Linda Vismane's Reviews > The Understudy

"It's important to have ambitions. To find the thing you love doing, and do it to the best of your abilities."
So I started reading this book with basically no expectations at all and I'm glad I did so.
The book didn't disappoint me, however it had some flaws.
Firstly - why do people always think that they can get away with lying? Stupid, stupid, stupid. I think that's the reason why I couldn't identify with the main character, Stephen. He lied so many unnecessary times that by the end I just wanted to literally flip a table or something. Of course everyone whom Stephen lied to found out. OF COURSE. I wasn't disappointed with the book, I was disappointed with the main character.
Secondly - being a very famous actor's understudy ISN'T a bad job. At least in the real world. In this book it seems that it is, and I cannot understand that because the author of this book is an actor himself -_-
BUT I really liked Nora, Josh's wife. A woman I admire. And I liked how the author made Josh as a character - a very famous actor who can get literally anything he desires, but doesn't know anything about life and is just oblivious to things that actually matter.
The book wasn't very funny in my opinion, however there were a few moments when I was laughing out loud. Of course, the ending was sort of predictable, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.
I'm looking forward to reading David Nicholls first novel, Starter For Ten, because he also wrote screenplay for a film version of it, which stars James McAvoy ;) ;)
But yeah, overall not a great book, but also not the worst one that I've read.
"What's the point of realistic dreams?''