Fake Like Me

By: Barbara Bourland

Narrated by: Xe Sands

From critically acclaimed author Barbara Bourland, comes an "impressively intelligent thriller," nominated for the Edgar Allan Poe Award, about a young painter who tracks the mysterious life and death of her role model, uncovering strange secrets that lead to the truth of her demise (Refinery29).

After a fire rips through her loft, destroying the seven billboard-size paintings meant for her first major exhibition, a young painter is left with an impossible task: recreate the lost artworks in just three months without getting caught -- or ruin her fledgling career. Homeless and desperate, she begs her way into Pine City, an exclusive retreat in upstate New York notorious for three things: outrageous revelries, glamorous artists, and the sparkling black lake where brilliant prodigy Carey Logan drowned herself.

Taking up residence in Carey's former studio, the painter works with obsessive, delirious focus. But when she begins to uncover strange secrets at Pine City and falls hard for Carey's mysterious boyfriend, a single thought shadows her every move: What really happened to Carey Logan?

Critic reviews

Nominated for the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Novel
Winner of Baltimore Magazine's 2019 Best Book of Baltimore
A HelloGiggles Best Book of June 2019

A Refinery29 Best Book of June 2019

A Cosmopolitan June 2019 Must-Have

A Fortune Summer 2019 Travel Pick

A Publishers Weekly Best Book of Summer 2019

A CrimeReads Best Crime Books of the Year (So Far)
A Toronto Star Hot Summer Thriller Pick
A Bookish Best Cover of 2019

"Bourland expertly shines a light on the nature of female ambition and desire and the often dark heart of inspiration. Readers fascinated with the blood, sweat, and tears of creating art will be especially rewarded."—Publishers Weekly, (Starred Review)

"Menacing, swirling, hypnotic ... A haunting, dizzying meditation on identity and the blurred lines between life and art."—Kirkus, (Starred Review)

"Bourland has an uncanny knack for spatial description and relates artwork and every last thing in Pine City--"half Dirty Dancing, half Twin Peaks"--with pristinely observed color and feeling. She also nails the creep factor, and her narrator's high tolerance for it, with foreboding signs that the no-name painter isn't totally welcome there, and that there's more to Carey's story. The deck stacked against her, the narrator tells the glitteringly compelling tale of her fevered summer and wisely reveals meaningful intersections of class, gender, and making art."—Booklist, (Starred Review)

"The creative process confronts reality in this compelling literary thriller centering on art, identity, and deception, as told in Bourland's (I'll Eat When I'm Dead) sharp prose. A must for those with an artistic bent, a sheer reading pleasure for all."—Library Journal (Starred Review)

"Fake Like Me is an impressively intelligent thriller set in the art world...Expect insightful paragraphs about the creative process sprinkled among the propulsive mystery."—Refinery29

"[A] page-turning story about art imitating life."—The Palm Beach Post

"The process creators go through for the sake of their art ranges from obsessive to self-destructive, and that ideology is escalated with Bourland's cutthroat prose... The unrelenting threat hovers through the plot and rigidly keeps the reader's head just above water until the end approaches."—Fangoria Magazine

"Bourland has an astonishing ability to write viscerally about art, culture, class, and landscape, for a work that's bound to be one of the summer's biggest crime/literary crossovers."—Literary Hub

"Bourland's terrific new novel engages with the quandary of what makes a work of art authentic."—Crime Reads

visual and tactile, a sumptuous listen

the story and narration are marvelous. as a painter I was swept up in the description of colors and textures throughout the novel, the plot was engaging

Kept me wanting more... ❤️

Loved this book!!! Entertaining and kept me wanting more! It’s a must read especially for art lovers.

Outstanding

I love Xe Sands' narration, chose this book for that reason. The story was compelling and original. The themes of art as a commodity, is art still of value if no one will buy it, along with the author' s extensive knowledge of the painting process, made for a great read

Love this book

I’ve never read a book that explained a female artists life in such an entertaining way, a great ending also!

Artists

I’m an artist though never as successful as those in this story so this was very interesting to me