Title: Genuine Fraud
Author: E. Lockhart
Type: Fiction
Genre: YA, Contemporary, Mystery
Imprint: Delacorte Press
Publisher: Penguin Random House
Date published: September 5, 2017
Format: Hardcover
Page Count: 272
Source: Publisher

A physical copy of this book was kindly provided by the publisher, in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis: 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.

– MY REVIEW –

After finishing this book, I had to take a day or so to properly process how I feel about this book, what I think about it, and what I want to say about it. Even now, I’m not entirely sure, but since this book has already been out for almost 20 days, I didn’t want to wait any longer. Here goes.

This book was highly addictive! If I hadn’t been busy, I would have read it in one sitting. Alas, because I was busy for most of the day, and was only able to pick this up at 8 pm…1 am rolled around and I couldn’t keep my eyes open anymore, or I would have finished it. I am not sure if I would call this book fast-paced, although it definitely wasn’t slow. Lockhart tells the story of what happened in Genuine Fraud in a backward manner, which is a storytelling method that I don’t usually enjoy when used in TV shows, but definitely enjoy when used in books. Don’t ask me why. Anyway, this knowing of where the story ends up, really makes you want to see how it got to that point.

The story in Genuine Fraud is very inspired, and I would say…almost based, on another book which I have read in school twice before, and which Lockhart does mention in her author’s note (among others). I would say what book this is here, but I’m afraid that for those of you who know the plot of this other book, it would be a spoiler for Genuine Fraud. Before requesting this book, I actually came across it on Goodreads, and because I figured that I wouldn’t read it anytime soon (because I thought that it had already come out earlier this year) I read some of the reviews on there. A good amount of these reviews do mention this other book, so that was a bit of a spoiler for me since I know this other book fairly well. But despite this, I was still able to enjoy Genuine Fraud! I maybe wasn’t as surprised when certain things happened, but there was still enough other events, character development, and details which were new, and which kept me entertained.

The characters in this book are very difficult for me to discuss, because I neither loved nor hated any of them. I felt a mixture of both emotions, which for me can lead to a bit of confusion. The main character in particular, I had some very mixed feelings for. Often I would shake my head at her thoughts or actions, and then other times I’d be cheering for her to get away with some horrible things. This book really made me question myself as a person as well, due to these things it made me feel.

Writing-wise, this book was clearly written, easy to read, easy to get into. It also had a way of hooking me, and kept me turning pages pretty late into the night. The timeline sometimes had me flipping back to see where exactly in the story I was located (as its indicated underneath each chapter), just due to it going backwards and sometimes covering some things that happen before something else. It’s hard to explain, but you’ll understand if/when you read this book.

Overall, this book was quite thrilling, and like I said a few times before, hooked me from the start. It would have kept me reading until the end on the very same day, too, if my eyes had cooperated and stayed open. A very addictive read, that will have you questioning the black and white that is bad and good, as well as the gray area in between.

– ABOUT THE AUTHOR –

E. Lockhart is the author of Genuine Fraud, We Were Liars, The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, The Boyfriend List and several other novels.
website: www.emilylockhart.com
Liars site: www.wewereliars.com
blog: www.theboyfriendlist.com
Twitter: elockhart

– PURCHASE LINKS –

THANK YOU FOR READING MY REVIEW! HAVE YOU READ THIS BOOK? WHAT DID YOU THINK? AND IF YOU HAVEN’T READ IT YET, DO YOU WANT TO, OR NOT? HOW COME? LET ME KNOW YOUR THOUGHTS IN THE COMMENTS BELOW!