Genuine Fraud by E. Lockhart

I don’t know what it is with E. Lockhart.

I LOVED ‘We Were Liars’. I was so impressed after finishing it, I almost read it again straight away.

So of course, I bought another book by her (‘The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks’). I didn’t love it. In fact, I only gave it two stars on Goodreads.

But, because I liked ‘We Were Liars’ so much, I decided to give E. Lockhart another shot, with ‘Genuine Fraud’.

She knew that women were rarely the centers of such stories. Instead, they were eye candy, arm candy, victims, or love interests. Mostly, they existed to help the great white hetero hero on his fucking epic journey. When there was a heroine, she weighed very little, wore very little, and had had her teeth fixed.

‘Genuine Fraud’ by E. Lockhart revolves around Jule and her friend Imogen.

There’s fraud (duh), disappearances, murder, and betrayed friendships.

And that’s pretty much all I can tell you without spoiling anything.

Jule thought for a bright second then that someone could love her, and that she could love herself and deserve it all.

But unfortunately, I was disappointed by ‘Genuine Fraud’ as well. I’m not sure what it is, maybe my expectations are too high after ‘We Were Liars’?

‘Genuine Fraud’ starts in chapter 18, works it way back to chapter 1, and then proceeds with chapter 19. Sometimes it works, in this case, it doesn’t. There’s no plot twist or shock.

It’s like listening to your history teacher telling you about World War II—for the third year in a row. You already know what happened, but he’s telling you the details about the whole thing.

You keep reading (or listening, in the example) because you’re curious about the details. The difference between the history lesson and the book is that the history lesson makes you feel things. Disgust, anger. The book? Not so much.

Plus, it’s confusing. Jule tells a story about why she is the way she is, but then there’s a remark about how it isn’t true, and you never find out the truth.

It’s an easy read, though. The characters aren’t very deep, I was missing more back stories about why they are the way they are. The plot is good, but the execution could’ve been better.

There’s a little twist at the end, but nothing that kept me on the edge of my seat or to make up for the rest of the book.

Do I recommend this? No. Am I going to read another book by E. Lockhart? I don’t think I will.

Add ‘Genuine Fraud’ by E. Lockhart to your Goodreads to-read-list, or buy the book at the Book Depository or on Amazon.

Happy reading—

Petra