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lyrareadsbooks's review
4.0
More of a 3.5. The first half was an absolutely delightful skewering of Horatio Alger stories and the American myth of rising to success. The second half was less satisfying, but I can’t pinpoint what it was - there were almost too many ideas that were pushed on but none successfully shifted into the full madcap parody achieved in the first half. Worth a read and I would seek out the author again.
emjanereads's review
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
jonapelson's review against another edition
3.0
QBC July pick -- More like 2.5 - deeply underwhelming. If you want a look at friendship and morally complicated people running companies, read tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow
writtenechoes's review
4.0
Thank you to Netgalley and Simon and Schuster for the e-arc for an honest review! Okay so … I truly don’t know how I feel about this lol. The circular story told here, how Ezra and Orson met in juvie and then the story ended with them finding each other again in prison after being caught by the FBI committing fraud … I understood it. The story made sense!!!! And it was just … a lot. Many of this characters were not redeemable and I think that was the point! They’re assholes and they’re frauds and they built an entire fake life. I did feel bad for Ezra the entire time bc he was so in love with Orson and Orson is just … essentially an enigmatic cult leader. Even at the end he was using Ezra. This story was a lot. Constant twists and turns. I think the sentence below kind of wraps up the entire story. Ezra loving Orson kind of damned him into making some of his worst decisions, took away his life, got him swept away, and in the end it was just a giant big circle.
“That was the problem, loving Orson. That had been the problem for a long time. I loved him and I hadn’t stopped loving him and it had stayed in my bloodstream like lead or arsenic, something that should have killed me faster than it was already killing me, something that I couldn’t flush out even if I wanted to, even though he’d obviously wanted me to try. I realized with horror that I would die loving Orson, that it would never end, that it was a kind of sentence I had to live out and perhaps this was my punishment for having lived at all.”
“That was the problem, loving Orson. That had been the problem for a long time. I loved him and I hadn’t stopped loving him and it had stayed in my bloodstream like lead or arsenic, something that should have killed me faster than it was already killing me, something that I couldn’t flush out even if I wanted to, even though he’d obviously wanted me to try. I realized with horror that I would die loving Orson, that it would never end, that it was a kind of sentence I had to live out and perhaps this was my punishment for having lived at all.”
shinesalot's review against another edition
5.0
I loved this story of two con artists that go “viral”, so to speak, in all the ways you can in present day capitalistic America. I found it funny, tragic, interesting, and entertaining.
Great read.
Great read.
sbelasco40's review
4.0
It's been awhile since a book kept me up past my bedtime reading, but damn, this one did. There's momentum in its narrative of escalating con artistry, and though there's nothing to like about the narrator Ezra, his obsession with Orson is somehow relatable and humanizing. There are bigger things going on here - the number of times the blurbs refer to this story as quintessentially American! - but for me there was more suspense in Ezra's rapidly deteriorating eyesight than the question of how high they would soar and whether they would get what they deserve.
Also: props to Frumkin for being a graduate of Iowa who doesn't write like one.
Also: props to Frumkin for being a graduate of Iowa who doesn't write like one.
beccafisch's review
4.0
did not expect to have bill ackman fan fiction in my life but here we are!!!
pensivepelican's review
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.