#genuine fraud

[loveuimsorry]

GENUINE FRAUD by E. Lockhart

[forlornalbatross]

“She believes that the best way to avoid having your heart broken was to pretend you don't have one.”

— E. Lockhart, Genuine Fraud

[better-dead-than-in-hell]

genuine fraud more like genuine what the fuck

major spoilers ahead

jule has never told a single truth, not even to herself. she lies to us, she lies to imogen, she lies to pablo- she weaves this web of romanticization around herself, saying that she’s a hero or a detective or a spy, when in actuality all she is a liar and a cheat and a murderer. imogen lies dead at the bottom of the ocean, cruel words in her mouth and blond hair in the water, blood on her head where a paddle was smashed into her skull. she cheats and she tells secrets and she pulls people in only to shove them away when she is bored, just like she would do with jule given the chance. imogen is a liar. jule is a liar. they are made for each other in some sick twisted way, in a joke by fate. their lives are intertwined and then cut short, just like that. jule pens a fake suicide note and imogen rots in the ground with the fishes and they are made for each other, through and through, dark heart to black soul.

anyway this book was pretty surprising ig

[megansreviewingjourney]

“Imogen lives at the Playa Grande Resort in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. She spends her days working out in the hotel gym and telling other guests how she was forced out of Stanford.

But Imogen isn’t really Imogen. She’s Jule. And she’s on the run from something. Or someone. Which means . . . where is the real Imogen?

Rewind: Jule and Imogen are the closest of friends. Obsessed with each other, even. Imogen is an orphan, an heiress; she and Jule spend a summer together in a house on Martha’s Vineyard, sharing secrets they’d never reveal to another soul.

But that was months ago. Where is Immie now? And why is Jule using her name?”

After the Caroline Calloway/Natalie Beach story, Genuine Fraud seems a little more relevant. While neither woman had murderous intentions, there certainly was resentment on Beach’s part and indifference on Calloway’s. Jule and Imogen’s friendship contains similar emotions. As much as Jule admires Imogen’s charisma and wealth, she envies her as well. Imogen certainly was charitable in taking in Jule, but grows bored of her presence.

A few aspects of the book I liked. The writing style was competent. I liked Imogen, not as a person, but as an interesting character. I enjoyed a few scenes.

Most of the side characters are undeveloped. Forest appears often, but his personality is vague. There’s also a shallow and pointless romance between Jule and a man named Paolo. Jule was occasionally interesting, but her character and motivations lacked depth. Throughout the story, I was continually asking “Why are you doing this?”

Genuine Fraud and We Were Liars suffer from the same flaw: both would be better if they were told in chronological order. If the story started from the beginning, we could have witnessed Jule’s growing obsession and jealousy of Imogen. Additionally, it was hard to determine when a scene was happening. Some scenes could be longer; the pacing is often too fast. This is marketed as a thriller, but there’s not much tension.

Spoiler Section:

I’ll start with the spoilery things I liked:

1: Entire “flashbacks” to Jule’s various fake backstories.

2: The final conversation between Jule and Imogen, before Jule kills her.

Imogen’s murder would have been more tragic if their relationship had been propertly built. We could have witnessed Jule’s resentment grow, rather a few sporadic moments.

Brooke is an undeveloped character. Her death lacks impact and feels like it was only for shock factor. Brooke allegedly always was suspicious about Jule, but we don’t witness this. She doesn’t provide an obstacle for the protagonist, thus depriving the story of tension. There’s no real tension after Imogen’s murder, every time Jule is in danger of being caught it’s because of her own careless behavior.

Character motivations after the murder are unclear. Why does Jule tell a woman her name is Imogen, after Imogen’s death is known? Why do the police think Imogen killed Jule? Why does Jule tell the landlord her name is Imogen after the murder? Why does Jule feel sympathy for Forest at the end?

Final Verdict: Two Stars

There are occasional interesting concepts and moments in Genuine Fraud. However, the plot and characters are too vague to care.

[brightbeautifulthings]

'They want you to be small and silent. Good was just another word for don't fight back.'

E. Lockhart, Genuine Fraud

[feraldreamer]

Books to Read in 2019

tagged by @ayeparrish (thank u so much for tagging me i literally never get tagged in anything so this is v exciting)

this tag is just listing 10 books that you want to read this year! These aren’t in a particular order:

1) The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

2) The Sun and All her Flowers by Rupi Kaur

3) Turtles All the Way Down by John Green

4) Genuine Fraud by E Lockhart

5) Quiet Power by Susan Cain

6) Wild Embers by Nikita Gill

7) If I was Your Girl by Meredith Russo

8) History Is All You Left Me by Adam Silvera

9) All for the Game (series) by Nora Sakavic

10) Red Rising by Pierce Brown

i have no idea who has and who hasn’t done this yet but i’m gonna tag @irishforjane @ronanolynch @ganseys-epi-pen

[thepaige-turner]

ARC Review: Genuine Fraud by E. Lockhart

Back with another review (and some other extra goodies below as promised)! Genuine Fraud playlist: http://thepaige-turner.tumblr.com/post/162693761106/the-pa...

TBT Review: Genuine Fraud by E. Lockhart

Every Thursday I’ll be featuring a review from my channel to show some love (or dissatisfaction!) with some older titles!

[libralita]

Week of Bookblr – Top 5 Worst Books of 2018

So there were quite a few good books this year but also some really bad ones. I read a lot of books so there was bound to be a large amount of duds but this year felt like a lot of very popular books let me down. I was almost tempted to make this a top 10 list. However, I narrowed it down to 5 picks and two dishonorable mentions.

Dishonorable Mentions:

My two dishonorable mentions have a few things in common. They are Obsidio by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff and The Towering Sky by Katharine McGee:

They both have some similar things going on. The first books in their respected series (Illuminae and the Thousandth Floor) were both great and I loved. The second books weren’t as great and made me less hype for the third books. I gave both of these three out of five stars. I felt about the same with these books. They were just let downs and the endings really bugged me.

First I’ll go over my points for The Towering Sky. A lot of the plot lines take a backseat to Avery’s drama which is really annoying. You’d think this book would revolve around Mariel’s mystery but it doesn’t. This book also assumes that I give a shit about Leda and I do not. I do not feel sympathy for her, I don’t understand why she’s so buddy-buddy with Rylin and I ship Avery with Watt. Leda is the worst. But finally by biggest problem is Avery. I do not care about her weird relationship with Atlas. I don’t like this trope of adopted siblings dating. I don’t like their chemistry. Max von Strauss was the best character. He was MVP and I loved him so I was so pissed off when he was just completely written out of the story. I also really hate that Avery takes the fall for what Leda did. Leda should suffer the consequences of her actions. Instead Avery does THE most selfish thing and fakes her own death. I won’t go into how awful that is to Max, her friends, and her parents but it is just so awful.

Then there’s Obsidio. Again, authors assuming I give a shit about a relationship that I don’t. I did not like Asha and Rhys. Asha needs to get Rhys on her side so what does she do? Balls him and act like he’s the supreme leader from BeiTech when he’s just a grunt. She is an asshole to him all them time. Next involves a bit of meta-stuff. So Jay Kristoff has jokingly referred to himself as Jay “Killsyourfaves”. However HE DOESN’T FUCKING DO THIS. He wants to be so edgy and super dark but none of the main characters die. Everyone lives happily ever after in the a fucking war. It’s not even because it’s Amie Kaufman because I bet you in the Darkdawn not a single main character will be dead. There are so many fake out deaths in this book (which is also the reason I hate The Towering Sky). There’s this little kid who gets shot but thank god she has some thick plot armor because she’s still breathing. Then there’s a fake out scene with Nik and Ezra and I did not believe it for a fucking second. When I got to that part I had no reaction. It did not phase me. Then after 10 pages when they came back to life I rolled my eyes. It was so bullshit.

So those were my two dishonorable mentions, now onto my top 5 worst books of 2018:

#5 A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab with three out of five stars:

I really enjoyed This Savage Song (even though it was Tokyo Ghoul but YA). I was excited to read this book and I really liked Kell and the world was cool. So why is this book on the list you ask? Because V.E./Victoria Schwab cannot write female characters. Y’know those posts you see where they go “ugh men can’t write female characters”, I’ve never seen more poorly written female characters then in this book. Leila Bard is the literal worst female character I have read. I hate her more than the girl from The Future of Us and Dimple from When Dimple Met Rishi. She is so bad.

Leila is a bratty girl who forces herself onto Kell so she can go on an adventure. She so selfish. She has no honor. She’s stubborn to the point of stupidity. She thinks basic human kindness is a debt that will be repaid. She balls Kell out for rejecting a loving family when she herself rejects Baroon who tried to be her’s and then dies for it. She is constantly taking shit from the magical world that she knows nothing about and could kill herself or others around her. She has no likable qualities. I hate Leila Bard. She single-handily sank this book and made me not want to continue on with this series. I hate her so much. That’s why A Darker Shade of Magic is on my number five spot.

#4 It’s Not Summer Without You by Jenny Han with two out of five stars:

You ever really enjoy a book from an author and then years down the road you read another one of their books and realize that this author is kind of shit? Yeah that’s Jenny Han for me. I remember loving the first two To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before books and the first Burn for Burn books. But then once I grew up into an adult I realized how immature than Han writes her protagonists. This also doesn’t help that this is one of Han’s first books so it’s really rough.

I liked The Summer I Turned Pretty just fine. I thought Belly was a little annoying but I gave it four out of five stars. Then this book came out and made Belly so unlikable. She is constantly whining to get her way (and she even admits to doing this). She complains about Taylor leading boys on and using boys when Belly does the exact same thing. They’re basically the same character but Taylor is better because Taylor-solidarity. Conrad is also a brat for not telling his brother where he is. The characters are also so dumb. Like they stay in this beach house to keep it from getting sold by their dad. The logical answer is to: call Belly’s mom and get her to talk some sense into the dad. What is the answer that solves this problem in the end? Belly’s mom coming and talking some sense into the dad. What does Belly and boys not do? THAT! Then she’s so awful to her mom. She says how she wishes that Beck was her mom and that is some awful shit. When Belly’s mom slaps her I cheered. During that scene I wanted Laurel to just say “fuck it, if you want this house then I’m not going to give it to you” and then dragged her ass home because she does not deserve it. Ugh!

#3 Emergency Contact by Mary H. K Choi with one out of five stars:

Can you tell I don’t like unlikable female protagonists? It’s not that I want a bunch of Mary Sues I would just like them to have SOME likable characteristics. So Penny is a dick to her mom. When I had read this it was about a month since I moved into college. Penny did not let her mom come with her to move-in-day. Number 1, that’s dumb because oh dear lord do you want another person to help you because of the physical and emotional labor that day requires. Number 2, that is cold. You don’t do that to your parent. The only person Penny is not a dick to is Sam and he’s generally forgettable.

Next there are just points that go absolutely nowhere. Like Penny’s writing professor and her writing in general go nowhere. It felt like it was trying to be Rainbow Rowell’s Fangirl but it seemed so pointless. Most of the plot points don’t really matter but this one is especially annoying because the author takes a few pages to show the audience that she doesn’t know jack shit about sci-fi. This is coming from someone who doesn’t really know anything about sci-fi herself but still knows more than this author.

Also, just a little cherry on top. This book goes on about female empowerment and then within the same page slut shames a bunch of cam-girls. Why does this always happen to books that try to be so self righteous?

#2 Genuine Fraud by E. Lockhart with another one star:

I hope I’ve made it abundantly clear that I DON’T LIKE ASSHOLE CHARACTERS WITH ZERO REDEEMING QUALITIES. Yet again another asshole female protagonist but let me just get into a few other things. First, I saw that some people had a problem with the reverse chronological thing. I didn’t really have a problem with it and would love to see more stories that try it. Just with better characters.

Second, this book should be renamed “The White Devil” because every white person in this book is an asshole. Imogen goes on these woke rants and they’re the most basic bitch shit that you could find on Tumblr. Lamest social commentary.

Now into the real problem is that Jule is a horrible person. This story comes off as a weird power fantasy that Lockhart has. Jule cannot tell fiction from reality. She thinks she’s an action hero and compares herself to Batman and Spider-man. However, those *sighs* “white male hetero heroes” (yes this is a quote from the book) don’t fucking enjoy hurting people. In fact most of them have a policy against killing people. Jule loves hurting people and it’s fucking disgusting.

She murders so many people. She kills Brooke for no real reason. Brooke is a vapid, bitchy valley girl who, by the way, is a way better person than Jule will ever be.

Then the most annoying thing about this book and a lot of books on this list is that there’s this message about female empowerment and how being good doesn’t mean being weak. Okay, so first of all, Jule is not good. Second, she steals and cons from all sorts of women. Third, she murders two women. Yeah real empowering to women.

And finally the number one worst book of 2018 is Every Heart a Door Way by Seanan McGuire:

I don’t know how someone could cram this much bitterness into small story. Somehow McGuire managed to do it. Whenever people talk about this book they always mention one of two things: how cool the premise is with kids who went to magical worlds coming back to a school to deal with how to cope with being back in the real world. The second thing is the diversity. Nothing else about the characters or plot or story.

I get that this is a short book however I think it’s because the plot, story, and characters are all shit. First, the thing that really bugs me about this book is that you have this whimsical idea. It’s cool and so many ideas can happen this this premise. The tone is bleak. It’s not just bleak, it’s nihilistic and mean-spirited and just fucking bitter. This premise is so much fun and McGuire just sucked the life out of it.

What doesn’t help is that all the characters have basically the same personality traits. Everyone hates everyone at the school. All the want is to go back to the magical not-Narnias. They hate the real world and their parents and everyone else because they’re “misunderstood”. They also hate being in the school, which just makes me want to stay in this setting even more! Not a single of these kids have any kind parents who care about them. Everyone is an asshole. The main character is an asshole but she’s quite. Her roommate is a hyperactive asshole. The twins are creepy assholes. EVERYONE IS AN ASSHOLE.

Then the plot. I figured out who killed the roommate within five seconds. The first person I thought it was turned out to be the killer. It was shit. Then the ending is super anti-climactic. The killer is just defeated and the protagonist gets to go back to the Underworld or whatever. It’s so lame. I hated this book. Worst book of 2018 by far.