Tuesday 9 November 2010

The Double Life of Cassiel Roadnight by Jenny Valentine

August 2010, HarperCollins Children's Books
224 pages, Paperback
Review Copy 

Children's, mystery 

Suspense, moderate peril, lots of mystery, family secrets 

Blurb from the book 
"I didn't choose to be him. I didn't pick Cassiel Roadnight out of a line-up of possible people who looked just like me. I just let it happen. I just wanted it to be true. That's all I did wrong, at the beginning." 

A fugitive teenager takes on the identity of another missing boy. But everyone has their secrets. Who will get to the truth first? 

Nayuleska's thoughts
I was intrigued why the teen would choose to be Cassiel. The reason is actually logical. He looks like him, and wants to be loved. Who wouldn't want that? The problem with pretending to be someone else, is that he doesn't know why people treat him the way they do. He tries to get answers, to find out more about Cassiel's life. That proves problematic until he bumps into someone Cassiel knew. When he does, he unearths a life which was full of dark secrets, secrets which will forever change his life. They are secrets which will put him in danger, which will potentially put others in danger. Living someone's life without knowing what they were like is a pretty big decision to make. Cassiel (not Cassiel!) has to live with the expectation that he will be found out at every turn. Cassiel's mother may be pleased to see him, but the rest of the family aren't as excited, as Cassiel/not Cassiel finds out. The ending had me blinking several times at how the clues had been well hidden in the story. 

Final Conclusion
I'm  not sure who was shocked more by the twists, Cassiel or myself! 

1 comment:

Felicity Grace Terry said...

I've just realised that there are several of my followers who I haven't yet met or haven't visited for such a long time that I thought I'd stop by and say hello. Thanks for telling us about this book, I'm sure niece #2 (12) would enjoy it.