I almost didn’t buy Genuine Fraud because I am not a fan of another novel by E. Lockhart, We Were Liars, which got rave reviews because of it’s so-called shocking ending, but which I did not find shocking at all or even original. Yet I was tempted enough to buy Genuine Fraud because of the gimmick Lockhart uses in this novel: telling the story backwards. Again, not an original concept, but one that I will always be intrigued by mainly because I’m curious if the writer can pull it off and tell an interesting story that makes sense. Lockhart does pull it off in Genuine Fraud, but to mixed results.

The novel opens on an 18 year old woman named Jules living a life of luxury at a resort in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico; however, we quickly find out that she’s assumed a false identity as a girl named Imogen and that she’s on the lam. Then the novel starts jumping back in time and we learn how Jules came to be in Mexico, how she came to call herself Imogen, what happened to the real Imogen, and how Jules and Imogen even met in the first place. It is not a coincidence if you get The Talented Mr. Ripley vibes from this novel; Lockhart says in the author’s note that she was influenced by it.

Genuine Fraud is an interesting, fast-paced thriller, but sorely lacking in character development. Jules is a two-dimensional villain that I neither liked nor hated. She’s not happy with her own life, which is obvious by the way she reinvents herself by picking up new accents, giving herself a (bizarre) new “origin story” and taking over Imogen’s life. But why she feels the need to become someone else is never fully explained, especially in light of the extreme lengths she goes to. As for Imogen, all the other characters in the novel talk about how great she is and how flawed she is in equal measure, but Imogen herself just comes across as a stereotypical shallow rich girl. I honestly did not care what happened to her.

Genuine Fraud is the perfect beach read; it does not require much from you except to sit back and enjoying the (backwards) ride. It’s just too bad that Jules and Imogen are not more compelling characters. Jules should have been written as a more complex character that I would have really enjoyed feeling conflicted about rooting for.