Genuine Fraud by E. Lockhart
Out now from Delacorte Press; 272 pages
About the Author: Emily Jenkins is a well-known children’s/young adult author who is better known by the pen name E. Lockhart. She is most commonly recognized for her novels, We Were Liars and the Ruby Oliver quartet: The Boyfriend List, The Boy Book, The Treasure Map of Boys, and Real Live Boyfriends. Emily attended Vassar College and continued her education at Columbia University to complete her doctorate in English literature. She currently resides in New York. Also check out our recent interview with her here.
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Genuine Fraud is a unique novel in which one young woman uses her uncanny wit to con her way through life. This psychological suspense novel features two friends, Jule and Imogen. Both friends are orphans, though as the twisted tale unfolds, we quickly learn that is not where their similarities end. Primarily, the novel follows Jule on her epic journey in which a multitude of her talents (imitating accents, successfully pulling off disguises, and outsmarting others) are showcased and praised. The novel begins with Chapter 18, as Jule dictates the last year of her life backward, revealing secrets and perverse events along the way. The reader must attempt to piece together the last year along with Jule, all the while finding reprieve in stories of her defending herself, and ultimately, surviving. The recount of events is confusing due to an unreliable narrator, giving readers the opportunity to discern and then reevaluate their opinions on the characters, as the novel takes the reader through Jule’s excursions in London, New York, Puerto Rico, and California, leaving a mysterious, forboding discourse around classism and what a teenage girl will do to survive. Lockhart gives readers a surprising female character in Jule. Love her, dislike her, fear her – whatever readers ultimately feel, they know they are in the midst of strength.
PRR Editor, Sarah Devaney