Read. Write. Listen. Create.

If you’re looking for a book that will leave you guessing even when you think you’ve figured it out then I’ve got the book for you! My book club had a very interesting discussion about my first pick and we’re still talking about it the day after our meeting in the group chat. I’m kind of torn on my rating, but I gave it three stars out of five. Cover Story tells, through diary entries, the meeting of Lora Ricci and Cat Wolff…or does it?

Even though it was in a diary format, the voice and character of Lora felt distant to me, and I guess you could argue there’s a reason behind that. A few of us felt as though the book should’ve been written in first person. The diary format didn’t really work for me, but then again after knowing the ending, the diary format makes sense.

The beginning felt like any other story about a girl who wanted to work for a fashion magazine like ELLE, but then came the entry that was unrelated to the other diary entries and was in the form of an email between two Russians. I listened to the audiobook so the reader Carlotta Brentan went from a young 20-something American girl’s voice to an older Russian woman. It felt like it was out of nowhere and I started to get intrigued.

I knew from the description that the book is based on Anna Delvey, who was really, Anna Sorokin, whose story was loosely used in Netflix’s Inventing Anna. The book’s description says that it is also based on The Dropout on Hulu, based on the story of Elizabeth Holmes, as well as the movie Catch Me If You Can.

The description goes on to say, “a whip-smart and delightfully inventive writer, Susan Rigetti brilliantly pieces together a perceptive, humorous caper full of sharp observations about scam culture. Composed of diary entries, emails, FBI correspondence, and more, Cover Story is a fresh, fun, and wholly original novel that takes listeners deep into the codependency and deceit found in a relationship built on power imbalance and lies.”

One of the things we noticed was Lora wanted to be a good writer, but the book wasn’t good writing so things like that started to stand out to us. Without giving anything away, we all thought there should’ve been more clues throughout the book leading up to the twist at the end. My friend thought Rigetti created the ending first and then tried to piece it together while writing the beginning and middle of the book, but we thought it kind of fell flat in certain areas. We weren’t very clear on the timeline of the things that happened in order for the twist to work. But when the twist is presented, it definitely took me by surprise so there is a shock factor that I liked.

Overall, the ending is what made the book for me, but there are some loose ends that I’m still not sure about. It’s a quick read and will keep you guessing!