to a fantastic new series!