{"id":20478,"date":"2026-02-09T07:00:43","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T12:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/?p=20478"},"modified":"2026-01-24T22:14:39","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T03:14:39","slug":"review-stunted-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/review-stunted-man\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: The Stunted Man by Ari Loeb"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"20477\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/review-stunted-man\/stunted-man-2\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/stunted-man.jpg?fit=625%2C1000&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"625,1000\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"stunted-man\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/stunted-man.jpg?fit=625%2C1000&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-20477\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/stunted-man.jpg?resize=219%2C350&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"cover of The Stunted Man\" width=\"219\" height=\"350\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/stunted-man.jpg?resize=219%2C350&amp;ssl=1 219w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/stunted-man.jpg?w=625&amp;ssl=1 625w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 219px) 85vw, 219px\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/bookshop.org\/p\/books\/the-stunted-man-ari-loeb\/cd27956a026a64e9?ean=9781736993958&amp;next=t\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong><em>The Stunted Man<\/em> by Ari Loeb<\/strong><\/a><br \/>\n<strong>Abandoned House (August 2024)<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>Reviewed by\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.danicadavidson.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Danica Davidson<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>The Stunted Man<\/em> is well-written, informative, funny, emotional, dark and engrossing. It follows Hollywood stuntman Lex Mercier, who is working on the film <em>Everyone\u2019s Frankenstein<\/em> \u2014 and finding plenty of horror in real life, nothing supernatural needed.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>While Hollywood is often portrayed to the public as being filled with glitz and glamour, Lex offers a more brutally honest behind-the-scenes portrait. He\u2019s in his forties, which is past the prime for stuntmen, who tend to be quite young. And his body is killing him from all sorts of injuries he\u2019s sustained over the years in his line of work.<\/p>\n<p>Lex is often blunt and colorful in his descriptions and doesn\u2019t sugarcoat his thoughts. His dry sense of humor and commentary on people are enjoyable, and the dialogue crackles and feels real. While Lex can come off as crude and difficult, he shows his softer side with the very real love he has for his elderly cat, Wolfblood (nicknamed Bloody). He will go out of his way to take care of her.<\/p>\n<p>One of the things that\u2019s really interesting about <em>The Stunted Man <\/em>is that the author, Ari Loeb (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/cemetery-dance-interview-ari-loeb\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">interviewed here<\/a>), has himself worked as a stuntman in Hollywood. Throughout the book Lex gives commentary on how movies are made and how stunts are performed, and this comes from Loeb\u2019s own knowledge. The tidbits are always interesting and never bog down the story with too much detail. On the contrary, they make it all the more real because you can picture how things are getting done.<\/p>\n<p><em>The Stunted Man <\/em>will make readers stop and think about what stunt people actually have to do and the dangers they put themselves in so we can be entertained. It will also make readers better understand the levels of skill and athleticism needed to pull off these accomplishments. The book does a good job of getting across Lex\u2019s various aches and pains, bringing empathy and giving understanding to why he continues to self-medicate with various substances, even when it\u2019s dangerous for him. But do you want to live in pain, or do you want some relief? With the reality of these stark choices, he makes his decisions.<\/p>\n<p>I listened to the audiobook version, narrated by Jason Douglas, whose previous credits include live-action horror titles like <em>The Walking Dead <\/em>(which Loeb also coincidentally worked on) and voiceover work, especially for anime like <em>Dragon Ball Super<\/em>. He perfectly captures Lex\u2019s voice and attitude. Whether you go for the audiobook or read the novel yourself, it\u2019s a great experience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Stunted Man by Ari Loeb Abandoned House (August 2024) Reviewed by\u00a0Danica Davidson The Stunted Man is well-written, informative, funny, emotional, dark and engrossing. It follows Hollywood stuntman Lex Mercier, who is working on the film Everyone\u2019s Frankenstein \u2014 and finding plenty of horror in real life, nothing supernatural needed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[80],"tags":[3297,767,79,3298],"class_list":["post-20478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-ari-loeb","tag-danica-davidson","tag-reviews","tag-the-stunted-man"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - 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