Too much of a slow burn, the characters fell flat, nothing very interesting. More potential than quality.

The Body Double by Emily Beyda is a really strange book with an implausible premise. Supremely hard to get into this story. Truly original, but failed to impress and hold my attention.

I received an digital advanced copy of this book from the author, publisher and NetGalley.com. The opinions in this review are my own.

The Body Double has an amazing premise. A nameless narrator, plucked from a dismal existence and a dead end, becomes a double for a Hollywood superstar that has become a recluse.

What you don't expect is a painfully detailed, psychologically tense journey that breaks down our nameless narrator and rebuilds her into this superstar.

Extremely well written and visceral in emotion. A highly recommended read.

4 out of 5 stars.

A nameless narrator whose identity is lost in so many other ways within her seemingly dead end life is presented with the opportunity to drop everything and serve as the body double for a troubled celebrity. Is this the opportunity of a lifetime or is it sinisterly too good to be true?

“He knows who I am and he wants me anyway.”

“I’m disappearing completely, perfecting a skill I learned a long time ago. The only difference now is that I have someone else to disappear into.”

The Body Double requires patience. The build is incredibly slow and we’re audience to the narrator’s often bizarre meandering thoughts. I did feel this aspect was intriguing.

I don’t think that it’s patience that I lack. It’s serotonin. I wish I had the motivation to see this through but I’m concerned about how it’s making me feel. It’s not providing the stimulation my brain needs and I think it’s wise for me to close the ebook at the 22% mark.

This is not a thriller, despite the way it’s been promoted. It is an intricate character study with a hint of mystery. It looks squarely at the path of one’s mental state when plagued by deep insecurity. I think the narrative is effective in what it aimed to accomplish and for the right reader, this would be an excellent piece of fiction to analyze.

My rating reflects the fact that I think this is a worthy piece of fiction, despite my inability to see it through.

Great, suspenseful book. Slow to build and at times creepy but in a good way. Would recommend to fans of looker.

This book was a psychological suspense novel that takes a deep dive in to one woman's "job" as she becomes a body double for a reclusive actress who is unable to maintain her public appearances. We follow our unnamed narrator as she begins her transformation into Rosanna and how her slow descent into an identity that is no longer herself. The writing style was unique and sharp, but the pace of the plot made it hard for me to be fully invested in the characters and the outcome of the novel. This was a slow burn thriller in which readers will most likely figure out the ending/twist from very early on in the novel. The unique "vibe" of the novel is what sets it apart from more recent psychological suspense books - it is dark, introspective, with a noir style to it. However, the pacing and emphasis on the psychological part of psychological suspense took away from what readers will most likely expect when they read this. I liked the vibe and much of the writing style, even if all of the aspects didn't work for me personally. I would recommend this for people looking for a more psychological type of book or who want to branch out from the more typical psychological suspense novels.

I can only imagine the effort behind finding the “one”. The main character in this book was found after a long discovery to find a body double for a fading Hollywood Star. Rosanna is the person they are trying to emulate, and she is losing the limelight due to a depression pulling her indoors. She was losing endorsements, her makeup line was failing, she was being forgotten. So her “people” hire someone from a small town to step in and do her appearances, commercials, essentially become her.

An interesting read for sure - I would definitely suggest this book!

I received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

A young woman is recruited to impersonate a Hollywood star - she undergoes cosmetic procedures to alter her appearance, she learns to mimic her mannerisms - all to appear in public and create the illusion that she is still well after a prolonged absence. The concept is interesting, but I kept waiting for the big reveal. The story moves slowly and the end didn't pull through.

This book was a bit different for me. I found myself being pulled into this book. It was so hard to put down.

Beyda's The Body Double is a twisted look into how far a man will go to be with the one he loves, including remaking her in someone who looks like her.
The nameless protagonist is selected to be Rosanna Feld's body double, to literally become her. Her time is spent learning to be her, trapped in an apartment with only Max as company.
This is a wonderful depiction of Stockholm Syndrome and losing oneself to become someone else.

Thank you to DoubleDay and Netgalley for the ARC!

After a lot of mixed reviews on this one, I was definitely hesitant to pick it up. This book follows an ordinary girl that is asked to come to be a body double for a celebrity. It is written in the first person and the “body double” is an average girl who works at a movie theater before she's discovered by Max, a headhunter looking for a body double for a famous celebrity, Rosanna. I really wanted more from the doppelganger plot, but it didn't go the way I predicted at all!

This book is definitely relatable and helps explain/show how far people would go for fame and wealth. It also makes you think a lot about what makes a relationship and how much you can trust someone. It was definitely a slow burn, and I was left wanting more action and plot twists.

I read this book all the way through and was gripped by it, not having the slightest idea where it might be going for the longest time, but I can't say I enjoyed it as such. Psychological stories - I'm not sure if this one qualifies as a thriller, but it comes pretty close - often turn out to be too distressing for my taste.

With a Hitchcock worthy premise, The Body Double begins with our nameless protagonist finding herself in the bizarre situation of being offered to be a body double for an A-list actress. Too willing to be quite believable, she agrees. Her contact is soon limited to only Max, the finder, and she spends many days alone, often not knowing when she’ll next see him or even receive basic supplies. However, none of this deters her from a growing obsession with Rosanna, the actress she is learning to impersonate.
The narrator treats each difficulty as a new challenge, questioning herself often about how Rosanna would react or think. I found it hard to connect with the narrator, even as she faced frightening uncertainties concerning her daily existence. Her freefall into wanting to practically become Rosanna was alarming and felt too plot driven. What are the odds that Max would have found someone who not only looked similar to the actress but also who would develop an all consuming need to be as like her as possible, no matter the stakes?
While this was a quick read, I guessed the major twist less than halfway in. Unfortunately, I spent too much of my time with this book questioning if the scenarios had even a shred of reality to them. I am willing to suspend some belief during reading, but this was too much and had me saying, “You’ve got to be kidding,” more than once.
Two stars since I did finish it and still wanted to see how it ended. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a complimentary advance copy. This did not impact my review.

Beyda's novel is a strange, claustrophobic experience, as an unnamed narrator is locked in an apartment and slowly molded - physically, emotionally and mentally - into a reclusive Hollywood star. Reading it was truly a unique experience.

The cover drew me into this book, as did the book blurb. The premise was interesting, Take a person and remake her into someone famous. The problem lay in the mechanics and details of getting her to the point that people would be convinced. Too much detail, too little action.

Thanks to Doubleday for my free review copy. All opinions are my own. The Body Double is a dark character study of an unidentified female hired to impersonate a high-profile celebrity. The majority of the book is her inner dialogue as she studies tapes, interviews, and home videos of Rosanna.⁣ As she begins to feel as if she is Rosanna, she starts stepping out in public, going to restaurants and doing interviews. The slow-building tension of this book had me enthralled. 3.5 stars

I couldn't get into this book. It was very slow and I didn't care about any of the characters. If you like slower character studies this might be for you.

The Body Double by Emily Beyda begins in an unnamed small town movie theater but mostly takes place in Hollywood, California.

The narrator doesn’t have a name. She’s been brought to Hollywood in order to be a body double for a famous movie star – both on and off-screen. She spends her time learning everything about Rosanna Feld so that she can become Rosanna. Her only job is to be Rosanna. She’s paid a lot of money to forget her former life.

Max is the man who hires her to be the body double. He’s a sleazeball but the narrator seems to like him. She’s suspicious of him but she overlooks quite a bit to keep him happy.

She does spend some time trying to figure out what happened to the real Rosanna. In the end, her questions are answered. I won’t give away the ending but it was not what I expected.

If you’re interested in stories about Hollywood and movie stars – the glamour and also the seedy parts- then you will probably enjoy “The Body Double.” The book has been compared to the movie “Vertigo.” I cannot believe that I haven’t seen the movie.

If you aren’t a fan of Hollywood or crime fiction, then this book might be too fancy for you.

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for doing a review. All opinions are my own. Obviously.

I'd like to thank NetGalley, Emily Beyda, and Doubleday Books for the advanced reader's copy in exchange for my unbiased review.

A young woman is asked to secretly become Hollywood star, Rosanna Feld’s body double while Rosanna recuperates from her recent illness. No one really knows why she has disappeared. However, to keep her ‘brand’ alive until she returns, a replacement is needed. Max, Rosanna’s agent, trains this young look-alike to ‘become’ Rosanna, and the story continues with how Max controls her movements, thoughts of Rosanna get into her head, and what happens when she begins to go out into public imitating Rosanna, even to Rosanna’s closest friends. But where is Rosanna? When is she coming back? Is she coming back? This book keeps you guessing.

I gave this book 4 stars. It is a little wordy, describing everything that this woman (I don’t think her name is ever given!) thinks and feels. It kind of kept me off balance, messed with my mind – but maybe that was the author’s goal!

However, it kept my attention enough that I wanted to keep reading to see what was going to happen and how the story was going to end!

You know when you start a book and think it’s going to be a certain way and the book actually goes there and it’s super satisfying? And you end up not disappointed by a book you thought was going to disappoint you? The Body Double was that kind of book for me. This book was wild and had some amazingly well done paranormal-esque twists that were, in my opinion, very successful.

The Body Double starts with our nameless main character/narrator working her boring job at a boring movie theater. One day, though, a man offers her a job she can’t refuse- to be the body double for the wealthy LA socialite, Rosanna Feld, who has suffered a mental breakdown and wants to protect her place in society. Because our narrator has practically no family and no friends, she knows that no one will miss her when she’s gone, and she takes the job and heads to LA. Over many months, our narrator goes through a lot of changes (physically, emotionally, and mentally) and tries her best to become Rosanna, enough to convince even Rosanna’s closest friends.

Things take a turn for our narrator, though, when she starts to feel how Rosanna would feel, remember things only Rosanna would remember, and actually slip into Rosanna’s character and personality. The more she learns from and about Rosanna, the more confusing her situation becomes. She no longer knows who to trust, and begins to feel more and more that she is actually Rosanna.

I don’t typically enjoy contemporary mystery/thrillers because so many of them seem to have themes or twists involving mental illness or addiction. And if you want me to hate a book really quickly, make the crux of the book be that a character is actually just mentally ill. I dislike that trope so much, and I was so afraid that The Body Double would go that route. And, truthfully, it almost did. Instead, though, the book went a remarkably different direction, and I really liked it.

All that being said, this book has a very particular tone to it which might put some people off. The narration is slow and methodical, and our character teeters on both depression and disordered eating. These things can be tough to read, but I didn’t feel that either of these were overly done or improperly used. We do see our main character through a lot of mundane activities and through some really lonely days alone, and it can be tough.

What made this a great book for me was the larger mystery; I was constantly questioning what was real and what was simply in our narrator’s head. The book never comes to a solid conclusion on most of this, leaving a lot of the book up for reader interpretation. I also enjoyed all the bits of Hollywood life, and think the book had the perfect amount of famous/rich people drama.

All in all, I recommend this book if you like mystery/thrillers, books with substantial intrigue, and if you aren’t opposed to small bits of paranormal suspense. This wasn’t a perfect book, but I did really enjoy it. 3.5/5 stars, rounded to 4 stars!

Thanks to Netgalley and Doubleday Publishing for providing me an eArc of this book in exchange for an honest review. Ultimately, I listened to this book through audiobook form, with an audiobook I purchased myself!

My review will be posted at the below blog link on March 13, 2020, and is already posted on Goodreads, also linked below.