8 February 2018

Review #699: Genuine Fraud by E. Lockhart



My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“A liar is always lavish of oaths.”

----Pierre Corneille



E. Lockhart, the New York Times bestselling author, has penned an interesting young adult part-thriller and part-contemporary book called, Genuine Fraud that revolves around a teenage orphan girl, who is on the run, and in probably impersonating myriad identities, but why is she on the run? And for that, you need to trust the author as well as the story and not compare with some other book from where the author has found her inspiration. So kindly respect that and let's stop comparing the two and two, and rather talk about this book in particular. Debates can be taken up elsewhere, review is not the right place to talk about it.


Synopsis:

From the author of the unforgettable New York Times bestseller We Were Liars comes a masterful new psychological suspense novel--the story of a young woman whose diabolical smarts are her ticket into a charmed life. But how many times can someone reinvent themselves? You be the judge.

Imogen is a runaway heiress, an orphan, a cook, and a cheat.
Jule is a fighter, a social chameleon, and an athlete.
An intense friendship. A disappearance. A murder, or maybe two.
A bad romance, or maybe three.
Blunt objects, disguises, blood, and chocolate. The American dream, superheroes, spies, and villains.
A girl who refuses to give people what they want from her.
A girl who refuses to be the person she once was.



Jules, is a teenage orphan and is on the run, from a woman who claims to be a sad, lonely tourist in the hotel where Jules is hiding away from the world. But why the hell a teenager is running away from authorities? Has she committed a felony? Well to unravel that, we need to time travel back into the year when Jules and Imogen, an heiress to a great empire and fortune, met for the first time and became best of best friends. But sadly her friendship with Imogen has a lot of grey layers that neither Imogen's boyfriend or her parents could ever guess or imagine, and with Imogen's suicide and her boyfriend suspicion that it wasn't a suicide, has forced Jules to be on the run and especially for impersonating her dead girlfriend for safety. Although. little did she knew that her life would get so tangled up in the worst possible way in the messed up world of her dead bestie, Imogen?

This is the first time that I read any book by this author, even though her previous book was a bestseller and made a lot of positive noise in the literary world. Maybe, I will look her previous book up now that I'm so impressed by the author's powerful and intense storytelling process. I wouldn't say that I loved it, but I liked it a lot that felt quite unique and charming in its own way. Kind of addictive, you may say!

This book has got a complex plot with so many twists and turns and most above all, the author has "Benjamin-buttoned" up her whole story by narrating it in the reverse order. Its pretty cool and the readers will gradually form a clear notion about the protagonist's real identity, in a slow motion, and that is good, since the protagonist slowly and eventually gets under the skins of the readers of this book.

The author's writing style, like I said earlier, is one-of-a-kind and is extremely coherent, laced with light-hearted emotions and with a slight essence of thrill and suspense that will keep the readers glued to the pages of this book pretty much the entire length of the novel. The narrative style of the author is really eccentric and that can be quite baffling at times for some readers, otherwise, its eloquent and is laced evocatively. The pacing is really fast, although I felt the story is lacking a bit of depth in the second half of the story line.

The characters are really interesting, quite realistic and are depicted with their flaws and authenticity to make them look relatable in the eyes of her readers. The main character, Jules is an energetic young woman with lots of complexity and identity crisis of her own, yet despite of her shortcomings, she manages to shine like a hero through the story. Yes, the limelight is always on Jules and trust me, you'd love her by the end of the book. Her imperfections and impulsive attitude is bound to make the readers fall for her. Rest of the characters could have been well explored or portrayed through Jules' POV only.

In a nutshell, this one is a complicated psychological thriller, which might be slightly easier for seasoned crime readers to guess away the climax, yet for the rest of the readers, this book can really enthrall their grey matter.


Verdict: An engrossing YA psycho thriller that you need to look out for!

Courtesy: Thanks to the publishers from Bloomsbury India for giving me an opportunity to read and review this book
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Author Info:
I am the author of Genuine Fraud, We Were Liars,  Fly on the Wall, Dramarama, The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks and the Ruby Oliver quartet: The Boyfriend List, The Boy Book,  The Treasure Map of Boys, and Real Live Boyfriends. How to Be Bad was co-written with Lauren Myracle and Sarah Mlynowski.
Disreputable History was a Printz Award honor book, a finalist for the National Book Award, and recipient of the Cybils Award for best young adult novel. We Were Liars is a New York Times bestseller. It  won the Goodreads Choice Award and was Amazon's #1 YA novel of 2014. Genuine Fraud is a Times bestseller as well.
I have a doctorate in English literature from Columbia University. My field was 19th-century British novel.  In 2013 I chaired the committee on Young People's Literature for the National Book Awards. I currently teach creative writing at Hamline University’s low-residency MFA program in Writing for Children.
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