- Format: Kindle Edition
- File Size: 583 KB
- Print Length: 320 pages
- Publisher: Contraband (29 Nov. 2019)
- Sold by: Amazon Media EU S.à r.l.
- Language: English
- ASIN: B081ZD6Y8K
Synopsis
When Ella and Jem meet, the physical resemblance is uncanny, but their lives couldn’t be more different. One is from a tiny island in a deprived Northern community – pretty much the back of beyond – where she has no job, no boyfriend, limited prospects. The other is a London socialite, an aspiring actress living in a multimillion-pound mansion. By all appearances, she’s living a charmed life, but she’s got some serious shit to run away from.
Both of them have.
Review
Social media is developing by the day and Dead Ringer by Nicola Martin looks at a fictional app, MeetYourDouble. Just upload a photo and the app will find your doppelgänger, it could be someone famous, or not. Sounds easy, but there is always a chance of danger in these ideas, and for Ella and Jem there is a darkness lurking. Fast paced, addictive and compelling, this book is a fascinating read.
This maybe one of my shorter reviews as I really don’t want to give anything away. So, what I can say is I thought the concept for this book absolutely brilliant. Reading it was like watching a social experiment that you couldn’t look away from, you had to stay to the conclusion no matter how it ended. Many moral questions are raised, how greed and covertness can eat away at you, and is the grass really greener on the other side. There are also the thought provoking questions on social media, how it can connect us with people we would never normally meet, and put us in situations we wouldn’t normally put ourselves in. Nicola Martin builds the tension gradually, slowly drawing you in to Ella and Jem’s lives and taking you in to the darkness of their minds.
As characters, neither Ella or Jem come out if this shining. Nicola Martin, plays on, and emphasises their differences, Ella from Cumbria, living in a caravan, no money and not much of a future. Jem on the other hand lives in London, and her luxurious lifestyle is funded by her rich parents. But both have something to run away from, a life they want to escape, but is swapping lives the answer, even for a few days. Neither are fully aware of the consequences, especially when things turn dark recesses of their minds, and the lies they tell each other and those around them.
Dead Ringer is a psychological thriller, that draws on our fascination with other people’s lives, comparing them with ours and wanting more. The detailed psychological insight into the characters minds, the gritty realism of their situation and the darkness that encroaches makes this such a captivating read. Dark, tense and utterly compelling, this a brilliant read.
I would like to thank Anne Cater at Random Things Book Tours and Contraband for my invite on to the blog tour for Dead Ringer.
