I thank the publisher and NetGalley for an advance review copy in return for a fair review. I really enjoyed this novel which relates the career of a intensely method-style actor [the obvious parallel is Daniel Day-Lewis] from drama school to Oscar winner and the aftermath of a hidden secret. I am sure my enjoyment was enhanced by my knowledge of "Hamlet", a production of which is central to the plot. The central character is beautifully conveyed, although not particularly likeable, the reader can appreciate his struggles. I highly recoommend this book and will look forward to the author's next one.

I was really looking forward to reading this as I love psychological thrillers & I adore the theatre/films. I thought this book would be an excellent marriage but no. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a very good read but it isn’t a psychological thriller. What it is is a deep dive into the life of one of the main characters & what a ride it is.

Set in alternating timelines & written as scenes rather than chapters, we are introduced to Oscar nominated Adam, as he is riding the crest of a wave. But someone wants to bring him down & a social media campaign hints at his involvement with a missing girl. His past is gradually revealed as well as the tortuous time he had at his drama school, at the hands of his vain & narcissistic tutor, Jonathan.

A tense read which reveals the dark & murky world which can exist behind the smiles of performing. A brilliant book which, although not what I was expecting, kept me gripped. Read it.

Wow! What an incredible novel. I have just finished reading it and am emotionally exhausted. This seemed so real and, although extreme, I wonder if these pressures are still placed on today’s drama students. This is superbly written with wonderful characters - particularly the lead whose angst is palpable. This is a must read book!

Adam Sealey,, the Actor is a tortured self occupied individual. He is desperate to win an Oscar and in the year he has the best chance of doing so he could have his chances ruined by an event in the past. An event that happened when he was a student at drama school. As we delve into the past we begin to understand Adam's obsession with Method acting. His mentor Jonathan and his ex Nina are well developed characters in Adams life
It is difficult to identify with Adam or Jonathan and getting to the secret of his past takes some time . The twist at the end is well done.



I

This wasn’t for me, it was too much of a slow burn. I was intrigued by the premise of the book but psychological thriller it was not, I persevered until the end however it was tough going.

Great book, total page turner, will be recommending to everyone. Fantastic, superb read, couldn’t put it down.

I found this title a little confusing at first and was not sure it was going to engage me BUT as I tuned in to the time frames and began to understand how Adam Sealey became his characters in his films I became fully engaged.
The main characters were fully explored - Jonathan Dors would stop at nothing to get the best from the actors he trained. He was happy to pit his students against one another and would stop at nothing to draw out what he considered to be the best method of achieving what he wanted.
It seems that the less talented students like Nina can see how much damage Jonathan causes and tries to stop the damage that is done.
This became quite a compulsive read.
Many thanks to Netgalley/Chris MacDonald/Michael Joseph, Penguin for a digital copy of this title. All opinions expressed are my own.

I loved the unique and interesting setting of the method acting world for this novel. It made for a plot filled with drama. It delves into the dark side of the controversial technique being taken too far as well as the competitive nature of drama schools. Elements of The Actor reminded me of the movie Black Swan which does a similar thing but in the ballet world. A truly addictive, thrilling read!

Firstly, as if often the case these days, The Actor is not a thriller, more a psychological drama.
Adam Sealy is a successful actor who has yet to win an Oscar, the pinnacle of success in his eyes. Finally, it is within his grasp after working on a controversial film with his old mentor from his drama school. Jonathan is a great believer in the method and has forced Adam to relieve a traumatic incident from the final days of his drama school career to produce an astonishing performance.
However, it appears that someone else knows what happened that dark night and is ready to expose him.
I really didn’t love this book, Adam Sealy is not an easy character to like and the book is narrated by him, both in the past and present. This gives a very narrow lens, every character is skewed by his opinion, his values. He’s really quite boring and self obsessed. You have to wonder why anyone would want to spend time with him. I found the drama school timeline more interesting than the current day. My son is an actor and went to one of the schools that’s currently getting investigated, so I know Chris MacDonald isn’t a million miles off in his description of what goes on in them. It’s very readable but I just didn’t care enough about the characters to really want to race to the end.

Adam Sealey is on the verge of attaining the prize that all actors aspire to win. An Oscar. His latest film has already won him notice and accolades, worth it even considering what it cost him. You see, he subscribes to what they call" the method" where you reach inside yourself to bring your own personal trauma and experiences to give life to the part you are playing. Dangerous and scary stuff but it is what he was taught many years ago by his former mentor Jonathan Dors who he also worked with during his hopefully Oscar winning performance.
But that past, his drama school days, were not without other controversy. But that was all back in the past, as painful as it was at the time. Until the day that Adam receives a message. A threat. Something from his past, something he was trying to forget, something he has worked hard to leave behind. Something he did. His darkest secret. Well... someone knows, and they are about to tell all...
As we follow Adam in the present, the near past and the time at drama school, we start to get a feel for the man he is. For what drives him. And at what expense. He is a very complex character and we see how that was built up during his time at drama school. Especially around the manipulation and competition that was there. If that stuff really does go on, to that extreme, it's terribly shocking. And the "method" well, isn't that all a bit intense? And easily taken to extreme, which is it, often.
And the secret in the past that is hinted at and guessed at all the way through. One that has been with him since it happened. Affecting him. But at the same time, he also used it to hone his craft.
It's hard hitting. No punches were pulled, and often graphic in nature. It shocked me on occasion. and I'm not one easily shocked. As you can imagine, it's character driven and the characters are all delicious and all play their parts very well indeed. It's toxic and compelling and shows the length people can go and the costs to them and others. It's slow burn but it gets under your skin quite quickly. It's a ride you'll want to get off but you're strapped in for the duration...
My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

A couple of stanzas from a Fran Landesman poem that I love:

Actors are simply delightful
They give all they have to their art
Don’t say they are vicious and spiteful
They’re really just children at heart

and then

Actors have voices like thunder
And oceans and oceans of gall
Right now I’m beginning to wonder
If actors are people at all.

c. Fran Landesman from Invade My Privacy

For a large part of my early career I worked with actors and I loved that experience. Actors are such driven characters. Partly it’s because they have to live on their inner strength if they’re going to make a living in the business at all but a truly great performance from an actor will stay with you forever, embedded in your emotional core.

In The Actor Chris MacDonald shows how well he understands the actor’s drive for that ultimate performance and his central character, Adam Sealey, devotes everything he has to achieving the most realistic performance he can muster.

The Actor is a dual timeline story, beginning with the present when actor Adam Sealey is on the cusp of achieving the ultimate actor’s accolade – an Oscar. As he waits for the ceremony he is abruptly pulled back into the past to recall everything that has gone before and to understand what impact his training and behaviour has had on those around him.

Central to his success, Adam believes, was his drama school mentor, Jonathan Dors. Dors is an unlikeable character. He drove his students hard, goading them and pitting them against each other in order to get the best performances.

A proponent of method acting he drove his students to recapture and relive an event from their past and to pull out truthful feelings from that; to rise to an explosive moment, at will, in a scene. He challenged his students at the London Conservatoire to use experiences from their own lives to motivate their characters’ behaviour.

As we look back on Adam’s life we understand his background, the life events that shaped him and how he is willing to go the extra mile to achieve his heart’s desire; eschewing everything else, even the people closest to him. Adam himself gave up his likeability to strive for the best performance.

In this he was egged on by Jonathan Dors whose cruelty as a tutor is both manipulative and excessive. Even so, ro this day Adam still relies on him to get his best performance onto the screen. It is his past at the Conservatoire that Adam has to relive, when a secret from that time threatens to bring down all the success he has worked so hard for.

Verdict: Chris MacDonald has written an incredibly raw and emotive psychological thriller. His characters are often truly unlikeable, but this is like watching a car crash – you just can’t tear your eyes away. MacDonald strips away the glamour of Hollywood and leaves the pain starkly in front of us. This is a bleak, tension fuelled read from a writer who understands both his characters and the craft of acting. It is raw, intense, powerful and compelling.

I recently picked up ‘The Actor’ a new thriller, after being influenced by some fantastic reviews, and I had high hopes for it. However, despite my enthusiasm, the book did not meet my expectations.

I must mention that the book is not poorly written in any way. The plot revolves around wealthy privilege, jealousy within the acting industry, lies, secrets and morally corrupt characters, which offer so much potential. However, something was missing, and I cannot pinpoint what that is.

Perhaps the very slow start played a part in the lack of enjoyability, or maybe it was the lack of connection to any of the characters. Whatever it is, the book did not have the impact I hoped for.

That said, I still recommend giving it a try. Just don't expect it to blow you away. I'm confident other readers will enjoy it, provided they approach it without too much anticipation.

I tried to like this book and I liked the current time thread more than the past thread but in the end I couldn't be bothered to finish it. I got to 70% and just didn't even care to read the last chapter to see what the ending was.

I chose this book because I was interested in learning more about method acting, where actor live in character whilst preparing and delivering a role.
Adam grew up wanting to act and attends The Conservatoire, a drama school. He meets teacher, Jonathan, who teaches an extreme version of "the Method" and who pushes his students to relive past traumas to influence performance, sometimes leading to the student's trauma.
Told as Adam has just finished a film where Jonathan has been his advisor. When he receives a disturbing phone call he is reminded of an incident from his time at The Conservatoire.
Sounded promising, but I really found this story dragged. Adam himself is so self absorbed that he uses and discards anyone around him, justifying himself as it's OK to get the performance. You really don't want him to get the awards that he craves. It takes 2/3 of the story to find out what happened the school and then the ending was great.

This book had lots of promise but ultimately, I found it to be pretty plodding for the most part with a cast of horrible characters (Nina excepted), in whose lives I had no stake whatsoever. I debated abandoning the book at 50% but limped to the finish line.

Adam Sealey, a tortured thespian, is on the brink of Oscar success but an event from his past when he was a student at the Conservatoire in London threatens to pull down the house of cards and ruin him.

We delve into Adam’s past and his obsession with method acting. We spend time with Jonathan, an unstable genius (read: sociopath) and mentor to Adam. We meet Nina, a former girlfriend who Adam loved but who played second fiddle to Adam’s Hamlet. We get to know a cast of secondary characters including Patrick, a dashing Irish Paul Mescal type whose fate is intertwined with Adam’s.

It’s hard to muster up much enthusiasm for any of it. Adam is so conceited and horrible, I really had no interest in his redemption arc. This might appeal more to drama students who love thrillers but for me, it needed an injection of pace and humour and a lot less pretension to elevate it to a decent thriller. 2/5 ⭐️

This was a thrilling read. A mystery set in the world of acting, this novel is a deep, dark dive into the world of acting, from drama school exploits to awards ceremonies. Through the story of Adam Sealey, who at drama school said acting was the love of his life, we follow one actor's life viewed just as he is on the cusp of a possible Oscar win.

While there is a mystery at the heart of the novel, which is well hidden and carefully revealed, it is the insight into the actor's mind that I found most compelling about this novel. The detail of the actor's innermost thoughts as he struggles with self-esteem in a drama school run by the enigmatic Jonathan - a mentor whose response: 'felt like being touched by God'. It allows a fascinating insight into the personal toll involved in method-acting, the reality of awards ceremonies, and the value placed on different awards. Acting is defined well here; 'to destroy the artifice of the self and be reborn', and this outlines the protagonist's journey very well.

As an Irish reader, I want to call out the stereotyping of the Irish family. A talented actor, high-ranking politician and a professional rugby player as three siblings? There are other sports played in Ireland and other professions in most families. And, of course, no Irish family in literature seems to be complete without at least one alcoholic. I found this a lazy characterisation of some minor characters, and it took away from my enjoyment of the novel.

Overall though, this is a compelling read on many levels and thank you to Penguin and Netgalley for the ARC

The Actor by Chris MacDonald is the first book I have read by the author, but it won't be the last. Adam Sealey as worked hard for the career he has and is within reach of his ultimate goal. But in order to achieve his goal he has to invoke his most horrific experience. I enjoyed this book, but felt that it could have been more pacey. It was hard to get into the book due to it being a slow burn.

This is the first book I’ve read by Chris MacDonald and I really enjoyed this one. It’s dramatic and tense and draws you into the story.
It’s told in dual timelines, the present where Adam is in line for an award for his recent work in a movie and the past, when Adam was a student in the Conservatoire.
I enjoyed the writing style which is beautifully done and the storyline which explores obsession, guilt and power.
It is very well written with good descriptions of the emotions of the actor.
Overall, an enjoyable psychological thrilling read with some surprising twists to keep you reading. Recommend.
With thanks to #NetGallery and @Michaeljbooks for an eARC of #TheActor in exchange for a honest review. All opinions are my own.
Book publishes 18th January 2024.

After a controversial career so far, Adam Sealey's role in 'Woodsman' has brought him within an inch of a long-awaited Oscar. Adam is sure he owes it all to his former mentor, Jonathan, a teacher at The Conservatoire, who champions 'the method' or method acting: where an actor uses their darkest secrets & traumas to tap into that depth of emotion for the role. However, Jonathan has always been controversial & when Adam discovers that one of his current pupils has gone missing after suffering a mental breakdown, it brings back memories of a death from Adam's time at the school.

The narrative alternates between Adam's current acting career & back during his time at The Conservatoire. Adam gradually falls under the sway of Jonathan, who pits the pupils against each other for the lead roles. Adam is one of the most affected & he lets it turn him into a self-obsessed a**hole quite frankly. This cut-throat competition & the depth of trauma-mining they are expected to do eventually leads to tragedy. If you're looking for a fast-paced read with plenty of action, then look elsewhere - this is definitely a slow burn book. None of the characters (save perhaps Nina) are very likeable but something keeps you reading. 3.5 stars (rounded up)

TWs: self-harm, mental health issues, alcohol & drug use.

My thanks to NetGalley & publishers, Penguin Random House/Michael Joseph, for the opportunity to read an ARC.

This is a very dark thriller, but not one that has a fast pace. It is an amble through the life of actor Adam Sealey. The story flicks back and forth between past and present and gradually fills in the answers to the questions that have been building.

Adam trained as a method actor, which involves getting into character and remaining in character, this is something his tutor Jonathan wants. To feel what the character feels and then express it to the audience so they believe the character and the actor are one person. This involves going deep into Adam's self and exploring his fears and his emotions. This is something that involves laying yourself open, and being vulnerable and not everyone agrees with the extremes that Adam or some others will go.

The story goes back to when Adam was a student, learning the trade and the different styles of acting, movement and skills required to be an actor. It is through these sections that you realise and start to learn how destructive this style of acting can be. It does have tragic consequences.

The present-day is one that Adam is looking forward to, being short-listed for an Oscar is a dream and something that actors aspire to. This also involves more media coverage, interviews and appearances, one of which involves him going back to the college where he learnt his acting trade.

This is a thriller that gradually increases in tension and suspense. Having the answers slipped in over the course of the book makes the story intriguing. Trying to please his tutor and get some form of recognition from him involves Adam going to some interesting extremes and lengths. What makes this a psychological thriller is the way Adam is manipulated and it is this process that makes it such an intriguing and multilayered read.

The author does a fabulous job with Adam and shows the murky and vitriolic world behind the scenes and the glamour of the screen and its stars.

This is one for those who like a slower thriller and one that is very much character-led. A wonderful book with some disturbing scenes. It is one I would recommend reading.