Review by Aleksandr, Year 8, King Edward’s School
Flipped! by Philip Caveney is an extraordinary novel of adventure about a modern-day boy called Flip exploring the marshes of Kent, until he stumbles upon something interesting… I couldn’t put it down, one chapter after the other, the pages flew by. The characters in the book are from the book by Charles Dickens called Great Expectations. This book really interested me, and I wanted to find out more about the original novel, and Flip’s adventures themselves. As I read on the ties started connecting, and the story was being put together. This gives a wider perspective on the Covid period and what some people around the world did to occupy themselves. Wonderful book and a great story. Massive recommendation.

Review by Rose, Year 11, Colchester County High School for Girls
Firstly, I thoroughly enjoyed reading the book, hooked on all the plot twists throughout. I personally preferred part one of the book to part two as I enjoyed reading about how the main character, Flip, worked his way around this new environment, meeting new people and experiencing new and supernatural events. My favourite character was Flip, I found his problem-solving skills very adept, and he was just a kind and caring character in general. On the other hand, I did not like Estella so much, I found her showing up out of the blue multiple times and interfering with Flip’s regular life to be quite intrusive and did not make her very appealing. Personally I wouldn’t want somebody doing that to me and threatening to tell my mum that I was not showing up at work.

It was also a very interesting read since I’ve never read Great Expectations, and I think that Flipped incorporated Dickens’ novel very well into the storyline, with Flip reading the book as he went along, and connecting the dots between the two realities. This made the plotline very exciting as the reader too was learning about Great Expectations along with Flip. In part two of the book however, I did find some of the concepts a bit hard to follow, especially after the time skip to when everyone is older and when Estella takes on the role of Flip’s dad’s partner, but nonetheless it was a great read. I know a little about the Victorian time period when Flip was transported into Great Expectations, and much about the modern-day period of Flip, since I went through the Covid lockdown too. I was given an insight into the harsher realities of the early 19th century, such as Pip being a blacksmith at such a young age and I found out that the average age for an apprenticeship during this time period was 14.

I would recommend this book to other students as I found it to be a light-hearted and enjoyable read, especially for those who have previously read Great Expectations and wanted to read something involving the same characters and similar plot.