About the book
(via Exclusive Books)
Meet Ava: rule-abiding lawyer who has ticked all of life’s boxes. She’s married to a successful surgeon and has just taken an indefinite career break to raise her adorable toddler. A picture-perfect life.
Meet Winnie: Ava’s old college roommate. Once awkward, quiet and apparently academically challenged, she left Stanford in a shroud of scandal. But now, she is charismatic, wealthy and has returned to town dripping in designer accessories. An actual perfect life.
When the two women bump into one another at a local coffee shop, it seems like fate has intervened: Winnie’s new-found success is courtesy of a shady business and she needs a favour; Ava is realising she is not built for the stay-at-home life. But what starts as one favour turns into two, then three, and soon Ava is in far deeper than she ever imagined.
Now Ava has to make the ultimate decision: cut and run, or risk it all? ‘
My thoughts
“Money can’t buy happiness… but it can buy a decent fake.”
“Counterfeit” is one of those “read in one sitting” books. I whizzed through it! I thoroughly enjoyed this clever, satirical, and intriguing book about two Asian American friends getting involved in the counterfeit designer handbag business. Apart from the fact that the story itself is pure entertainment, it also addresses underlying issues like stereotypes, the model minority myth, unethical labour practices and in a way, the question of what status means and how it is perceived on a superficial level.
“Not even the most discerning shopper would doubt the authenticity of a bag purchased from a reputable retailer. The power of suggestion was too seductive, the confirmation bias effect too potent.”
The style and tone of the book is charming – where sections of it reads as a confession by Ava to a police officer. It also begs the question of what a “perfect life” looks like and what will drive anyone to get involved in a global crime syndicate?
“Given all I’ve said so far, you must be wondering why I so willingly befriended her this time around. I’ll admit that at first, I was dazzled by her wealth and beauty, her extreme confidence. I suppose a part of me was still stuck in freshman year, clinging to friends like life rafts.”
Kirstin Chen’s research and understanding of the subject of handbag counterfeiting is impressive and the level of detail that comes through is remarkable.
Do expect a change in energy and tone – and a twist that I didn’t see coming. So smart! The characters are complex and flawed – very human in other words.
“to share one’s secrets is to force others to bear your burden; to stay silent is to spare them.”
This is a great book to wake you out of a reading slump, since it will hold your attention, is an easy read, clocks in at under 300 pages and is quite entertaining.
I did stumble over the lack of quotation marks, but after listening to an interview with the author, she did explain it as being part of the monologue style police interview as a way of storytelling, but it did bug me a bit. She did say that she may not use that way of writing again though!
RRR (Roelia Reads Rating) 4/5
Genre: contemporary fiction, mystery
Format: Paperback
Pages: 288
About the Author: http://kirstinchen.com/
Thank you, Exclusive Books, for the opportunity to read this book!
Published locally (South Africa) by Jonathan Ball Publishers
