Flip by Martyn Bedford. Published by Walker Books
Imagine waking up to find that you are in someone else’s body. You’re still you but to everyone else, you’re the person whose body you took over. How do you deal with it? This is the extraordinary focus of Martyn Bedford’s debut teenage novel.
Alex is a teenager from London who can’t understand why the last time he was himself was a normal night in December. Six months later, he’s ‘Flip’ – Philip, a teenager from Leeds. The reader is drawn into Alex’s difficult experiences as ‘Flip’, sharing his struggle to become part of his ‘family’, putting up with Flip’s annoying set of cig smoking mates, as well as dealing with his two girlfriends. But these are mundane problems in the light of his real problem: will he ever be able to go back to his own body?
Flip contains different complex ideas which will engage any teenager looking for a challenging read: it combines psychological questions about what it means to be human.
This is a unique story which will definitely keep its readers absorbed.