In a “thriller with a pointy tackle wealth and privilege” (Folks, Guide of the Week), two greatest buddies grift their method by way of the California elite—till a rip-off goes awry.
For the previous couple of years, it’s been Summer time and Leo in opposition to the world. Summer time has been a grifter since she was a toddler, out of a must take care of each herself and her infuriatingly irresponsible hippie mom. Leo, however, ran away from house as a teen after tragedy hollowed out her as soon as regular, loving household:
I’d realized that every part my mother and father had labored so laborious for–stability, household–was bullshit. There was no security on this world, no permanence. Household may very well be snatched from you in a single day as simply as dropping jewellery in a swimming pool.
After we bought the information, I left my home at two o’clock within the morning, strolling by way of the darkish streets alone. I ought to have been terrified to go away the home, however no. It labored the alternative. I’d realized that nowhere was protected, and that my days on this earth have been numbered whether or not I did every part proper or unsuitable.
Thus Leo resides on the streets and barely managing to outlive when Summer time first comes throughout her. Taking pity on the spunky younger lady, Summer time cleans her up and offers her a spot to remain. In Summer time, Leo finds an alternative to the large sister she’s nonetheless grieving. Quickly the pair are inseparable, touring up and down the California coast and surviving by relieving wealthy folks of their further money and valuables. Summer time focuses on fast thievery, lifting wallets in crowded golf equipment. Leo prefers longer quasi-cons, discovering wealthy males and milking them for all they’re price earlier than shifting on to the following city.
Their newest mark is billionaire clear power entrepreneur Michael Forrester, after he serendipitously likes one in every of Leo’s Instagram selfies. After “unintentionally” assembly, Leo is shocked to find that he’s truly fairly sizzling and charming in particular person. On the very least, she’s relieved that she gained’t must faux an attraction to him as she positions herself to obtain the items that may assist her and Summer time see out one other few months or extra.
However after an in a single day date with Michael, Leo disappears. Summer time tries to not fear, however as time passes with no phrase from Leo, her fears enhance. It’s not like she will be able to go to the police and clarify that her greatest buddy vanished throughout the execution of a con. Worse nonetheless is the niggling doubt that perhaps Leo simply left her behind for higher issues. It doesn’t assist that Leo had not too long ago been speaking about touring past California and even the USA, one thing that undocumented Summer time merely can’t do.
So Summer time decides to take issues into her personal fingers. Posing because the girlfriend of one in every of Michael’s tech executives, she cons her method onto his personal island throughout an unique investor’s weekend. The deeper she digs, the extra she discovers, not solely about what occurred to Leo, however concerning the truths she’d nonetheless reasonably not face herself. Because the bored spouse of one other govt whom she tentatively opens as much as factors out to her:
“It’s all the time like that. There’s all the time one buddy who cares extra, who tries tougher. That’s why feminine friendships are doomed. Ultimately she’ll get uninterested in you mothering her and also you’ll get sick of cleansing up after her. The opposite possibility is being an excessive amount of alike and competing for every part till you hate one another.” She reaches a manicured finger to play with the string on my bikini prime. “Do you need to return to my room? I’ve an enormous spa tub.”
I snort, however what she stated about Leo and me makes my abdomen damage.
Summer time didn’t survive into maturity by being a quitter. Even when every part appears stacked in opposition to her, she perseveres, clinging to the considered and perception in her one true buddy. How far will she must go to seek out out what’s occurred to Leo, and what’s going to she danger to get her again?
You Can Belief Me explores feminine bonds and solidarity in a extremely suspenseful, totally absorbing method. I used to be so invested in Summer time and Leo’s relationship that there have been instances I needed to put this guide down as a result of I used to be so scared that one thing irrevocably unhealthy was about to occur to 1 or each of them. Higher, my overwhelmed sympathies instructed me, to go away them in a limbo a la Schrodinger’s cat than to seek out out for sure and break my very own coronary heart.
However the story was so enthralling that I couldn’t keep away for lengthy! Whereas unhealthy issues do occur to our heroines, the ending was deeply satisfying, wrapping up all of the guide’s intelligent plot threads—I particularly loved the one about social media algorithms performing as a collective unconsciousness—into one dazzling tapestry of a thriller. This novel is the perfect sort of seaside learn: sensible, delicate and attractive abruptly. I beloved it.
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