Confidence by Rafael Frumkin
Thank you Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for ARC e-copy
Ezra and Orson are an odd couple that meet at juvie camp. Ezra is the brainy misfit. Orson is the pretty boy smooth talking charmer. Together they become a team of confidence men who created a scheme that find their way into the upper echelons of power. But at what cost? The POV is that of Ezra, and as the misfit, it is hard not to sympathize with him. I feel it was very clever of the author to tell the story in this way.
There is a lot going on in this book almost too much to really appreciate the characters, except for Ezra. But there is really a lot of great action and some laugh out loud moments as well as some agony. The book built slowly but gained momentum until I really couldn’t pull myself away when I realized all that was going on.
I was left with the impression that too much happened to fast and then it was all over. But still enjoyed the overall experience.
3 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I enjoyed this. I look forward to picking it up again. For some reason I had a hard time getting into it initially. Once I got a feel for who the protagonists are I really enjoyed it.

A this book is quite different than anything I typically read. Two friends who met at a Last Chance camp become petty thieves-turned full on conmen and businessmen. This story takes you on a journey. It was funny at times, sad at others. It made you feel real things. Intriguing from beginning to end.

Wow! This book started with a simmer and then really boiled for the second half, I couldn’t put it down! I honestly can’t decide how I feel about it: it made me so sad and bummed out about so many things but it also really had an extremely earnest gooey side. But also delusional?? This book had so many charming elements, the love story, the dynamic duo, the totally meaningless slogans, and the twists that I didn’t see coming. And also it was just so sad with the total amorality, the declining health, the unrequited(?) love (and sad references to people feeling like they needed to be closeted to reach a certain professional height). I really did think this book was amazing and it certainly captures a dark side of being American right now and I’m sure I’ll be thinking about it and recommending it for years to come.

Confidence is a very creative book, following a (nearly literally blindly) devoted narrator as his infatuation with a creative, compelling boy he meets at a reform camp for delinquents leads them on an escalating series of con schemes, eventually creating a massive empire around "synthesizing" -- a spurious treatment that somehow makes millions feel better via placebo effect through either personal contacts or a "bliss mini" magnetic device.

It would be interesting to learn more about how synthesis purports to work or at least what it involves, but whatever it is they are able to train disciples in a vast pyramid scheme that encompasses retreats and wealthy elites and even gets them involved in a South American country's political machinations.

It would have helped to understand more about who was/wasn't in on what and how they got it to work, but the relationships among thinker/recluse Orson and doer/devoted Ezra and the folks in each of their circles really drives the story and great questions about loyalty and what we owe each other and how we stress or destress.

This book is a wild ride. I really had fun reading it. Ezra got a rough start in life, and when he runs into Orson at a boot camp for troubled boys, his luck in life seems to change. Or is it just finding a partner in crime? The two create scam after scam, honing their “skills” and eventually make it into the big league. It’s fascinating to watch as the two main characters create what eventually becomes a cult, and observe as their relationship (and themselves) change along the way. The characters in this book are richly imagined and motivated. I found myself conflicted that I was sometimes rooting for two people with obvious moral misgivings.

Grifter stories seem to be having moment right now in pop culture and this book is the perfect complement to all of the documentaries and docudramas.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. It is funny, wiity, clever, and a great novel. It is also quite different than anything that I had read before, which is basically all I look for in a book. Something new, not done before. Pleased with this novel.

Gotta be honest here -- I absolutely loved this book. It had some wild War Dogs feels, if War Dogs was about two queer founders of pseudo-Scientology instead of arms dealers. It's fantastic. Thank you to the publisher for the copy via NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion!

Happy to see queers doing crime in a moment when it feels like everyone's forcing positive and unproblematic characters that are safe for mainstream consumption!

Frumkin's book is a fun and fast=paced yarn about two young men who meet at a reformatory school and set out to get rich with a big wellness scam. Great premise, but it all starts to become a bit preposterous after the first act, and the last third especially requires a lot of suspension of disbelief when the action moves to another country. Besides that, it's an entertaining little caper that explores m4m desire and obsession, critiques capitalism and the cultish wellness industry (easy but always-deserving targets), all while never really apologizing for its characters dark deeds.

I wish NetGalley and Goodreads would get it together and allow half star ratings. This is more like a 3.5,

First off I would like to thank NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for providing me with this ARC. The American Dream is not what it is all cracked up to be. Ezra and Orson are 2 lifelong companions, occasional lovers and consistent conmen. They meet at Last Chance Camp, the final destination before juvie. Ezra lacks in looks and is addicted to the internet. Orson is the complete opposite. He is brilliant with a hustler's mentality. Together, they decide to embark on a scam artist career and think they are on top of the world after they establish a company that promises immediate knowledge and understanding to its users. But instead of those guaranteed results, the users are met with scams, schemes and preposterousness. This book was full of suspense and appeal. It was downright humorous.

Thank you, Simon & Schuster, for allowing me to read Confidence early!

I have no words to review this book, except for: so clever and entertaining!

Thank you to Netgalley and Simon and Schuster for the e-arc for an honest review! Okay so … I truly don’t know how I feel about this lol. The circular story told here, how Ezra and Orson met in juvie and then the story ended with them finding each other again in prison after being caught by the FBI committing fraud … I understood it. The story made sense!!!! And it was just … a lot. Many of this characters were not redeemable and I think that was the point! They’re assholes and they’re frauds and they built an entire fake life. I did feel bad for Ezra the entire time bc he was so in love with Orson and Orson is just … essentially an enigmatic cult leader. Even at the end he was using Ezra. This story was a lot. Constant twists and turns. I think the sentence below kind of wraps up the entire story. Ezra loving Orson kind of damned him into making some of his worst decisions, took away his life, got him swept away, and in the end it was just a giant big circle.

“That was the problem, loving Orson. That had been the problem for a long time. I loved him and I hadn’t stopped loving him and it had stayed in my bloodstream like lead or arsenic, something that should have killed me faster than it was already killing me, something that I couldn’t flush out even if I wanted to, even though he’d obviously wanted me to try. I realized with horror that I would die loving Orson, that it would never end, that it was a kind of sentence I had to live out and perhaps this was my punishment for having lived at all.”

from the synopsis i was immediately intrigued. once i started the book it failed to grab my attention. i wasn't a huge fan of the writing style so that possibly factored into it. the plot as a whole, however, was quite a fascinating idea.

Ok a little confused about this because never was it stated that the arc was only going to be a preview, as in like the first two chapters; so imagine my shock as i’m starting to get invested and then outta nowhere it’s the end. like it was a good first two chapters, i definitely want to read more but i was under the impression that i was gonna read more. i wish they would’ve stated that it wasn’t the complete copy somewhere so i would’ve been aware of that in the first place. On another note, it was a good beginning, i’ll definitely finish it as soon as i am given the opportunity!!

First off I would like to thank NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for providing me with this ARC. The American Dream is not what it is all cracked up to be. Ezra and Orson are 2 lifelong companions, occasional lovers and consistent conmen. They meet at Last Chance Camp, the final destination before juvie. Ezra lacks in looks and is addicted to the internet. Orson is the complete opposite. He is brilliant with a hustler’s mentality. Together, they decide to embark on a scam artist career and think they are on top of the world after they establish a company that promises immediate knowledge and understanding to its users. But instead of those guaranteed results, the users are met with scams, schemes and preposterousness. This book was full of suspense and appeal. It was downright humorous.