Unfortunately I struggled to get into this book. Although I was intrigued by the storyline I didn't take to the main character and therefore found it a quite slow going. I gave it a go but in the end it just wasn't my cup of tea.

The synopsis had me intrigued. However when I started reading, it just didn't grip me like I thought it would. I did finish it though, but it took me a while, I found the chapters quite long.
Adam is an actor - his latest film is a hit, however there is a secret from drama school, The Conservatoire, attached to the film. The story unravels slowly of what happened all those years ago, while jumping to the present time.

Many thanks to Net Galley and Michael Joseph, Penguin Random House for an ARC of this book in exchange for a review.
Adam Sealey is an a or who strives for the perfect performance. Did I like his character? No. Did I like any of the characters? No
I definitely would not put this book in the category of a psychological thriller. I found it a laborious read, I constantly had to use kindle dictionary and found some parts boring and hard to follow.
I am sorry to say I persevered until half way through the book and then skipped to the last chapter, something I seldom do but Adam was boring me. I see the reviews are mixed , I am sorry this one was not for me.

Reading the blurb, this booked seemed like something I would enjoy so I was looking forward to reading it. Unfortunately, I had to DNF.

The book isn’t badly written but it does jump around between different characters and timelines and I just couldn’t get interested in the story and get a handle on what was going on. I did consider sticking with it but life’s too short.

There are so many characters mentioned. Adam, the main character seems determined to get an Oscar and his controversial former mentor, Jonathan, is using intensive methods to get Adam acting at his best.

I have no background or knowledge of acting at all, maybe if you do you would enjoy this book more but unfortunately it wasn’t for me.

The Actor is, unsurprisingly, focused on an actor, Adam Sealey. He is the sole narrator in our book, switching from the present, where he is on the verge of realising his life’s dream; to the past where he was shaped as an actor at a highly prestigious acting school. The Conservatoire, and it’s notable teacher, Jonathan Dors, are enthusiastic proponents of method acting.

Adam is the damaged product of his childhood. Aristotle’s quote, “Give me a child until he is 7, and I will show you the man” has never been more appropriate. While Adam’s brilliance is revered, his methods and behaviour are a huge cause for concern.

As the story progresses, we know there is something big coming, a traumatic event that will have long reaching effects for many. I found it compulsive reading, as I was desperate to learn what had transpired.

You can almost feel Adam’s and Jonathan’s brooding intensity seep through the pages into your skin. Rampant paranoia, professional jealousy and rivalry are rife. This book strips off the glamorous veneer of the acting world, and reveals so much ugliness and desperation beneath. Adam is a walking oxymoron, insecure, needy, with the possession of an underlying arrogance.

There is such an intensity to this book. The story is compelling, disturbing, dripping with dark obsession, but the jury is still out on whether I enjoyed it or not. The thought of using past trauma and pain as a currency, is alien to me. Everywhere you look in this book, there is tension.
I found the book to be a challenging to read, due to its emotional brutality. 4⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Not the book I was expecting from the grab lines advertising it!
At first I thought I wasn't going to make it to the end of The Actor as it seemed to be a very angst ridden account of a group of self obsessed young would be actors. However, as I continued reading the book became more compelling. I had no time for Adam and positively despised Jonathan but had to finish the book just to see what happened to the characters after the damage inflicted on them at the Church. Loved the twist at the end!
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read an advance copy. All opinions are my own.

Another January release to review, this time in the form of ‘The Actor’ by Chris MacDonald, a suspense filled novel about the acting industry.

To achieve greatness he must sacrifice everything. At long last, actor Adam Sealey has an Oscar win within his grasp, after giving the performance of a lifetime. Working with his controversial former mentor Jonathan, he has always believed in using method acting, the secret that all of the world’s greatest actors swear by. Digging into his darkest, most personal traumas, Adam can bring any role to life. Have the traumas he’s experienced in his life reached his limit though? When a message from the grave reaches him, is a secret from the past about to bring his world crashing down?

This is a fascinating insight into the world of acting and the lengths that actors can go to, using the method acting technique, becoming completely immersed in a character, often taking things to the extreme. I must admit I’ve never considered just how damaging this could be to a person, especially for young adults embarking into the world promising the reward of renowned glitz & glamour.

The book does have a bit of a slow start but this is necessary in ‘setting the scene’ for the explanation of the teaching methods, highlighting the demons that Adam’s character possesses. It is hard-hitting and there is a surprising twist reveal, without spoilers it is hard to detail further but there is definitely an element of misdirection thrown in to keep you reading. A great ending too, I was rooting for that to happen! It is a slow burn of a book but builds up to a great curtain call ending - without being too cliché!

I found this a very slow read and very difficult to get in to .I didn't really think it was a psychological thriller at all .As the title indicates it is about actors and particularly the thing called method acting which seems to me a very gruesome way of getting into a character .It is hard hitting and tells the story of the real acting world .Adam is the main character along with Jonathan neither very nice characters the only character I liked was Nina .Sorry I just didn't enjoy this book at all .Thank you to NetGalley for my ARC

Found this quite hard to finish, quite slow going for me and I nearly gave up, story OK but Adam is so difficult to like. Pleased I finished it as I hate to give up on a book but not the one for me

I found this book just not to my taste. I am interested in the field of acting but this particular acting college seemed psychologically damaging to its students, run as it was by a huge egotist. Didn’t finish it I’m sorry to say as I don’t often give up on books.

This book could be subtitled: Madness in the Method, as it covers the extremes of method acting. If you are fascinated by the world of acting, the complete self-absorption of actors and the way their lives can be a never-ending performance, this book is 100 per cent for you. Reading it feels like a very cinematic experience: intense and sometimes hard to look away.

A Woodsman cutting down his hanged wife; a barely adult man cutting down his hanged friend. The latter experience drives the realism of the former, for the young man, Adam Sealy, was a theatre student and the Woodsman is a character played by movie star Adam Sealy, twice nominated for an Oscar and now favourite to win one for this performance. Twenty years ago, at the “Conservatoire” theatre school in London, Adam was trained by Jonathan Dors in the Art of “Method Acting”, a totally immersive system in which the actor tries to become the character by, amongst other traumatic things, dredging up personal experiences and emotions to inform their performance. If this is totally successful then it is not a performance because the actor is no longer there – it is reality. Adam is a quintessential exponent of this Art, which has brought him great fame but at the expense of personal relationships of all kinds.
Using the suicide of his friend to empower his emotions at the suicide of his “wife” was the thing that would finally get him the Oscar, but it would be the reverse if the Academy and the viewing public realised. Fortunately, the death is not widely known, but Adam is becoming obsessed by it and by extension is beginning to question whether Johnathan’s method might actually be less a glittering prize and more a poisoned chalice. This feeling is being reinforced by two separate things: an online blogger is hinting at revealing the suicide, and Jonathan has just been suspended from the Conservatoire because of a scandal in which a young girl student, possibly breaking under the pressure of his tutelage, has disappeared.
This is flagged as a psychological thriller, the thriller elements being the resolution of the suicide, the disappearance, and the winning (or otherwise) of the Oscar. In a sense though, these elements are subservient to the psychological aspect: the deconstruction of a troubled, working class, son of an alcoholic mother; the construction of a tormented, isolated, aggrandised method actor; the collapse of certainty as the morality at the base of one’s life and achievements becomes questionable.
The writing is extremely powerful, almost hypnotic in its intensity at times. The reader is not just taken into the usual bizarre world of the theatre, but into the claustrophobic, oppressive, focused, almost monomaniacal mind-world of the method actor. Identifying with this character is a very disquieting experience. The other players in this tale, are well drawn but seem pale in comparison. Many of them, especially Jonathan, are not very likeable people. There are a lot of quotations, particularly from Shakespeare, which are used descriptively to highlight the action not just to season the prose. The dense text means that it is often a slow read, speeding up where the thriller elements are to the fore. Overall, it is a challenging read, not perfect, so 4.5 rounded up.
I would like to thank NetGalley, the publishers and the author for providing me with a draft proof copy for the purpose of this review.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book with no obligation to review.

4.5 stars. This is a terrific and absorbing read, a real page turner. It's the sort of book that leaves your head buzzing when you take a break from it, it's like coming up for air from a depth.

It's a meaty book with so much going on - an exploration of people's motives and ambitions interspersed with a detailed description of method acting and a mystery thrown in for good measure! My interest never flagged.

In particular, the scenes near the end in Hollywood crackle with tension and I was interested to note the homage to Adam's favourite actor (no spoilers though).

The characters are all very well drawn and rounded, I could picture them easily , even Nina's pleasant and cheerful parents who are very minor characters. I was never confused about who was who, the characters seemed very real to me and even the most out-there episodes seems entirely plausible and authentic. I was so drawn in that I never once stopped to wonder if any of the things the actors put themselves through and performed for their tutor, Jonathan, were entirely credible.

I will concede that I did not get swept away until after the opening pages which deal with a film the main character has made. i was a bit confused by those scenes but all becomes clear as you go through the book. The film was the catalyst for the whole mystery part of the book. I did not "solve" this mystery until shortly before the answer was revealed and it was real "oh wow" moment but entirely believable.

This would be a great book for discussions because there are so many things to think about - why people do what they do; do people self sabotage and if so, why? How far do you go to get what you want? Is doing nothing just as bad as performing a bad action?

The only reason this would fall short of a 5 for me is that although I very much enjoyed reading the book, I am not sure I would read it again.

This is a tightly written and intense psychological thriller based in the world of acting. The hero is acclaimed actor Adam Sealey, who is at the height of his fame and on the verge of receiving a long-awaited award after a period in rehab. He is battling with demons from his past, along with his adherence to the extreme method acting philosophy of his drama school, the acclaimed Conservatoire, and the influence of his mentor and author of that philosophy, Jonathan Dors. The narrative switches from past to present and gives insights to the extremes Adam is prepared to go to for his art and the defining event from his years at the Conservatoire that has caused him so much psychological damage. This is a compelling story, if at times somewhat cold.

Thanks to the author, the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review an advance cooy

I did try a couple of times to make this book work for me but have to give it up as a dnf,the writing is not for me and the story slow,but it has had some great reviews so am just sorry is not for me

The Actor by Chris MacDonald is a dark look behind the scenes of the supposedly glamorous world of acting and Hollywood. Described as a psychological thriller, this is a slow burn of a book that really immerses the reader in the mind of its central character, actor Adam Sealy who is on the verge of winning a desperately craved Oscar. The role that lead to this success has required him to reach back to the darkest night of his years as a drama student and has reunited him with his former teacher and mentor, Jonathan, the man who taught him everything he knows about the Method. For Adam the only way to give a truly great performance is to use the Method, to dig into the deepest tragedies and darkest moments of his past, something that almost cost him his life as well as his career. Reuniting with his former teacher after almost two decades may be good for his career but it is not doing his mental health any favours, and the secret that they share is now threatening to come to light, which is piling on the pressure. This film could end his career as easily as it could make it.
As I said this is something of a slow burn, so readers looking for fast paced action packed thrillers may find it a little too slow for their tastes, but if you enjoy a good character driven story this will be right up your alley. The story unfolds over two timelines, in the current day as Adam is campaigning for his Oscar while desperately trying to keep the secret of that night, and in the past as we see the development of the twisted relationship between Adam and Jonathan during drama school, and how it led up to the fateful night that would change Adam's life forever. I found myself really immersed in the story and I often felt slightly uneasy while reading, which to me is the hallmark of a thriller that is doing its job well.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.

Adam is an actor that follows the Method taught to him by instructor Jonathan during his years learning to be an actor in the Conservatoire. The Method consists of... well, some sort of "using your experience to get in the character and give a real performance", but Jonathan pushes the students to a breaking point - bordering abuse and abuse of power.
The book is told in the present, where Adam might win an Oscar for his recent work in a movie, and the past, when Adam was a student in the Conservatoire. There's (of course) a dark secret (which is pretty much spelled out from the beginning; no major twists there) and Adam is now being accused of using the death of a kid he studied with for his own benefit. Present Adam and his team try to figure out who is behind the "blackmail".

The writing was ok, albeit slow at times, and the book could have been shorter. The characters were not particularly interesting to me and Adam lacked charisma, so I did struggle to keep interested in the story.

An enjoyable and well-constructed psychological thriller. It's a slow-burn, as psychological thrillers go, but that's not a criticism. MacDonald's narrative style and inclusion of methods of acting is a clever embellishment and this builds suspense leading to the inevitable (but well-planned and narratively successful) twists. Recommended reading for psychological thriller fans. My grateful thanks to the publisher and to NetGalley for the ARC.

Life appears to be going well for Method actor Adam Sealey, an Oscar frontrunner on the back of another stellar performance in his latest film. However, thanks to an internet tormentor, demons from the past are reawakened and Adam is determined to find out who this person is. Through a series of flashbacks, we learn about Adam’s experiences at drama school and the gruelling methodology foisted upon the students. An enjoyable novel with plenty of twists and turns and interesting ruminations on how far the artist should go in pursuit of perfection in their art.

This was a fun, pacy and compelling read. I was particularly fascinated by the method acting backdrop which was intriguing and thrilling in equal measure. .

I thought the dual timelines were well done although for some reason I felt I gravitated more toward the past than the present.

I guessed the “twist” but it didn’t spoil my reading experience. However I did feel slightly frustrated by the second twist chucked in at the end which felt more for drama than for reader experience and I’m not sure it was needed.

If you enjoy a good page turning thriller then I can highly recommend.