Reviews

My Friend Anna: The True Story of a Fake Heiress by Rachel DeLoache Williams

cdjdhj's review

3.0

This book tells the story of "Fake German Heiress" Anna Sorkin Delvey, who has been convicted of conning several people and organizations of a lot of money. Her story has been made into a popular Netflix series, Inventing Anna. This book was written by Rachel, Anna's friend, who put down her personal and company American Express cards to pay for an extravagant hotel on a trip to Morocco in 2018, that Anna was supposed to pay for. Rachel was then instrumental in tracking Anna to the expensive, elite rehab facility, Passages in Malibu, California where she was finally arrested and brought to justice. The book was interesting, but tedious at times and read like the documentation Rachel compiled for prosecutors of Anna's fraud trial. There are pages and pages of text messages, which got a bit much at times. It was largely a repeat of what I had already watched in the Netflix series, and would be more interesting to someone with at least some knowledge of Anna Delvey and her case.

mitosaurus's review

emotional inspiring reflective tense fast-paced

4.25

The author writes pleasantly, tells a good story and has a good structure. 

manderzreadz's review against another edition

5.0

My Friend Anna. Such an interesting real-life story about a very skilled con-artist that still believes in her own delusions. I’m glad the writing of this book was therapeutic for Williams, and helped her move on from this event in her life. If you like true crime, conspiracies, and the New York high life, this book is for you.

brittpetersonmarx's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective medium-paced

2.5

stephanie_w11's review

4.0

This was a great book. Rachel’s story is very nearly unbelievable but her candor and frankness in it makes it very hard to put down. Her narrative voice was impressive and I’m in awe of her bravery in being so open.

sammy135's review

informative reflective medium-paced

4.25

bethanna_hobbs's review

4.0

3.5

livkarsch's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

2.5

Honestly, the author did a pretty poor job of making me feel bad for her. It felt like half the time, she was looking for sympathy and the other half of the time, she was bragging about all the cool experiences she gets with her job. That on top of the poor research done on Morocco as well as the use of the slur “Berber” (translating to barbarian) of the indigenous people of Morocco made me actively dislike reading this book at some parts. Finally, the end of the book was extremely repetitive. 

issianne's review

4.0

First of all, I'm so confused by the poor ratings of this book that are solely based on their annoyance with the author. And I get it, I like to think I wouldn't have let my super rich friend charge $30k on my card and let her get away with pathetic excuses for two months, but you just don't know until it's you. And yes, Rachel is very lucky to even have had the ability to charge $30k to her credit card. Okay, enough of that rant. This book was like sitting down with a friend who's been through something traumatic and is ready to spill the tea. Does she spend a bit too much time discussing her personal life that doesn't always pertain to the juicy part of the story? Yeah, but you can't blame her because this is her story and her thousands of dollars down the drain by a narcissist.
When I looked at this story deeper, I realized this conflict was a direct effect of gendered ideas of womanhood. I felt as though Rachel felt confined to this idea of being a good friend and what it looks like for a young woman to take control over her own life. We're taught as women to never be too direct about what we want or we'll seem unlady-like. Meanwhile, Anna is trusted because she's a woman. And when Anna can't make payment, she's almost painted in a way of the innocent heiress waiting for her daddy's money--unable to control the troubles of life that pop up. The women that do step in to right the wrongs Anna's made are a breath of fresh air in this narrative.
Ultimately, this book will make you cringe, laugh, want to through it against the wall, and speed read to see how it gets resolved.

blabbey13's review

4.5

I always give memoirs or things like this 5 stars because it’s not my place to judge someone else’s telling of their own life and experiences! 

I did think this was going to be more about Anna going in to it. However, I was very anxious and stressed for Rachel (even though I know the ending), and read this in 2 hours.