The Understudy | David Nicholls | Review
The Understudy tells the story of Stephen C McQueen. Ever since he was young, he has wanted to be an actor and to be famous. He's in his forties now and he is still waiting for his Big Break. Having to do children's shows and play victims in mystery programmes is not what he expected, but now, he's the understudy to the twelfth sexiest man in the world - Josh Harper. Josh has everything that Steve hasn't; a BAFTA award, a gorgeous wife Nora and an amazing house but most importantly, fame. And as Stephen starts to fall in love with Nora, things get even more difficult.
If you didn't know already, I am a massive David Nicholls fan. This is the third book of his I've read following One Day and Starter For Ten. I really love his writing style and way with words. However, with things being busy in the real world it took me over a month to read. This meant I had to go a few days without reading at all and then when I did have time to read, I found it hard to get back into the story. If I had some more free time, I would have got it read much quicker as the storyline was really good and during the bits where I was really engaged, I kept flicking the pages to find out what would happen next.
I also loved the characters, especially our protagonist Stephen. I felt so sorry for him because throughout the book, he does things which have bizarre and horrible consequences and he seems to have bad luck all the time. Nora was an interesting character because she was American, however since I'm from the U.K, it was weirdly difficult for me to imagine her voice as so American when the book is very British and has a lot of British people in it. But maybe that's just me.
So what's the old rating Lucy?
I give The Understudy by David Nicholls a four star rating. If I had more time to read then it could have been a five star rating but I remember the whole process as being very long and hard to get through. I definitely do recommend it though. This book is chick-lit but it's also not. It is a love story but I think it would be more fitting in the "Humour" genre as I had many a laugh out loud moment. If you haven't heard of David Nicholls and want to try out his stuff, this is the book you should start off with!
This book was reviewed by regular reviewer Lucy.
Photo from Goodreads!
No comments
Post a Comment