Genuine Fraud
E. L. Lockhart's Genuine Fraud is a YA thriller told in reverse chronology, opening with eighteen year old Jule West Williams hiding in a hotel in Mexico under a false name. Jule is athletic, charming, fond of action movies, and remarkably good at lying, and Lockhart slowly walks the reader backward through hostels in Europe, a Vineyard mansion, and a Manhattan penthouse to reconstruct what she has actually done and to whom. The pivotal figure is Imogen Sokoloff, a wealthy adopted heiress and Jule's adored, glamorous best friend, whose sudden absence is at the heart of the unfolding crime. Lockhart writes in clipped, cinematic prose with debts to Patricia Highsmith, channeling The Talented Mr. Ripley into the contemporary world of Instagram, gap years, and weaponized class envy. The result is a propulsive, ethically queasy character study about who gets to invent themselves in America and what happens to the people who stand in the way.
Themes & atmosphere
Also by E. Lockhart
All works by E. Lockhart →
What you might want to know about Genuine Fraud
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
Told backward, the novel follows Jule, a young woman of unclear origin, fleeing a hotel in Mexico. Each chapter walks earlier into how she became close to the wealthy, beloved Imogen, and what she did with that closeness.
Genuine Fraud is a standalone separate from E. Lockhart's We Were Liars and its prequel Family of Liars. It shares Lockhart's interest in unreliable narration and class. The plot is loosely modeled on The Talented Mr. Ripley.
Yes. Genuine Fraud is published as YA and is suitable for readers 14 and up. The protagonist is in her late teens and the violence is on-page but not graphic.
Genuine Fraud was written by E. Lockhart, published in 2017 by Delacorte Press.
Genuine Fraud is 288 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Genuine Fraud takes most readers 4 to 6 hours to finish.
Genuine Fraud is a standalone novel by E. Lockhart, not part of a series.
Genuine Fraud is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.