Another exciting thriller on identity and privilege from E. Lockhart
At the Young Adult Literature Conference (YALC) this year, Hot Key Books pulled off a stunt where a number of people swanned around in identical wigs and sunglasses passing out samplers for Genuine Fraud. I was immediately intrigued by this story of dual identities.
Hot off the heel of finishing We Were Liars, I was determined to spend some quality time with Genuine Fraud. The day of my PIP assessment, I decided that I should spend the afternoon with some escapism, and it seemed that a novel rooted in the main character's desire for escapism was the sort of meta level I needed.
Jule is living in a hotel in Mexico, working out and drinking diet coke with a shot of vanilla syrup which is the grossest sounding drink I've ever heard of. It's only when someone called Nao shows up, suddenly befriends her on a treadmill, that things start to slip. Jule introduces herself as Imogen, encourages Donovan the bartender to help her escape and flees the hotel. But who is Jule? Who is Imogen? And why is she so afraid of being found.
Genuine Fraud is a novel told in reverse. Earlier this year I thoroughly enjoyed Julie Cohen's Together, which also employs this structure to reveal secrets. Having spoken to Julie about it, I can appreciate the artistry and sheer amount of post its it takes to write a narrative in reverse that reveals secrets to the reader that the characters have known up until this point.
I daren't explain any more than this for fear of giving away any plot; I went into this novel fairly dark and chose to not even read the blurb, with only my knowledge of the Hot Key Books stunt giving away any inkling of the book's plot. However, Lockhart has an excerpt of the book available to read here.
E. Lockhart's thrillers demand attention and are best read over a couple of hours, preferably somewhere quiet so you can loudly swear when key plot twists are just casually brought up with increasing intensity as the novel progresses. Genuine Fraud is a rollercoaster of a novel littered with literary references, unreliable narrators, privilege and orphans.
What to read next:
See What I Have Done by Sarah Schmidt
We Were Liars by E Lockhart
Thank you to Reader's First and Hot Key Books for sharing this copy with me.
Hot off the heel of finishing We Were Liars, I was determined to spend some quality time with Genuine Fraud. The day of my PIP assessment, I decided that I should spend the afternoon with some escapism, and it seemed that a novel rooted in the main character's desire for escapism was the sort of meta level I needed.
Jule is living in a hotel in Mexico, working out and drinking diet coke with a shot of vanilla syrup which is the grossest sounding drink I've ever heard of. It's only when someone called Nao shows up, suddenly befriends her on a treadmill, that things start to slip. Jule introduces herself as Imogen, encourages Donovan the bartender to help her escape and flees the hotel. But who is Jule? Who is Imogen? And why is she so afraid of being found.
Genuine Fraud is a novel told in reverse. Earlier this year I thoroughly enjoyed Julie Cohen's Together, which also employs this structure to reveal secrets. Having spoken to Julie about it, I can appreciate the artistry and sheer amount of post its it takes to write a narrative in reverse that reveals secrets to the reader that the characters have known up until this point.
I daren't explain any more than this for fear of giving away any plot; I went into this novel fairly dark and chose to not even read the blurb, with only my knowledge of the Hot Key Books stunt giving away any inkling of the book's plot. However, Lockhart has an excerpt of the book available to read here.
E. Lockhart's thrillers demand attention and are best read over a couple of hours, preferably somewhere quiet so you can loudly swear when key plot twists are just casually brought up with increasing intensity as the novel progresses. Genuine Fraud is a rollercoaster of a novel littered with literary references, unreliable narrators, privilege and orphans.
What to read next:
See What I Have Done by Sarah Schmidt
We Were Liars by E Lockhart
Thank you to Reader's First and Hot Key Books for sharing this copy with me.