Whydunnit
The great American novel is now a massive international hit YA [young adult] book with film rights and merchandising,” an agent tells a struggling writer in the recent Netflix comedy series Friends From College.
It’s a disparaging statement, but a true one: the “young adult” or YA novel is hotter than ever. Thanks to the bestselling We Were Liars, E. Lockhart is a giant of the genre. But her follow-up to that 2014 smash, Genuine Fraud, lacks the emotionally resonant writing of the critically acclaimed Liars.
As in her first book, a somewhat unreliable narrator recounts the story of Jules and Imogen—two orphans, one rich and the other poor, enmeshed in an intense friendship reminiscent of The Talented Mr Ripley. While the setup is compelling, the convoluted jumping from flashbacks to the present unnecessarily complicates and slows down the story, and though it’s pitched as a psychological thriller there isn’t much of a mystery surrounding the central murder.
“It tasted like salt and failure,” the teenage narrator of We Were Liars says when her father abandons his family. “The bright red shame of being unloved soaked the grass in front of our house, the bricks of the path, the steps to the porch. My heart spasmed among the peonies like a trout.”
Unfortunately, neither the characters nor the author can summon up that depth of feeling in Genuine Fraud.