The Knockoff

By: Lucy Sykes, Jo Piazza

Narrated by: Katherine Kellgren

Length: 12 hrs and 10 mins

Publisher's Summary

An outrageously stylish, wickedly funny novel of fashion in the digital age, The Knockoff is the story of Imogen Tate, editor in chief of Glossy magazine, who finds her 20-something former assistant Eve Morton plotting to knock Imogen off her pedestal, take over her job, and reduce the magazine, famous for its lavish 768-page September issue, into an app. 

When Imogen returns to work at Glossy after six months away, she can barely recognize her own magazine. Eve, fresh out of Harvard Business School, has fired "the gray hairs", put the managing editor in a supply closet, stopped using the landlines, and hired a bevy of manicured and questionably attired underlings who text and tweet their way through meetings. Imogen, darling of the fashion world, may have Alexander Wang and Diane von Furstenberg on speed dial, but she can't tell Facebook from Foursquare and once got her iPhone stuck in Japanese for two days. Under Eve's reign, Glossy is rapidly becoming a digital sweatshop - hackathons rage all night, girls who sleep get fired, and "fun" means mandatory, company-wide coordinated dances to Beyoncé. Wildly out of her depth, Imogen faces a choice - pack up her Smythson notebooks and quit, or channel her inner geek and take on Eve to save both the magazine and her career. A glittering, uproarious, sharply drawn story filled with thinly veiled fashion personalities, The Knockoff is an insider's look at the ever-changing world of fashion and a fabulous romp for our internet-addicted age. 

©2015 Lucy Sykes and Jo Piazza (P)2015 Random House Audio

Critic Reviews

"Sykes and Piazza brilliantly satirize and skewer the freakiest aspects of today's changing fashion landscape with all its blogtastic insanity. Bravo girls!" (Simon Doonan, creative ambassador for Barneys New York and author of The Asylum: True Tales of Madness from a Life in Fashion)

"This is what it's really like working at a glossy, New York fashion magazine. Makes The Devil Wears Prada look like My Little Pony." (Toby Young, best-selling author of How to Lose Friends and Alienate People )

"In the interest of full disclosure I must reveal that Lucy is my MUCH older twin (by over half an hour). So I am biased. But even if Lucy weren't my sister, I would still say that The Knockoff is a bang-on, absolutely of-the-moment, super-trendy, amazingly witty take on the world of online and magazine fashion. " (Plum Sykes, best-selling author of Bergdorf Blondes)

Buy it Now!

I loved this book! The narrator was fantastic, I felt like I was in the office with the ladies, stressing out and eating bird food! The story was engaging and touching, a coming of age saga with a techy twist. I can't believe I'm saying this but The Knockoff blew away The Devil Wears Prada. If you enjoyed the book or even the movie, you'll love this!

30 people found this helpful

Give the narrator a chance.

In my initial review of the book, which was hastily written after only listening to the book for an hour, I bashed the narrator for yelling the entire time and giving me a headache. I was very intrigued by the story, so I kept listening the next day. As I got totally into the story, the narrator became brilliant in her depiction of the various characters. The narrator was loud and as annoying as heck when she was "Eve" but that was the epitome of Eve! I take back what I originally said about the narrator and hope others will give her a chance to make the book and characters come alive. Well done. Brilliant.

20 people found this helpful

"All About Eve" meets "Devil Wears Prada."

Easy, breezy, guilty pleasure novel. Narrator was good with all the voice narrations of all characters. It was a reverse "Devil Wears Prada" with strong tones of the classic hit movie "All About Eve," in which an interloper goes after her boss' job, undermining her elder, experienced peer with now all too typical Millennial entitlement.

10 people found this helpful

Very entertaining

I loved the story and the characters. The villainess was stereotypically bad, but in a very enjoyable way to detest. Fun listen!

8 people found this helpful

Entertaining!

I loved this book, couldn't wait to hear more. Kept you on the edge of your seat and perfectly described as a mix of The Devil wears Prada and Silicon Valley! Love love love

11 people found this helpful

Couldn't stop reading

Most fun I've had in... years! Narration a bit of a miss but the story more than makes up for it.

9 people found this helpful

Excellent

Solid plot, well developed characters and stunning performance. Never a dull moment; I enjoyed this title immensely!

11 people found this helpful

Karma

I can't remember the last time I hated a character as much as Eve Morton or loved a character as much as Imogen Tate. Karma is a beautiful thing.

3 people found this helpful

Why is the narrator yelling?

I've only just started the book and the story is good, but the narrator always seems to be yelling!! The English accent is also very thick - very distracting.

18 people found this helpful

VERY entertaining! Really loved it...relatable

What made the experience of listening to The Knockoff the most enjoyable?

The narrator was absolute perfection. Every voice she does is smack on. The story (as a woman over 40) is TOTALLY believable and relatable. And of course, the delicious revenge at the end. Perfect antidote to depressing political news.

What did you like best about this story?

The character Imogen. Author did a fantastic job of making me care about her and want to see her nemesis squirm.

Have you listened to any of Katherine Kellgren’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I've listened to several Kellgren's. I have to say this was one of the best- because of so many different accents.

Who was the most memorable character of The Knockoff and why?

Hard to say between Eve and Imogen. I've actually known a sociopathic "Eve" in Silicon Valley, so this was totally spot-on.

Any additional comments?

Not heavy literature, but a definite fun listen. I wanted something entertaining, engaging and fun- this was perrrrrfect dahling. Loved it.
PLEASE write more Lucy Sykes!! (Watch out Sophie Kinsella)

4 people found this helpful