Fake Accounts by Lauren Oyler

Fake Accounts by Lauren Oyler
UK Publication: February 2021
Reviewed by: Book Worm  
Rating: ★★★

This ARC was provided by 4^th Estate (via NetGalley) in exchange for an honest review.

Fake it ‘til you make it.

Synopsis from Goodreads: A wry, provocative and very funny debut novel about identity, authenticity and the self in the age of the internet, fakery and illusion

On the eve of Donald Trump’s inauguration, a young woman snoops through her boyfriend’s phone and makes a startling discovery: he’s an anonymous internet conspiracy theorist, and a popular one at that. Already fluent in internet fakery, irony, and outrage, she’s not exactly shocked by the revelation. But this is only the first in a series of bizarre twists that expose a world whose truths are shaped by online lies.

Suddenly left with no reason to stay in New York—or be anywhere in particular—our unnamed narrator flees to Berlin, embarking on her own cycles of manipulation in the deceptive spaces of her daily life, from dating apps to expat meetups, open-plan offices to bureaucratic waiting rooms. Narrated with seductive confidence and subversive wit, Fake Accounts challenges the way current conversations about the self and community, delusions and gaslighting, and fiction and reality play out in the Internet Age.

My Thoughts: Wow looking at the reviews for this one it is really a marmite book some love it some hate it and I fall in the middle I found it OK.

This is a look at life in the social media where lives are lived more online than in reality, where your news is decided by an algorithm, where who you are compatible with is decided by an algorithm and where it is possible to be whatever you say you are as long as you don’t expect this to translate to the real world as well.

Fake Accounts is a great title as the book uses this word play in several different ways, the narrator has fake accounts to be who she wants to be to different people, the news is reported by accounts that may or may not be fake and even in reality people are faking.

Who would like this? This is a tough one I would say if you like unlikeable lead characters go for it, if you are interested in a new take on the online world go for it and if you have ever wondered what it would be like to be someone else online go for it. If you don’t like wondering essentially stream of consciousness writing with not a lot of action not go for it. The choice is up to you.

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