Flip
Not Just Some Freaky Friday
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| Author: Martyn Bedford Format: Hardcover Pub Date: 03/03/11 Price: £7.99 Publisher: Walker |
Like any average morning Alex wakes up in bed believing it to be like any other day, except it’s not his bed or home and worse, it’s not his life or body. Alex is then plunged into the existence of his new soul-operated-vehicle that is Phillip Garamond, AKA Flip, and all family, friends and girlfriends that come along with it. Alex soon learns there are advantages to being Flip, the good looks, muscles and popularity but all he can think about is getting home. What follows is Alex’s path both physically and mentally to try and return to his body and hopefully his life. Thwarted in many attempts, he is helped by the aid of another ‘psychic evacuee’, Rob, to get to grips with the situation and make a choice; to let go of himself or to fight for a life that could be dead.
This book did what I didn’t expect – it applied reality to the situation. A 14 year old boy finds himself in a body that is better looking and more popular then himself and instead of taking advantage he is actually consumed by wanting his own life back. What this book does is really delve into the topic of the self/soul/essence, or whatever it is that makes a person that person. It highlights the difficulty of not being able to be who you truly are and what teenager can’t identify with that?
I found Alex a wonderful and insightful character. The way in which he reacted to the situation was the key to hooking the reader into his plight and making them read on. However, I felt that the writing itself was fairly generic, telling me things rather than showing me them through dialogue or description. For example, from the writing alone I would never had known that it was set in Leeds or that Flip spoke with a thick northern accent. Which was slightly disappointing.
By no means is the concept of this book original but instead it is the reaction that is. It is because Alex freaked out showering in someone else’s body, that he still sucked at sports, that he didn’t want to kiss someone else’s girlfriend and that all that could satisfy him would be to wake up in his own asthmatic, pale, ginger haired body, that this book is so good.
Flip delivers a truly provocative and interesting read, taking the thoughts of a 14 year old boy into territories I didn’t expect it to go. It is a great thriller that builds the tension and develops the plot towards only one possible and terrible climax.
Genre: Fiction/Thriller/YA
Age Range: 12+
Shortlisted: 2011 Costa Children's Book Award
Uffish: Freaky Friday was in fact a book by Mary Rodgers first published in 1972
Rating: 8/10
