You’ll Never Believe Me by Kari Ferrell is a very interesting and introspective read. The reader will easily become immersed in the suspense of the story.

DNF after chapter 2. Profanity is a big turn off for me so I’m quitting this book. I am very interested in the stories of adopted people and I’m also super interested in cult stories, so this should have been a win for me, but I’m not interested in reading vulgar language.

Apparently, I live in a cave with no internet access, because I’d never heard of Kari Farrell, otherwise known as the “Hipster Grifter.” But I love memoirs, and hers sounded interesting, so here we are.

Some people are going to love her memoir, while others are going to hate it. Her writing made me laugh. She can be a little (!) vulgar, so if language offends you, this book is not for you. I enjoyed her honesty and observations, even though I felt like she tended to say (write) things for shock value.

If this memoir had been a novel, I’d be calling her out on plot holes. While she gave us a whole lot of personal information on certain issues, we leapt over others. But of course this is her memoir, and she gets to tell her story any way she wants.

I was especially interested in her thoughts on her childhood as a Korean child in a primarily white area, being adopted by white parents raising her as “white,” and her sense of being displaced from her roots. I would have loved more focus on this issue as she grew up and came to terms with it all.

*I received a free eARC from St. Martin’s Press, provided via NetGalley.*

YOU’LL NEVER BELIEVE ME by KARI FERRELL hits shelves on Tuesday, January 7th. Many thanks to @stmartinspress for the gifted book.

Before Anna Delvey, before the Tinder Swindler there was Kari Ferrell. Way back in 2009 she was dubbed the Hipster Grifter in an article that exposed not only how she scammed her way around Brooklyn, but that she was wanted for felony fraud in Utah.

Internet infamy followed, along with gossip, fetishization, exploitation + jail time. She committed petty theft + check fraud. Simultaneously charmed + duped people. The fascination with Kari’s story grew as people came forward with tales of deception and the public’s obsession with this mysterious con woman took on a life of its own.

But those stories didn’t tell the whole truth. They didn’t even get all of the stories right. And they didn’t tell Kari’s story. Did she do some awful things? Hurt people in the process? She’ll agree that she did. Were lines blurred and crossed by the media? Absolutely.

YOU’LL NEVER BELIEVE ME is Kari’s turn to set the record straight, to bring the reader behind the curtain & into her world, her motivations and her life today.

Full disclosure, before I read this book I’d read some of the online stories. And before I read those stories I was one of those corporate world work colleagues she mentioned that loved working with her. It feels like a lifetime ago — really it was a decade, which kind of is a lifetime.

The book is written with wit, sharp humor — I laughed a lot — and a reflective nature. She can recognize the good, see where things went sideways and takes us through some dark moments. There’s a rawness to some chapters, a no holds barred look at her time in jail + the dark days that followed. It’s uncomfortable and vulnerable. It’s not every salacious detail, but it’s her audacious choices, her resilience and her determination to create something positive from the infamy.

The book reads like a friend telling you stories, as the cover says: a life of lies, second tries and things I should only tell my therapist. I’m glad she decided to tell us too!

I had never heard about this lady and her crimes but was intrigued. The writing style was funny and vulnerable. I felt like there were parts of the book that I really enjoyed and kept my attention (especially the jail bits) but other parts that dragged a bit. Overall it was okay. Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Fascinating memoir. A baby adopted from South Korea,, becomes known as the Hipster Grifter and engages in one self-destructive lie/behavior, after another before she must, finally, pay a price.

First thank you to st martins press and NetGalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review

No star rating because it is a memoir

Synopsis: Kari Farrell was known as the original hipster grifter and conned her friends and strangers out of money. She spent several years but now reformed and telling her story

What I liked: I’m a fan of true crime and enjoy reading to try and understand how people can do what they do. She does tell all about her life and struggles to fit in and how she got into her crimes. She doesn’t seem to have fully accepted responsibility. For example she talks about going to this restaurant one night and a woman asked her if it was authentic. Sure the conversation sounded cringe but she decides to steal her wallet and checkbook and make her pay. Also she left Utah after being caught to move to New York even through she knew she couldn’t do it. She got a job at Vice based on lies.
It was a quick read and does provide some more insight into her life afterwards too.

You’ll Never Believe Me: A Life of Lies, Second Tries, and Other Stuff I Should Only Tell My Therapist by Kari Ferrell

This was absolutely not a buttoned-up memoir. Instead it was reflective, funny, and raunchy at times, but all around, it was entertaining.

Ferrell organized this memoir in chronological order, starting with her childhood and struggles with identity, moving into her “Hipster Grifter” era, and ending with how she had grown into the person she was now: an advocate. I was impressed with the vulnerability she put forward alongside laugh-inducing observations. She also took full responsibility for her actions.

If you enjoy witty, funny memoirs, true crime, and seeing a person evolve, check this memoir out!

2.5 stars, rounded upwards.

My thanks go to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the invitation to read and review. This book will be available to the public January 7, 2025.

The blurb for this book had me at hello. Korean baby girl adopted by Caucasian Americans, who then become Mormons; a childhood and adolescence rife with alienation, discrimination, and ultimately a life of crime; prison time, followed by social crusades, among them prison reform, which is hugely necessary. I was all in, but that was before I read this thing. My own daughter is half Japanese and has to listen to “Where you from?” a fair amount, so this is a sensitive area for me, too. Racial teachings within the LDS (Mormon) church are a veritable minefield, and indeed, I can see how Ferrell’s upbringing would have been fraught.

And yet, the memoir that I read was not what I expected. The memoir, the blurb said, would be laugh out loud funny; I chucked a few times at the outset, and then was mostly just horrified. I received both the digital and audio galleys, and halfway through I abandoned the audio, because Ferrell, who provides her own narration, sounds so ebullient, so proud of herself, that I couldn’t take it. Reverting to the digital made it doable, but I found myself finishing it from a sense of obligation rather than a desire to read more.

Ferrell’s friends during her adolescence are what most adults would consider to be the wrong crowd. Truancy, petty theft, lying, drinking, and drugs are hallmarks. But Ferrell neither stays there as an adult, nor reforms herself once she reaches adulthood, though her parents, even though they divorce, likely can provide her with psychiatric treatment or counseling. Instead, she escalates, and commences stealing and defrauding her friends, pretending to need an abortion, pretending to have cancer, receiving so-called loans and gifts from those that don’t have a lot of money but love her dearly, and then disappearing. Steal in Utah, move to New York City. Steal in New York, go home to the folks in Arizona. And it continues until, at long last, she is arrested, tried, and convicted.

I tried to put my finger on what it is that makes me edgy here. Why do I not believe she’s all that sorry? Partly, it’s that other people appear only briefly and vaguely here. Of course it’s Ferrell’s life that’s the focus, but I would have expected some passages that flesh out the people that have loved her and tried to help her, even if it is necessary to conceal their identities as a matter of their own preferences. What happens to them later? What hardships, if any, do they suffer because of her actions? Instead, all of them come across as shadows, and as if they don’t really matter. I would have expected some emotion around reconnecting with some of these people, trying to make amends and financial restitution, even if they don’t want to see or hear from her. She talks a fair amount about the realization that her behavior is a form of self-sabotage, cutting herself off from positive relationships, but she doesn’t talk much about how she has sabotaged, or even completely blown up, the lives of others.

Lastly, I’m disturbed by some of her assumptions. The one that comes immediately to mind is when she reminds us—as if this is well known—that lying is fun. What??

In order for a memoir to be successful, the reader must be able to bond with the author. I have been unable to do that, either because Ferrell enjoys talking about her crimes and betrayals a little too much, or because she is unable to convey remorse in her writing; either way, I cannot recommend it to you.

The author gained notoriety for being the "Hipster Grifter" (who I'd somehow never heard of despite being terminally online), committing check fraud, lying her way into (and out of) a job at Vice, and spending time in prison. It's no surprise that Cat Marnell has a blurb on the front cover, because like Cat's book, I read it feeling like I should despise the author but I very much didn't. It's a funny and acerbic book that's perfect for Orange Is the New Black fans.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC!

I will admit that I read the goodreads reviews before I read the book myself, and I truly thought that people were just being brutal and judging the person not the story writing itself. However, after finishing the memoir, I do agree with most of the reviews that this just...isn't a great read. It's a little bit all over the place, it's a bit self-righteous, and it doesn't really give you the inside look at the true thoughts, feelings, learning, and unlearning of the author that comes with great memoirs. I didn't hate it, but I could have skipped it.

I appreciated getting to read this story by Kari Ferrell, it had that humor and stories that I was looking for. It had that element that I wanted and enjoyed getting to go on this journey with the characters,

I found this memoir witty, sarcastic at times and refreshing. Nothing was off limits. I enjoyed the writing style. This was a quick read because I was captivated. The author owned up to who she wronged and took accountability for her actions.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for this digital advanced readers copy in exchange for my honest review.

I had never heard her story but I was drawn to the title and the cover. She briefly touches on her adoption and possible identity issues, I found the fact that her parents stayed in a church that didn’t care for POC strange. Overall a good read.


Thank you for the advanced reader copy St. Martin's Press and Netgalley.

Kari Ferrell, dubbed the Hipster Grifter after scamming men and writing bad checks landed her in jail, tells her side of the story. The memoir covers her adoption as a child into a Mormon family, embracing the straight edge lifestyle, being incarcerated, and getting married to a military man.

Ferrell’s dishing about her various crimes and jail time made for a wild read. The lies—including a claim of having terminal cancer—piled up as her compulsive need to steal escalated. Her charisma and sheer audacity were the most effective tools in her arsenal as she charmed marks, guards, and inmates. I particularly liked the description of her prison transfer in the “Con Air” chapter and the shoplifting games with her friends in the “I Meant to Do That” chapter.

I recommend the memoir to those who find Anna Delvey and Elizabeth Holmes fascinating.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thanks to St. Martin’s Press, an imprint of St. Martin’s Publishing Group, for providing an Advance Reader Copy via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I only knew Kari Ferrell aka The Hipster Grifter by name and very few details so I went into this one with no preconceived notions. I really wasn’t expecting to laugh as much as I did! Kari has a VERY witty and sarcastic writing style and some of the situations she found herself in (or created herself) were just so wild. I loved how she really took stock of the ways she hurt people while also being honest about her motivations and state of mind at the time. I was very invested throughout the whole story, but my favorite part was when she started therapy and dove deep into her own psyche and trauma. I really loved the in depth look at adoptions and incarceration, particularly in women’s prisons. I think fans of true crime, especially grifters and really beautiful character journeys will really love this one.
CW: racism, incarceration, drug use

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an advanced digital reader’s copy in exchange for an honest review.

You'll Never Believe Me by Kari Ferrell really took me back to the Hipster/Indie Sleeze Era of my youth. I vaguely remember hearing of Kari and her crimes, but can't remember details. It's taken me quite some time to write this review because I've been struggling to separate the author from the person and their actions. It's also extremely hard to "judge" a person's life. I will however share my thoughts on the book, and will rate the book based on how much I enjoyed it.

That being said, I was truly intrigued by this memoir. Ferrell can write! You'll Never Believe Me, true to its title, read like fiction. It was a very addictive read and I could not put it down. I wanted to know it all, particularly bits about how she swindled so much money. However, we don't get much of an in-depth look into her life prior to the crimes or how she kept doing it without being caught for so long. I do not agree with the things Kari did to gain her notoriety but it surely made for a good story. She says it herself on multiple occasions that she is a story teller.

I appreciate that she is on a search for redemption in a sense, but it was really disappointing to see that she doesn't seem very remorseful for what she did, with only a quick apology to those she wronged, found in the very end of her acknowledgements. Most of what i found intriguing about Ferrell felt glazed over for me, I wish there was more, because I enjoy her style of storytelling. It's blunt and in your face. She does not hold back and is purely herself in how she talks and writes.

Overall, I really enjoyed You'll Never Believe Me for it's honesty, and how well it was written. Unlike some, I too was in that scene, so I can handle the brashness of the party life and its stories from that Era. I wholeheartedly disagree with the Grifter lifestyle, but can appreciate a well written book.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the eARC. You'll Never Believe Me releases on January 7, 2025.

I would like to start of by thanking netgalley for the arc of this book. Ferrell had managed to expertly make me root for her as the protagonist while also being upset by some of the choices that she made. It is easily one of my favorite biographies I have read. From laughing to grimacing I felt all of the emotions of someone looking inside someone who made mistakes but that they also knew that they made mistakes. Ferrell takes us through her entire life and not feeling like "belonging" being an adopted baby from a young age in Salt Lake City, Utah, where her parents moved after converting to mormonism. Though it might take some time Ferrell eventually not only finds herself but finds her voice. I absolutely loved this book!

I might have tut-tutted more than once but I also laughed. I somehow missed the whole hipster-grifter thing so this story was fresh for me. Ferrell does a nice job of looking at herself and telling her unique story. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. Here's hoping she turns her talents and energies forward.

Ah, the hipster grifter! I thought I knew all about her already but apparently not! Very interesting peek behind the scenes of what had been a very buzzy story some years back. You never get to hear from these people but now you do! I would have liked more details about her scams but it was interesting to read her thoughts and experiences in prison. I did wonder if everything she said was true, the timeline on the tv show seemed off unless she was talking about a show that never made the news? But she is a grifter so anything could be a lie.