Genuine Fraud
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3.3 • 15 Ratings
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A “compulsively readable” (Entertainment Weekly) thriller told in reverse—a mind-bending vision of female friendship and betrayal that could only come from the author of the global phenomenon We Were Liars.
In development as an original streaming series starring and executive produced by The Summer I Turned Pretty’s Rain Spencer!
“A brilliant, twisty thriller—I loved it!”—Karen M. McManus, #1 New York Times bestselling author of One of Us Is Lying
“You will devour it.”—Gayle Forman, #1 New York Times bestselling author of If I Stay
Have you ever wanted to be someone else?
Imogen lives at the Playa Grande Resort in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. She spends her days working out in the hotel gym and telling other guests how she was forced out of Stanford.
But Imogen isn’t really Imogen. She’s Jule. And she’s on the run from something. Or someone. Which means . . . where is the real Imogen?
Rewind: Jule and Imogen are the closest of friends. Obsessed with each other, even. Imogen is an orphan, an heiress; she and Jule spend a summer together in a house on Martha’s Vineyard, sharing secrets they’d never reveal to another soul.
But that was months ago. Where is Immie now? And why is Jule using her name?
Don’t miss the We Were Liars series
WE WERE LIARS • FAMILY OF LIARS • WE FELL APART
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
When we meet 18-year-old Jule at a Mexican resort, nothing about her is straightforward. She’s on the run with unlimited funds, spy-movie instincts, and obscure motives for fleeing from cities around the world—and from anything like a normal life. E. Lockhart—author of the supremely creepy bestseller We Were Liars—is in top form as she plays with jump-cut storytelling and the cliché of the action hero (Jule compares herself to Batman) and gives us tantalizing glimpses of the scared teen’s real emotions. Genuine Fraud is so gripping and startling that we pretty much read the whole thing in one sitting.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Lockhart blends the privileged glamour of We Were Liars with a twisty, backward-running plot that's slick with cinematic violence. Calling to mind her own The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, she offers a shrewd critique of the roles traditionally available to female characters in literature and film. This striking exploration of the nature of identity revolves around the relationship between Jule and Immie, two similar-looking orphans. Jule a fierce physical fighter and self-taught expert at disguise will do whatever it takes to escape her bleak past. Wealthy and charismatic Immie, by contrast, wafts pleasantly through life, living on Martha's Vineyard while taking time off from college. Pushed into Immie's privileged inner circle via a case of mistaken identity, Jule is swept into an intense friendship and a series of events that play intentional tribute to Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley, among other literary precedents. A bracing pace, a slew of far-flung locations, and a storyline that runs mostly in reverse will keep readers on their toes, never entirely sure of what these girls are responsible for or capable of. Ages 12 up.)
