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pensivepelican's review against another edition
4.0
The narration in this book was so spot on I forgot it was fiction a couple of times and tried to look up people the author mentioned.
Confidence explores the darker side of human nature and the vulnerabilities that make people susceptible to scams. Anyone can be scammed if a con artist can find their weakness: greed, insecurity, lust for power, or garden variety lust.
Ezra and Orson realized this at an early age and capitalized on it. They met at an abusive camp for wayward teens and are soon on their way to pulling their first scams. They start out scamming only the wealthy – ostensibly because of some sort of virtuousness, but in reality, that's where the money is.
I don't want to spoil the book because it was a good read that I'm happy to recommend. Fans of stories about scams with shades of televangelism and those interested in the psychology of deception will enjoy this. It's like Bad Blood, Fyre Festival, Bernie Madoff and Goop all rolled together.
Underneath it all runs an undercurrent of physical deterioration and longing for love that adds emotional depth and complexity to the characters and elevates the novel beyond just a scam story.
I received this Advanced Reader Copy of Confidence by Rafael Frumkin from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Confidence explores the darker side of human nature and the vulnerabilities that make people susceptible to scams. Anyone can be scammed if a con artist can find their weakness: greed, insecurity, lust for power, or garden variety lust.
Ezra and Orson realized this at an early age and capitalized on it. They met at an abusive camp for wayward teens and are soon on their way to pulling their first scams. They start out scamming only the wealthy – ostensibly because of some sort of virtuousness, but in reality, that's where the money is.
I don't want to spoil the book because it was a good read that I'm happy to recommend. Fans of stories about scams with shades of televangelism and those interested in the psychology of deception will enjoy this. It's like Bad Blood, Fyre Festival, Bernie Madoff and Goop all rolled together.
Underneath it all runs an undercurrent of physical deterioration and longing for love that adds emotional depth and complexity to the characters and elevates the novel beyond just a scam story.
I received this Advanced Reader Copy of Confidence by Rafael Frumkin from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
hilaire's review against another edition
dark
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
This was a good story but very drawn out, it could have been shorter. Excellent ending.
baylan's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
spinstah's review
4.0
This was pretty compelling. The narrative starts to spin out of control in the last quarter, but somehow it worked.
jadekling's review against another edition
5.0
Gotta be honest here -- I absolutely loved this book. It had some wild War Dogs feels, if War Dogs was about two queer founders of a pseudo-Scientology instead of arms dealers. It's fantastic. Thank you to the publisher for the copy via NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion!
styleandsavings's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
zach_l's review against another edition
4.0
3.5 stars rounded up. A fun novel about how love can sometimes make us do totally normal things like become a millionaire scammer who turns mindfulness into an celebrity-approved cult. I enjoyed watching Ezra build the empire and recruit an eccentric bunch of co-conspirators (Elaine was my favorite) including a thinly-veiled Elon Musk. My biggest critiques are (1) I am a bit exhausted by the dynamic of being so hopelessly in love you lose most of your agency and (2) the South America subplot did not quite work for me. Nevertheless, it was an easy and enjoyable read.