Began reading: 26.3.2016
Completed reading: 30.3.2016
Overall rating: 3.6 stars
Is Kath about to make the biggest mistake of her life?
Seventeen-year-old Kath McKenny has a date to the end-of-term party with her since-forever crush. He publicly messaged her to confirm, but there's been a recent status update: he's taking the new girl - giggly, pretty, well-developed Lana Elliot - instead.
After being thoroughly humiliated in front of half the school, best friend Chay talks Kath into revenge: a scheme to create the perfect - and very fake - online guy for Lana. Once she falls for him, they'll show her what it's like to get brutally dumped.
Everything is going to plan until Kath starts spending more-than-just-friends time with the other new kid in town - Lana's dreamy older brother, Sebastian. Kath finds herself getting in deep - in love and drowning in guilt, she tries to put an end to her prank, but it's taken on an unstoppable momentum of its own, with very real consequences.
As her plotting begins to unravel, so do the people Kath thought she knew:
Her mother has a secret online life.
Her father has a whole new family.
Her best friend is barely recognisable.
Her boyfriend has a disturbing hidden past.
And her enemy is more familiar than she knew.
Fake by Beck Nicholas is a contemporary young adult novel that incorporates romance to create a suspenseful plot that teaches readers that every action has a consequence. I was pulled in by the blurb, as it was dramatic and centred around Facebook. Sadly, the book didn’t live up to my expectations, and I’ll explain why.
Firstly, the structure of the book was average. The introduction, complication, resolution and conclusion were clearly defined, but it took a while for everything to happen — it was slow-paced. However, I was impressed by some of the quotes in the book, including:
Chances are the whole plan will fizzle out, but if it doesn’t Lana will discover what it’s like to be me: to be not good enough for someone you like. May be then she’ll hesitate before screwing someone else over (p. 56).
I lie on my back and stare up at the old light fitting I bought one Choose-Day. I liked it because among all the hanging beads of clear glass there’s one that is ice blue. Almost the same but different.
Like me (p. 81).
I don’t know whether to run screaming or throw myself at his mercy and beg him not to break my heart (p. 224).
*WARNING: SPOILER* I guess when you’ve slept with someone and had a baby, a few kisses don’t mean much. But for me, kissing Sebastian was everything (p. 264).
I thought that the plot was extremely interesting and relatable. We are all surrounded by social media, such as Facebook and Instagram, and creating a fake Facebook account for revenge seems like something that would happen in the real world. Unfortunately, as I mentioned previously, the plot wasn’t exactly what was mentioned in the blurb. *WARNING: SPOILER* I assumed that Kath’s crush was going to be the outgoing, popular jock, but he turned out to be a shy guy. I thought Lana was a shy and innocent girl (which would’ve made the plot more interesting), but she was the popular queen bee. Her mother doesn’t have a “secret online life” — she just met a guy. Her boyfriend doesn’t have “a disturbing hidden past” — so what if he has a kid?! Her enemy is not “more familiar than she knew”. I was expecting Lana to end up being a long-lost sister or something, but no. I fail to see how she was more familiar than Kath knew.
The plot was predictable, but still contained some unexpected twists. I knew that Kath’s revenge plot was going to backfire, I guessed correctly about Sebastian’s past, and I suspected that Chay would do what she did. What I didn’t see coming was Joel’s dad becoming redundant, Kath continuing to tutor Bobby, Kath’s mum’s connection to the lime tree, as well as Kath’s reaction to her father’s family and Sebastian’s past. I think that these little surprises were needed to add a little more trepidation to the plot.
It was very repetitive, especially about how Kath doesn’t like her plans for revenge. If you didn’t like the plan, why would you let Chay convince you? Take the account down — it’s not that hard! Also, her difficulty with making decisions was brought up more than enough times. I GET IT, NOW SHUT UP!
The plot tended to focus more of Kath’s relationship with Sebastian, so it was very ‘romantic’. By ‘romantic’, I mean mushy and cringe-worthy. I was hoping that there would be minimal romance in this book, but I was wrong. Some of the things that Kath said and thought made me want to throw up. For example:
Is that interest in his eyes? Something more than the prospect of his hoodie being returned? Like maybe that he’ll have to see me again (p. 44).
My favourite character was Sebastian, for SO MANY reasons. He was perfect boyfriend material, loyal, responsible, a great listener, didn’t take any of Kath’s sh*t (or anyone else’s, for that matter), and he sounds like a cutie. I thought that he was a little too forgiving and a slightly hypocritical, but otherwise, he sounds like the perfect high school boyfriend.
I was expecting Kath to be my favourite character, as she appeared to be the most relatable — we’ve all been heartbroken and wanted to get revenge, am I right? But she was so childish:
Lana’s pretty much been to my house.
I need to find out what Mum’s been saying to her, but she won’t be home for hours and hours. Maybe I could call. She said she’d have her phone for emergencies and I’m pretty sure this classifies (p. 75).
No, honey. An emergency refers to a serious, unexpected, and often dangerous situation requiring immediate action. I had no idea that needing to know what your mum said to a girl during a hairdressing visit was considered dangerous or life-threatening.
I also thought that Kath was stupid. I mean, she met Sebastian a day ago or something like that, and she’s wondering why he doesn’t want to spill his life secrets to her:
Who is he to be so off-limits? I can’t think straight because of all the questions I need answered (p. 70).
The other secondary characters were just as awful! Chay was this backstabbing best friend whom Kath forgave almost instantly. What the hell? Kath’s mum was irresponsible, selfish and a hypocrite. Lana was obviously the bitchy queen bee, so no wonder I didn’t like her.
My favourite part would have been the end-of-term party, mainly because it was a bit of fun and had a bit of drama. I would have loved to have dressed as a vampire, and met my computer nerd date at the dance, and had some fun. *Sigh* I could just imagine seeing Sebastian dressed like Q from Skyfall… Yes, he’s my nerd crush. Isn't he gorgeous?
Recommendation time! If you like Anything to Have You by Paige Harbison, Love, Rosie by Cecelia Ahern, Dumplin’ by Julie Murphy and The DUFF: Designated Ugly Fat Friend by Kody Keplinger, you will love this book. Also, I recommend this book to anyone who likes Raising Hope, JUNO, Endless Love, Catfish, The Social Network, LOL and Men, Women and Children.
Happy reading!
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