The Fake: a person with a story too tragic to be real?

The Fake by Zoe Whittall is a story of a con artist who explodes into someone’s life with an amazing story and leaves once the jig is up. After the death of her wife, Shelby feels so alone. Then she meets Cammie, a charismatic woman who lives uncaringly about the opinions of others and has her own tragic story. As their friendship grows, something about Cammie’s story doesn’t add up. Gibson is fresh from a divorce and deeply depressed as he faces his 40th birthday. One night, he meets Cammie and instantly falls in love. She brings a brightness to his life that has been lacking. Unfortunately, his friends are very wary of Cammie and even Gibson starts to realize that Cammie’s story could be too tragic to be real. When Shelby and Gibson discover that Cammie is a pathological liar, they struggle to understand why they believed her story in the first place and struggle with how to proceed. Do they help her heal from whatever causes Cammie to be such a liar? Or do they truly want revenge? 

The Fake is set up in an interesting format where we get 3 points of view: Shelby, Gibson and Cammie. We see the story upfold from Shelby and Gibson’s eyes and Cammie interjects to “defend” herself. It is an interesting look on how quickly we often take someone’s word for the story they tell us. It is also an interesting look into how people react, even after learning they have been lied to, they still want to help and befriend. Generally, people believe in the goodness of others despite evidence to the contrary. It is a situation we all have been in. Maybe not to the extreme that Shelby and Gibson experience, but how many times have we heard news stories of people defrauding the public for money with a sob story of extreme illness? As someone who has been taken in by someone’s sob story, only to discover some details aren’t exactly true, it was frustrating to see Shelby and Gibson so easily taken in. Understandable but I wanted to scream “be careful!” Overall, I enjoyed and recommend The Fake. 

The Fake is available in hardcover, eBook, and audiobook

The Spectacular: not so spectacular

The Spectacular by Zoe Whittall is the story of three generations of women who strive for real freedom in sexuality, gender identity and their ambivalence toward motherhood. It’s 1997 and Melissa “Missy” Wood is a cellist in an indie rock band on tour across America. At 22 years old, she gets on stage and plays the song about her absent mother that made the band famous. As the only girl in the band, she is determined to party just as hard, maybe even harder, as everyone else. She loves the idea of leaving a guy in every town. Meanwhile, her mother, Carola Neligan aka Juniper, has resurfaced after a sex scandal at the yoga center when she has been living. She sees Missy, for the first time in years,  on the cover of a magazine cover. Missy decides to crash at her grandmother Ruth’s house and Ruth decides enough is enough. Mother and daughter need to find a way to understand one another. 

I thoroughly enjoyed Ms Whittall’s The Best Kind of People (2016) and looked forward to reading The Spectacular. Advertised as a “sharply observed novel” that “captures three very different women who each struggle to build an authentic life,” The Spectacular sets out to explore what it means to be a woman. Does it include the desire to be a mother? It is assumed that women naturally want to be moms. What happens when a woman feels she doesn’t want kids...ever? Should others dictate to women to keep the motherhood option open? As a woman who has always known I wanted children and have faced the challenges of motherhood head on, I was curious about the premise. Right off the bat, I was put off by Missy’s vulgarity and childishness. It was hard to sympathize with Carola. Ruth’s story was interesting but far too short. It wasn’t the story I was expecting and I am certainly not the audience for this story. I do not recommend The Spectacular. 

The Spectacular is available in hardcover, eBook, and audiobook

The Best Kind of People: the aftermath of horrible accusations

The Best Kind of People by Zoe Whittall is the story of one family’s journey after their seemingly idyllic life is torn apart. George Woodbury saved the life of his daughter and countless other kids at the Avalon Hills Prep school when he tackled an armed man whose goal was to kill. He became the school’s hero and the town’s favorite son. A few years later, that image would be stained when he is arrested for sexual misconduct with a minor. He is sent to jail pending trial. Meanwhile his wife, Joan, his son, Andrew and his daughter, Sadie, must deal with the aftermath of his arrest. The town becomes split in two as one half vilifies George and the other half supports and refuses to believe such charges. Each tries to do their best to move on with their lives and support their husband and father. But as more and more information comes out, they each have their doubts about his guilt or innocence. As the family moves closer and closer to the trial, the ties that bind them together are getting frayed. Is George innocent? Is he being set up? Is he guilty? How will they get on with their lives?

The Best Kind of People is an interesting book with an in-depth, no-holds-bar look into what happens to a family when serious accusations are made. When we hear about someone being arrested for sexual crimes such as the ones portrayed in the book, we often forget about the family. The wife who may or may not have known what was going on. His children who must consider the fact that their father could be guilty. The story is told from the perspective of Joan, Andrew and Sadie as the days past and the reader gets insight into each character and their thoughts, feelings and reactions to the events going on around them. I highly recommend The Best Kind of People. It will make you stop and think about how adults interact with teens and what can be seen as inappropriate or simply innocent.

The Best Kind of People

will be available September 19, 2017

in hardcover and eBook