The First Escape (The Dopple Ganger Chronicles)
Author: G. P. Taylor
What an exciting book to receive - it was right up my boys' alley. Part book, part graphic novel, I couldn't wait for them to read it. My eleven year old took to it right away, and he is the one that ended up writing this review. Enjoy!
The book I was sent to review, the “Doppelganger,” was a mixture between a book, a comic, a horror, a comedy, a moral, and an adventure. All in one. The concept of writing it was that half the book was written out and the other half was more like some sort of graphic novel. It basically takes place at an orphanage where the main characters, two mischievous twin girls named Saskia and Sadie p- who were left behind by their mom, are separated when a strange lady adopts Saskia alone without Sadie. They both have misadventures as Sadie is accused of trying to burn down the school and Saskia attempts to save Muss Elliot (the strange lady) from being murdered by her twin sister.
The thing I liked about this book is the characters. They were smart enough to get through things without it randomly appearing to them like in other stories. Muss Elliot’s character is easily unlikeable as she runs over a swan and scares an onion seller off his bike, but in the end appears to be a nice, friendly lady. The driver of her car, the Jaguar, is named Brummagem (his name is Irish). He is a mysterious, scary character who in the end betrays Muss Elliot and tries to kill her.
The thing I don’t like about this story is when the humor is slightly inappropriate and unnecessary. For instance, the gold, hidden by Muss Elliot’s great grandfather, was hidden in the half of a donkey situated on the wall. It was a neat concept, but would have been more likeable if it was the FRONT half of the donkey. He basically hid a bunch of money in an ass’s backside. Many pieces of the book were sort of like that.
*** I received this book free of charge from Tyndale in exchange for my honest review.