- Release Date: January 21, 2014
- Genre: Contemporary/Thriller/Mystery
- Length: 7 hours 58 minutes
- Publisher: Harper Audio
In Lamar Giles debut novel, new kid in town Nick Pearson finds himself mixed up in a murder with a side of corruption. As Nick searches for answers to a murder that could upend all his secrets he dodges bullies, crashes a party and tries to keep his parents together. Move over Veronica Mars, Nick Pearson is on the case.
Lamar Giles writing is clever. He lays out tension, plot and conflict in front of you while still sneaking in a bit of misdirection. He has a great way of ending chapters on mini cliffhangers and you just HAVE to know what happens next. I totally did not see the ending coming. I was like “what !?” This isn’t really a spoiler but. . .literally anyone can die. Which takes the tension up to eleven
I listened to the audiobook performed by William Harper. His performance of Nick hit the snarky and clever dialogue perfectly. It’s the kind of quick asides and clever lines I liked in Holly Black Curse Workers series. Harper has a great range for voices for the male characters, but he could get awkwardly high pitched the end of sentences. His narration was solid overall but his performance didn’t hit all the marks.
One thing I wanted from this book were more positive female relationships. None of the girls in this book get along with the main female character. All the “other girls” are shallow accessories to the cool boys. I grabbed Giles’ second book (read: not the follow up to Fake ID) at BEA, so I’m curious to see how he writes a female protagonist
I’m so excited that there is more to this series, Giles left a lot to work with. This was one of those great ambiguous endings that left so much to be explored.
Fake ID is a solid debut with an audiobook that has a great grasp on humor but misses a few performance beats.
This book has me searching for more YA thrillers, if you have any recs leave them below.
Side Note
Here it goes. . . I think Fake ID is such a generic title, I mean he’s in WitSec so it’s not like he’s just pretending to be someone else. Also the WitSec angle is really played up but to me it wasn’t the most interesting part of the story. I mean Nick has to solve the mystery behind an initiative called Whispertown, that would have been a more intriguing title.
Also, Nick rides a bike almost everywhere I think having a bike on the cover would have said something about the character.
1/2 of the blogging duo at Books and Sensibility, I have been blogging about and reviewing books since 2011. I read any and every genre, here on the blog I mostly review Fantasy, Adult Fiction, and Young Adult with a focus on audiobooks.