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A review by kurdt
Confidence by Rafael Frumkin
emotional
reflective
medium-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
5.0
Fantastic con-artist novel with a complicated quasi-romance at its core. About our capitalistic hellhole but also a tragic story of someone so devoted to somebody else that they'll lose their body and mind over them. One of the best books I read all year.
*Spoilers* - the ending is bittersweet. Obviously they deserve their comeuppance for the pyramid scheme, but it always felt like Ezra was doing all this because of his loyalty and love for Orson, rather than anything particularly nefarious (although obviously he knew what he was doing). And it was tearing him apart that Orson was going to marry Emily. But now, in prison, with Ezra practically blind and his mind mostly broken from isolation, they're back together. In the strangest way, Ezra has Orson back to himself, with nobody else, and it's just the two of them scheming again. But what's even more tragic, and what the book smartly never addresses directly, is whether Orson truly cares emotionally for Ezra or has just been using him as a means to an end. Ezra loves Orson, but Orson never seems to really feel the same way. All of Ezra's devotion for someone who perhaps only sees him as a way to help him make more money.
*Spoilers* - the ending is bittersweet. Obviously they deserve their comeuppance for the pyramid scheme, but it always felt like Ezra was doing all this because of his loyalty and love for Orson, rather than anything particularly nefarious (although obviously he knew what he was doing). And it was tearing him apart that Orson was going to marry Emily. But now, in prison, with Ezra practically blind and his mind mostly broken from isolation, they're back together. In the strangest way, Ezra has Orson back to himself, with nobody else, and it's just the two of them scheming again. But what's even more tragic, and what the book smartly never addresses directly, is whether Orson truly cares emotionally for Ezra or has just been using him as a means to an end. Ezra loves Orson, but Orson never seems to really feel the same way. All of Ezra's devotion for someone who perhaps only sees him as a way to help him make more money.