Genuine Fraud by E. Lockhart
Review by Lauren
Source: copy from ALA17; all opinions are my own
Official Summary (add on Goodreads): 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.
Review: I loved E. Lockhart’s novel We Were Liars, but it’s one of those books that people seemed to either love or hate. I imagine that Genuine Fraud will have a similar reaction, though I have to admit I’m a bit more ambivalent. I liked the book but it’s not something I loved. It was a fairly quick book that kept me reading and wanting to know more. The book is actually told in reverse order, which made me think of the movie Memento. This is a style that might annoy some, but I liked it. I thought it was a clever way to revealing things little by little so readers were always kind of wondering about the main character, Jule.
Genuine Fraud: Memento Meets YA Fiction #bookreview Click To TweetThis is a book full of complex characters. None of them are all that great of people – though some are certainly better than others. There is romance, jealously, murder, betrayal. It’s packed full of suspense and mystery. It’s not a long book by any means, so it’s easy to finish this one in a single day. Chances are you’ll want to, so you can figure out what exactly is going on sooner than later.
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at least you don’t do like everyone else there! I didn’t know about this one
It sounds interesting. I am always in the search of new books to read. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for sharing. I have such a long list of books to read but always enjoy reading reviews 🙂
Great review Lauren, and sometimes the reverse order approach is refreshing.
This sounds like an interesting read – I don’t know I’ve ever read a book that goes backwards. I do enjoy the movie Memento though, so I might be ok with that. The characters definitely sound intriguing!
I am always down for a new book to read!
I read We Were Liars in a day because I just had to know what happened! The ending disappointed me though. I love YA novels and would give this one a read. Thanks for the review!
Brooke
pumps and push-ups
We Were Liars was gorgeously written but it wasn’t memorable and it was a polariazing book for sure. I am curious about this one, but not itching to read it. I will put it in the maybe pile.
I liked We Were Liars and love the idea of it being told backwards so I am sure I’ll check it out. Great review!
I still need to read We Were Liars. I’m not sure how I would feel about a story being told in reverse order. It does sound interesting though. Great review!
I thought We Were Liars was fun, and I think I blew through it because it was fairly short and just the way it was written, it was kind of a fast read. Sounds like this one might be somewhat similar? I might give this a shot.
I’ve started reading this one in fact, but not read the previous one by her. I’m curious now bc I’ve read reviews with such different reactions to it.
I love books like this. None quite good. Some betters than other. I am looking forward to reading this one.
I grabbed the ARC of this from the bookstore where I worked, but more to try to trade for something else that I would read. Haven’t read this author yet, because I heard such extremes about the other book I couldn’t make up my mind to pick it up. Great review though!
I was kind of ambivalent about We Were Liars so I can’t decide if I should pick this one up or not. The way it’s told in reverse does intrigue me, so I might.
I agree with you, I think this is probably one of those books that people will love or hate. I wasn’t a huge fan of We Were Liars, but I really didn’t like Genuine Fraud. Like, I didn’t *hate* it but I was kind of bored? Which is really not what I want to be when reading a mystery/thriller hahha. I am glad you liked this one more than I did thougH! Great review 😀
I liked this book and definitely was HOOKED on reading it because I had to know if what I thought was going on actually WAS what was going on. And it was, which I was kind of disappointed about because I wanted to be surprised. Anyway, it was a cool book and I think it was good that it was short– otherwise, I don’t think I would’ve lost interest after a while. I also didn’t like one single character in the book, so there’s that…..
Great review!! I agree that I think this one is going to be polarizing!
I liked We Were Liars too. I’ve mostly read negative reviews for this one but I think her writing isn’t for everyone.
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