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katherineeweaver's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Kat is a reporter and Meg is con artist. The timelines start at a campaign event for Ron Ashton, who is running for California state senator. Kat and Meg don’t know each other yet, but the story then goes back to talk about Meg’s history, her introduction into conning, and how Kat found out about Meg as a journalist 10 years earlier. Meg is determined to make Ron pay because she believes he stole her childhood home from her terminally Ill mother, leaving her homeless and orphaned at 17. She needs a place to stay—and takes advantage of a former high school teacher who raped a classmate of hers. She drains his bank account, gets a new car, and moves on to the next target not before exposing him to the media. One day, she calls Kat, who is working at the LA times to provide an additional source. Kat goes to meet the source outside her job and gets raped by Nate, the former target’s ex-friend. Kat now wants revenge on Meg, who she blames for the rape. Back in present day, Kat and Meg meet on Meg’s job as a real estate agent. Quickly, each woman realizes who the other is and that they continue to tell lies while dodging the truth. The book revisits a target Meg had in Reading, PA, but skims over the rest. I’m not sure why Phil was more important than any of the other men in power she targeted, I would’ve liked to hear more about all her experiences. As Kat grows closer to Meg, her fiancée grows wary as their bank account has suspicious activity. The fiancé, Scott, uses Meg’s presence to cover his relapse into his gambling addiction. The pair splits, and Kat goes back to Meg as she’s closing on a house with Ron. Though she creates a fake escrow company nearly identical to a real one and uses the seven million dollars, some of which from his campaign fund, to donate to the homeless. She feels as if she is repaying her mother while exploiting Ron’s platform. Meg quickly disappears to Costa Rica, but leaves Kat with all her notebooks so she can write a journalism story or novel. While Kay’s mother pushes for a novel, Kat targets Nate and becomes a con artist herself using Meg’s tools. . I liked the underlying themes of feminism, but this book teetered between too much detail and too little. I never found it gripping, and failed to understand why Kat continued to blame Meg without evidence. It seemed like a weak situation for the author to create such hatred. Parts of this book were still enjoyable, I appreciated how Meg was noted for being so kind to women and remembered favorably.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Rape, Stalking, and Gaslighting
brichneyfloss's review
challenging
funny
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Pedophilia, Death of parent, and Stalking
kimveach's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
I read this in 2 evenings and thoroughly enjoyed it. I loved the cat and mouse game between the two main characters. It was fascinating learning some of the ways con artists work.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Gaslighting, Pedophilia, Grief, Rape, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, Sexual harassment, Stalking, Death of parent, Addiction, Cancer, and Car accident
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