The Understudy

This psycological thriller is a collaberation project by B.A. Paris, Clare Mackintosh, Sophie Hannah and Holly Brown, with Hannah as the lead author. The four authors have written alternate chapters throughout the book, and the transition between them is pretty much seamless.The story is set in a reputed academy for performing arts in London, and is told from the point of view of four very competitive mothers of more or less talented daughters. As it turns out, each of the mothers has something to hide, which makes them all unreliable narrators. Following an incident of malicious bullying, an athmosphere of suspicion and fear starts to haunt the school as well as the homes ...I stumbled over this book by accident, and didn't have particularly high expectations. Mackintosh was the only author I had read before, the three others were unknown to me. Nevertheless, I found it nearly uputdownable, and would surely have read it in one sitting if I could. Hoping for another thriller from these clever women who obviously works so well together, I highly recommend The Understudy.

What interested me about this book was that it was co-written by several authors that I had read before and enjoyed. I was very impressed with how seamlessly the story was interwoven considering this fact. I enjoyed it very much and then donated it to our community library for others to enjoy.

Too much over analysis; (of all the characters, and the reasons behind their actions). I am almost at the end of the book, and the reader is given the task of trying to figure out who could have done it. We are given the reason for any of the main characters being behind all the goings on at the Academy. There are other B. A. Paris books I like better.

Suspenseful - keeps you guessing! I loved this book!

I have previously read work by three of the four authors and was keen to read this collaborative work. To be honest I’m not sure I would have known from reading it that there were four authors involved had the chapters not been attributed to them individually. With 4 mothers and their daughters involved it was difficult for me to remember who they all were (might be an age thing on my part). I actually didn’t care much for any of the characters which left me with nobody to root for. I’m left with a similar feeling to having binge watched a tv box set and where I’m not sure if I would watch a second season. It held my attention from start to finish but still seemed a little lacking. Maybe I set my expectations too high due to previous knowledge of the authors.

I only got this book because I’ve read other books by B A Paris and really enjoyed it. Especially Behind Close Doors. Her books are really engaging to the end...but this book, The Understudy? It was horrible. I couldn’t finish it although I tried to several times. It was BORING. I also could not keep up with the characters (especially the mother/daughter relations) It was too much. I’m so disappointed. I would not recommend this book to anyone.

This was a truly amazing book, written by 4 different authors, all brilliant in their own right. You'd think it would make for dis-jointed reading but far from it. There are 4 main women in the story and each author writes as one of them, and because of the different styles it makes each character stand apart from the other. Made up of envy, greed, jealousy, revenge and naked ambition the story flowed easily and made compulsive reading. I pinned the blame on one then jumped to another, never guessing rightly, then being stunned at the ending. I certainly never worked that out. What a book, loved every word of it.

This book drew me to it with it's fab mix of authors. I was intrigued to see how they would combine their writing styles and to see if the book would flow or if it would be very obvious who was writing which section. And I found it blended seamlessly, I honestly would have thought it was written by one person.It features 4 mothers whose daughters attend a stage school. And the daughters might want to thread the boards on the stage, but it's the mothers who are all acting in their own lives. No one is exactly as she seems, and they are pretending they have it all.I enjoyed the book, but as you can see from my 3 star rating I didn't adore it. The mix of horrible characters got a bit tedious at times, and I'd have liked one nice character in their to lift the vibe a bit.The twists and turns kept my attention, and the competitive setting added lots of drama to the plot. A good solid read that I enjoyed when I picked it up, but it never riveted me.

I'm afraid I've just given up on this book at 65% when I realised that time was passing way too slowly, that reading was hard work and that I didn't care at all about any of the characters .I was interested in the concept of 4 authors collaborating in the writing of a novel but the reality, from my perspective, was an awful lot of repetition of information and a lack of 'flow' around characterisation . I would never usually have difficulty in identifying and remembering 8 characters but really struggled to recall who was who in the cast of mothers and daughters .Sorry but for me this was a failed experiment.

However much I enjoy the individual writers work the combination did nothing for me. I forced myself to 40% and gave up.

An unexpected well buried plot! I was completely pulled in from start and inquisitive to find out who was bullying who.Four mothers protecting their daughters with hidden secrets. Every mum would one their best for their daughters.The story is completely fluid despite it being a collaboration by 4 of the most famous crime and psychological writer.How well they have conjured the story.