Genuine fraud

Review by New York Times Review

Lockhart, whose last novel was the smash "We Were Liars," says there were "many, many" inspirations for this thriller, but the one that shouts the loudest is Patricia Highsmith's "The Talented Mr. Ripley." "Genuine Lraud" changes that book's game in significant ways. It flips the genders of its characters - striving, turbulent Tom Ripley is now striving, turbulent 18-year-old Jule West Williams - and it unspools the plot backward, which becomes unexpectedly poignant when, after a horrific moment, Lockhart writes of Jule: "She wished it could be undone." Still, "Genuine Lraud" reads like a "Ripley" retelling, not just in the broad strokes (a delusional con artist looking for a way to feel loved, wanted and wealthy) but in many particulars (an oar used as a club). Your reaction to it will depend largely on how you feel about the fact that Jule is a psychopath - and that she's targeting the bratty rich. "Genuine Lraud" is a disquieting book, one built craftily enough to reward repeat readings. But your longing for an interesting sympathetic character may get desperate as the story speeds back to its beginning. In its fascination with dark corners, "Genuine Lraud" also evokes Gillian Llynn's "Gone Girl." That novel was about someone monstrous victimizing someone awful, yet the heroine's murderousness came with a riveting, blazingly articulated rage. Lockhart's Jule is unnerving, but she's not quite unforgettable.

Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [October 15, 2017]

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Review by Booklist Review

*Starred Review* It's difficult to describe Lockhart's latest psychological thriller without dipping into spoilers, but here are the pertinent details: Jule, a peripatetic, athletic, superhero-obsessed teen girl is best friends with rich, restless Imogen, who recently committed suicide. When readers meet Jule, she's lounging at a tony resort in Mexico, eating junk food, and enjoying the sun. It's clear she's on the run, though from whom or why isn't clear, and Lockhart strings readers along with a clever narrative gambit. In a clipped, detached tone, Lockhart tells Jule's story in reverse, and with each step backward, she peels away juicy layers of intrigue. As the relationship between Jule and Imogen comes into focus, Lockhart explores themes of jealousy, loyalty, privilege, and origins. Imogen, who was adopted, is fixated on the idea of feeling a strong sense of identity, while Jule constantly relies on an unlikely story to explain her childhood. But can they really know each other at all? It's a captivating, suspenseful story made all the more bewitching by Lockhart's twisty narrative, and she constantly keeps readers guessing with unpredictable turns and eye-opening reveals. This quietly unsettling, cinematic novel is deliciously suspenseful, and while it's slim, it packs a real punch. Teens who love to hate antiheroes will be enraptured. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Best-selling Lockhart's getting a top-shelf marketing campaign, so be prepared for an onslaught of fans eager to get their hands on her latest.--Hunter, Sarah Copyright 2017 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.

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Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

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. Agent: Elizabeth Kaplan, Elizabeth Kaplan Agency. (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

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Review by School Library Journal Review

Gr 9 Up-Jule West Williams is "the kind of woman it would be a great mistake to underestimate." Her background might be imagined, but the self-assessment is exact. Her invented 10-year "highly unusual education"-not unlike the epic journeys of white hetero heroes, which she both disdains and aspires to-allows her to go anywhere, do anything, even be anyone. Identity drives Lockhart's latest as she reveals the unlikely best friendship of two (sort of) orphans: untethered Jule and wealthy Immie, whose adoptive parents have bestowed her millions. Now Immie is dead by suicide, and only Jule seems to know what happened. Although this title is intended for YA readers, grown-ups-especially fans of unreliable narrators such as Margaret Atwood's The Robber Bride, Patricia Highsmith's "Mr. Ripley" series, and Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl-will relish this international chase. One notable annoyance: Culebra is part of Puerto Rico, which means "American dollars" is the expected currency. VERDICT For reliable gratification, choose the page and avoid Rebecca Soler's clumsy attempts at Jule's multiple accents. That Jule's chameleonic abilities are fundamental to the plot distracts from the rest of Soler's otherwise capable narration.-Terry Hong, Smithsonian BookDragon, Washington, DC © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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Review by Kirkus Book Review

Can Jule recognize her own true self within the tangled story of the past year? Jule West Williams is 18, white, and an orphan, all of which she has in common with her best friend, heiress Imogen Sokoloffor does she? Jule, an impulsive, complicated protagonist like no other, tells her story as though she were living in an adventure movie. She imagines herself a heroine in contrast to the "great white hetero hero on his fucking epic journey." She's proud of her strength and fighting ability, her talents for disguises and imitating accents. Outside of her fantasy life, she feels inferior to practically everyoneImmie and her boyfriend, Forrest, as well as Immie's parents and friends from college. Starting the book with Chapter 18 and the instruction "Begin here," Jule traces a year backward, revealing startling secrets along the way. The fast-paced plot moves among New York, London, California, and Mexico as Jule stays one step ahead of those who've underestimated her skills. Jule's intense narrative frequently includes clipped snatches of dialogue with herself: "No, she had. / No, she hadn't. / She wished she had not. / She wished it could be undone." Her unsettling storytelling, filled with energy and a fair amount of violence, comes from deep inside her own mysterious background. This thriller from the author of We Were Liars (2014) will challenge preconceptions about identity and keep readers guessing. (Suspense. 12-adult) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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Begin here:     Third week in June, 2017   Cabo San Lucas, Mexico       It was a bloody great hotel.   The minibar in Jule's room stocked potato chips and four different chocolate bars. The bathtub had bubble jets. There was an endless supply of fat towels and liquid gardenia soap. In the lobby, an elderly gentleman played Gershwin on a grand piano at four each afternoon. You could get hot clay skin treatments, if you didn't mind strangers touching you. Jule's skin smelled like chlorine all day.   The Playa Grande Resort in Baja had white curtains, white tile, white carpets, and explosions of lush white flowers. The staff members were nurselike in their white cotton garments. Jule had been alone at the hotel for nearly four weeks now. She was eighteen years old.   This morning, she was running in the Playa Grande gym. She wore custom sea-green shoes with navy laces. She ran without music. She had been doing intervals for nearly an hour when a woman stepped onto the treadmill next to her.   This woman was younger than thirty. Her black hair was in a tight ponytail, slicked with hair spray. She had big arms and a solid torso, light brown skin, and a dusting of powdery blush on her cheeks. Her shoes were down at the heels and spattered with old mud.   No one else was in the gym.   Jule slowed to a walk, figuring to leave in a minute. She liked privacy, and she was pretty much done, anyway.   "You training?" the woman asked. She gestured at Jule's digital readout. "Like, for a marathon or something?" The accent was Mexican American. She was probably a New Yorker raised in a Spanish-speaking neighborhood.   "I ran track in secondary school. That's all." Jule's own speech was clipped, what the British call BBC English.   The woman gave her a penetrating look. "I like your accent," she said. "Where you from?"   "London. St. John's Wood."   "New York." The woman pointed to herself.   Jule stepped off the treadmill to stretch her quads.   "I'm here alone," the woman confided after a moment. "Got in last night. I booked this hotel at the last minute. You been here long?"   "It's never long enough," said Jule, "at a place like this."   "So what do you recommend? At the Playa Grande?"   Jule didn't often talk to other hotel guests, but she saw no harm in answering. "Go on the snorkel tour," she said. "I saw a bloody huge moray eel."   "No kidding. An eel?"   "The guide tempted it with fish guts he had in a plastic milk jug. The eel swam out from the rocks. It must have been eight feet long. Bright green."   The woman shivered. "I don't like eels."   "You could skip it. If you scare easy."   The woman laughed. "How's the food? I didn't eat yet."   "Get the chocolate cake."   "For breakfast?"   "Oh, yeah. They'll bring it to you special, if you ask."   "Good to know. You traveling alone?"   "Listen, I'm gonna jet," said Jule, feeling the conversation had turned personal. "Cheerio." She headed for the door.   "My dad's crazy sick," the woman said, talking to Jule's back. "I've been looking after him for a long time."   A stab of sympathy. Jule stopped and turned.   "Every morning and every night after work, I'm with him," the woman went on. "Now he's finally stable, and I wanted to get away so badly I didn't think about the price tag. I'm blowing a lot of cash here I shouldn't blow."   "What's your father got?"   "MS," said the woman. "Multiple sclerosis? And dementia. He used to be the head of our family. Very macho. Strong in all his opinions. Now he's a twisted body in a bed. He doesn't even know where he is half the time. He's, like, asking me if I'm the waitress."   "Damn."   "I'm scared I'm gonna lose him and I hate being with him, both at the same time. And when he's dead and I'm an orphan, I know I'm going to be sorry I took this trip away from him, d'you know?" The woman stopped running and put her feet on either side of the treadmill. She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. "Sorry. Too much information."   "S'okay."   "You go on. Go shower or whatever. Maybe I'll see you around later."   The woman pushed up the arms of her long-sleeved shirt and turned to the digital readout of her treadmill. A scar wound down her right forearm, jagged, like from a knife, not clean like from an operation. There was a story there.   "Listen, do you like to play trivia?" Jule asked, against her better judgment.   A smile. White but crooked teeth. "I'm excellent at trivia, actually."   "They run it every other night in the lounge downstairs," said Jule. "It's pretty much rubbish. You wanna go?"   "What kind of rubbish?"   "Good rubbish. Silly and loud."   "Okay. Yeah, all right."   "Good," said Jule. "We'll kill it. You'll be glad you took a vacation. I'm strong on superheroes, spy movies, YouTubers, fitness, money, makeup, and Victorian writers. What about you?"   "Victorian writers? Like Dickens?"   "Yeah, whatever." Jule felt her face flush. It suddenly seemed an odd set of things to be interested in.   "I love Dickens."   "Get out."   "I do." The woman smiled again. "I'm good on Dickens, cooking, current events, politics . . . let's see, oh, and cats."   "All right, then," said Jule. "It starts at eight o'clock in that lounge off the main lobby. The bar with sofas."   "Eight o'clock. You're on." The woman walked over and extended her hand. "What's your name again? I'm Noa."   Jule shook it. "I didn't tell you my name," she said. "But it's Imogen."     Excerpted from Genuine Fraud by E. Lockhart All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

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