Review of Double by Jenny Valentine

When the sixteen-year-old runaway Chap is mistaken for a missing boy named Cassiel, his life changes dramatically. Chap takes on Cassiel’s identity, gaining the family and friends he’s always dreamed of having. But becoming someone else isn’t as easy as he hoped—and Chap isn’t the only one hiding a secret. As he teeters on the brink of discovery and begins to unravel the mystery behind Cassiel’s disappearance, Chap realizes that he’s in much deeper danger than he could have imagined. 

After all, you can’t just steal a life and expect to get away with it.

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Double, or The Double Life of Cassiel Roadnight as it is known in the UK, is a simple mystery story, told by our main character, Chap. Chap just wants a new life, and one is handed to him on a plate. I can't blame him for taking it either, he's a child of the streets, sleeping rough every night and I can't imagine how hard life must have been for Chap before someone realised he looked like Cassiel. Of course, there are some differences between Cassiel and Chap – Chap has self inflicted piercings and a scars on his face, but his new family just assume that Cassiel has had a hard life before he came back to them.

Alongside the tale of Chap's new life, we also go back into the past and see what Chap's old life was like, with his Grandfather. As the book progresses, we are presented with two mysteries – where the real Cassiel actually is and what happened to Chap to cause him to leave his Grandfather.

The story as a whole is very satisfying, all the loose ends are tied up at the end and it left me with a general feeling of satisfaction. As there are so many cliff-hangers in books these days, I really appreciate when everything is solved within one book. There's an overall feeling of suspense as Chap attempts to make his new family believe that he is Cassiel and there's a constant worry that one small move him makes will out him. One thing that did confuse me, if this had happened to me, I'd just pretend to have no memory. A lot of problems are solved within one go and it's a very likely explanation as to why he never came home. What Chap did choose to do did add more suspense though!

The mystery with the little twist to the tale was relatively easy to solve for me, but that didn't lessen my enjoyment of the story. The writing style is quite light and flows smoothly, making the story feel like it was going faster than it was for me. The characters themselves are simple, yet very realistic and memorable, particularly Chap of course. I'm not sure if I would read this again, is my only problem. Now I've read it, I don't think I need to read it again, although I would love to read a sequel, if there was one!

5/5

Received free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review