Genuine Fraud
Ratings44
Average rating3
A genuine rip off of The Talented Mr Ripley paired with a generous dose of cringe.
[b:Genuine Fraud 33843362 Genuine Fraud E. Lockhart https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1503003099l/33843362.SY75.jpg 54780211]I confess. I'm one of those people. I judge a book by it's cover. Well, in a good way of course! If the cover appeals to me then I will read the blurb and see if the story appeals as well. That was the case with Genuine Fraud. That cover is so eye-catching that I secretly hoped the blurb would be ‘my kind of thing'. Although today someone told me covers aren't always a safe bet. I will say my gambles have paid off lately go me. As you're reading my review of Genuine Fraud I think it's safe to say it ticked the right boxes! And what a wonderfully fun read it was. Yes...it's a little dark, a little murderous but you can't help but immerse yourself in this fast-paced, thrilling tale. I enjoyed the aspects of the story I feel like it adds to the story. The first thing to say is that the story is told in reverse. The reader starts at the beginning of the book with chapter 18. Towards the end of the novel, you find a chapter 19 which fills in a few of the blanks. I don't think I have read a book presented in this format before and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was exciting and different, each chapter revealing a little more of what actually happened to the characters. I was questioning everything. I believed no one. Wonderfully compulsive.I've seen a number of mixed reviews for this book. Many of the readers have previously read one or more of the author's novels. I don't fall into that category and E. Lockhart was a brand new author to me. From what I've seen, Genuine Fraud is quite different to the author's other works and maybe that's the problem? Starting Genuine Fraud with no previous experience may have helped me. I've also seen many comparisons to The Talented Mr. Ripley. Well, here's a bombshell for you, I've neither read the book nor seen the film! I will be totally honest with you now and confess to absolutely no knowledge of the plot.. Maybe that helped me enjoy this book a little more than others, maybe I missed a number of subtle nuances others got.Would I recommend this book? I would. I managed to read Genuine Fraud in a day. It would have been fairly easy to read it in less time than that had I not had other obligations. I enjoyed my first experience of E. Lockhart's writing and I'm looking forward to adding We Were Liars to the TBR in the future. It's a gripping, multilayered read which I found compulsive and thrilling.
Rollercoaster. Read mostly in one gulp whilst doing (ignoring) laundry. Now paranoid about everyone. BRB, deleting all my social media and online banking, and untagging myself in every picture EVAR.
2.5/5 stars
Going into this book I was pretty excited because I absolutely adored We Were Liars so I was really looking forward to reading something by the same author. I was really disappointed though unfortunately.
I listened to Genuine Fraud via audiobook because it was narrated by Rebecca Soler, one of my favorite narrators and she was good, like always. I just felt like Genuine Fraud was a bit of a letdown.
The format of the book in case you didn't know is basically told backward. We start out with chapter 18 and make our way to chapter 1. I personally found this format to be extremely confusing. I felt like we were bouncing around all over the place, and it was difficult for me to follow. I had read a few reviews saying that this format ruins the book because you go into the story knowing what happened, you just follow along figuring out HOW. Maybe I'm just super naive when it comes to books though cause I honestly didn't know what was going on from the beginning. I mean yeah I guessed things pretty quickly before they were actually revealed, but I didn't feel like the book actually told me. Maybe it was because I was listening to it rather than reading it physically that I felt myself getting lost in the backward telling, but something tells me I would have been confused either way.
I didn't know anything about this book going in. I didn't even read the synopsis, but as I read I thought it was interesting. I just think it could have been done better. I get that Lockhart was trying something different that not a lot of writers or at least writers that I've seen have done. I get that, but it just kind of missed the mark with me. Especially after something so amazing as We Were Liars which is one of my favorite books, in order to live up to that Genuine Fraud needed to be a masterpiece. And quite frankly it just wasn't. I didn't connect with any of the characters and I still don't feel like I even understand the WHY behind what was done. More confusion there. I get that Jewel is an unreliable narrator and that she's pretty much a psycho. But I wanted to at least get a why from her point of view, but I didn't feel like I did. Or maybe I just missed it.
Overall this book was just a meh read for me. I wouldn't reread it, I don't want to own my own copy of the book. It wouldn't be the first book I recommend to someone. I'd encourage someone to try We Were Liars over this one any day (and I mean I've been encouraging people to read We Were Liars since I finished reading it). If someone asked if they should read Genuine Fraud I'd probably say “Sure if you want to. But fair warning it's super confusing.” I guess this book just didn't really stand out to me and it was just a major confusing letdown.
SLJ warned me, but I did it anyway: Definitely don't get the audiobook, the narrator can't do accents at all and a few parts are almost unlistenable because of it. As reviews have said, the opener is a real breathless action movie scene, but the story downshifts from there, explaining events in reverse. Think it will be an easy sell for booktalks, but didn't personally love it. Interested to hear kid opinions!
My reaction to this is fairly “meh” and I feel a bit bad. I love E. Lockhart and I did enjoy We Were Liars. I think that was a better crafted thriller. I had a had time connecting to Jule.