Charming, thrilling and intelligent – Rafael’s Frumkin’s Confidence is a commentary on capitalism, crime, and love, blending them all together in a twisted, pining caper too tasty to resist. Confidence tells the story of con-artists Orson and Ezra, who meet at a camp for troubled teens, and enter into a life of white collar crime together. Orson is the beautiful, electric face of it all, eager to be in front of an audience and convince them of anything he wants. Ezra is the businessman, the moneyman, the one who puts out fires so Orson can shine. The two of them are in it together until the end. But is Ezra Orson’s closest confidant, trusted and loved above all else, or is he simply the longest con Orson has ever pulled, leaving him in a constant state of wanting and waiting?

Queer longing is the heart of Confidence, as what lies between Ezra and Orson is often left unfulfilled. The audience is keenly aware that (for the most part) Ezra is expecting in vain; Orson’s motives are somewhat unclear and never quite spelled out besides always wanting more. Wanting everything. And yet Ezra continues to follow and serve Orson’s most egocentric desires and the audience continues to wait in frustration until the two men are on the same page again. It just feels right when they are - though there’s not enough of it by the second half of the book. Ezra is a lovable protagonist, a “little dude” far exceeding anything that was ever expected of him, a master in his own right of people and numbers and choices. But he fails himself too often, remaining sympathetic throughout the entirety of Confidence. Orson is a mystery, brilliant as he is cloudy.

Confidence triumphs in its tone - it’s fun, entertaining and witty. I couldn’t quite pinpoint when the fun relinquished center stage to something else – something a little sad and familiar. The opening of the novel is set at the end, and thus by the time we reach its inevitable conclusion, we’ve seen this “film” before. Rafael Frumkin does a fantastic job of creating a world rooted around Ezra and Orson, both cinematic and intimate in scope. It reminded me of many crime stories before it, but this time something was different. Queer people have had to use illusion and deflection historically for ages; there’s something satisfying about them using it here to their advantage, though it broke my heart at times. Yes, we’ve seen this film before, but not in this way. And maybe we’ll like the ending after all. Maybe the ending is the beginning.

Ezra Green, geeky with vision difficulties ,and Orson Ortman, sexy and charismatic, meet at a camp for troubled teens, They merge their talents to create scams that become more and more daring and visible, but Ezra's love and devotion causes him to turn a blind eye to the problems that become more and more visible to the reader.

Definitely a page-turner!

Scam artists, sometimes lovers, and debauchery. What more could you ask for?

After trying to pull off one of their largest scams, Ezra and Orson must find a way to pull in the reigns when things spin out of control.

I enjoyed the first half of this novel, but things took a turn for me. While I enjoyed the hijinks and sometimes dysfunctional relationship between Ezra and Orson, I didn’t enjoy where the story was being driven.

Overall, I liked the premise and the idea of the American dream being a scam, yet this one didn’t click with me like I thought it would.

The publisher provided ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I was intrigued by this story and it was definitely readable and mostly enjoyable. I just found myself wishing it was a little more fleshed out. The boys' plans get so big so fast and with no real failed enterprises. While I can suspend disbelief to a certain degree, it got a little "okay cmon" as the novel went on.

The narration in this book was so spot on I forgot it was fiction a couple of times and tried to look up people the author mentioned.

Confidence explores the darker side of human nature and the vulnerabilities that make people susceptible to scams. Anyone can be scammed if a con artist can find their weakness: greed, insecurity, lust for power, or garden variety lust.

Ezra and Orson realized this at an early age and capitalized on it. They met at an abusive camp for wayward teens and are soon on their way to pulling their first scams. They start out scamming only the wealthy – ostensibly because of some sort of virtuousness, but in reality, that's where the money is.

I don't want to spoil the book because it was a good read that I'm happy to recommend. Fans of stories about scams with shades of televangelism and those interested in the psychology of deception will enjoy this. It's like Bad Blood, Fyre Festival, Bernie Madoff and Goop all rolled together.

Underneath it all runs an undercurrent of physical deterioration and longing for love that adds emotional depth and complexity to the characters and elevates the novel beyond just a scam story.

I received this Advanced Reader Copy of Confidence by Rafael Frumkin from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I fully expected a searing indictment of capitalism in this novel about two boys who grow up to be high-tech grifters – and I certainly got that! – but I was surprised and even more impressed by the tenderness of the queer love story at the heart of this fast-paced and truly funny novel.

Ezra Green has always been small for his age. With bad teeth and worse eyesight, he manages to not be picked on in high school by transforming himself into a dealer of contraband items. When he’s busted for dealing what his gullible classmates thought were drugs but were actually Sudafeds cut with salt, he’s sent to a pricey reform camp that his striving parents can barely afford in lieu of juvenile detention. It’s there that he meets the charismatic Orson Ortman, with whom he strikes up a lifelong friendship, and more.

Once the two have graduated high school, they decide to move in together. Talking about business opportunities soon has them running Internet scams, as they create different personas and begin running short and long cons. But it’s while working at a classy hotel, catering to the rich and privileged, that the seed of their biggest project is sown: a faith-based process called Synthesis that allows practitioners to find a state of inner peace by blending their bad memories and thoughts with the good. Their wealthy clientele absolutely eats it up, though not everyone in their audiences falls for their shtick. Ezra is caught off-guard when a fashion designer they’ve been trying to influence corners him later for a private conversation:

QUOTE
“Relax, I’m not going to expose you or whatever it is you’re worried about. I think you’re both very smart. I admire what you do. [Y]ou know your audience, you know their weaknesses, and you exploit them brilliantly. I’m not at all different from you, Ezra. I know people want to look good. They want to conceal their flaws, and I design clothes that do just that for people of both genders and everything in between. And I sell those clothes at prices that are quintuple the manufacturing price. And it has become a sign of sophistication and wealth and importance to own my clothes. [Y]ou and Orson know very well how capitalism works, and so do I.”
END QUOTE

As Synthesis grows bigger, Ezra and Orson grapple with the philosophies of capitalism vs the ethics of their fund-raising methods. Perhaps inevitably, they prioritize their self-interest, growing Synthesis from a self-help program to a highly sought-after wearable to, ultimately, an upstate New York compound where adherents can pay thousands of dollars to learn the ways to inner peace. Orson thrives in the spotlight, which Ezra works hard to keep focused on his charming, magnetic friend and sometimes-lover. Over the years, their relationship has changed and grown, though one thing remains constant. Ezra loves Orson with all of his soul, and would do anything to keep him happy:

QUOTE
Orson was profiled in major magazines and made several TV appearances. It was so satisfying reading about him and watching him onscreen: this was him at least bored, his most happy. He wanted to be adored and here the world was, adoring him. He spent weeks flying around the country, which meant we saw each other rarely, but it also meant that he saw Emily rarely, too. And of Emily and me, who was it who had built a kingdom for him? Who was it who made him happiest?
END QUOTE

Emily is, unfortunately, the straight woman Orson is romantically involved with, much to Ezra’s deeply buried fury. Not helping matters is the fact that Ezra’s eyesight, already poor to begin with, keeps deteriorating. With Orson retreating more and more to the compound and Ezra left to run their multimillion dollar company on his own, the stress begins to get to him. Add to that the almost absurdist pressures of pleasing fellow grifter tech moguls, trying to set up shop in restive foreign countries, and defending the company from charges of fraud by everyone from disgruntled exes to activist investors, and it’s a wonder Ezra doesn’t snap. But something has to give, and secrets can only stay buried for so long.

The greatest achievement of Confidence is, in my opinion, the way it shows how grift is merely another survival strategy in a world of rampant capitalism, an ideology that promotes the hoarding of wealth due to a false assumption of scarcity that skews the ideas people have of success and the attainment thereof. Rafael Frumkin drolly points out the similarities between what Ezra and Orson are doing and what other promoters of feel-good-programs – whether it be in the religion, fashion or technology spheres – espouse. Where, he asks, is the line between guru and criminal?

Confidence deftly answers that question, while also presenting one of the most weirdly sympathetic love stories I’ve ever read. With plot elements that are clear parodies of real-life hucksters and scams, this is a wild joyride of a novel that pulls no punches while also reminding us that there are real, damaged people at the heart of these stories. Not every grifter is an unfeeling tech bro looking only to make themselves richer in order to feed an endlessly gaping hole in their self-esteem. Con artists are criminals, yes, but their prominence now in the early 21st century is only one symptom of a system in desperate need of reform.

This was a fun read. I enjoyed the interactions be tween Ezra and Orson and the friendship felt pretty realistic with its ebbs and flows. The beginning felt a bit rough and some of the dialogue contrived. The general themes and even the symbolism associated with Ezra’s sight were conceived well and had a good tie-in as the ending came together.

Rafael Frumkin's Confidence outlines exactly what it means to chase the American Dream, just to realize that the whole thing was a scam in the first place. His writing is exquisite, and the tale is filled with yearning, disappointment, anxiety, and simply wanting someplace to belong. I am looking forward to more from Frumkin in the future.

Who doesn't love a good con story? This one brings to mind many of the worst of the worst cons of the past twenty years, interspersed with a love story, a friendship story, and the story of a man losing his sight. I read this in just a few sittings, and the satire heightens exponentially as the book goes along. Recommend if you liked COUNTERFEIT.

📚 𝐀𝐑𝐂 𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰 - Confidence⁣
𝘉𝘺 𝘙𝘢𝘧𝘢𝘦𝘭 𝘍𝘳𝘶𝘮𝘱𝘬𝘪𝘯⁣
⭐⭐⭐ (3.5/5) ⁣
⁣
✨️ 𝐏𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐬: 𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐂𝐇 𝟕𝐓𝐇, 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟑 ✨️⁣
⁣
𝐓𝐡𝐞 "𝐆𝐢𝐬𝐭": Ezra and Orson (friends and occasional lovers) bonded early over their troubled youth. Now, they have finally found the answer to their financial woes: Nulife--a product/lifestyle designed to provide eternal happiness to its users/members. But when the inner workings of the company are exposed, everything threatens to fall apart. ⁣
⁣
𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝗪𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐝 𝐅𝐨𝐫 𝐌𝐞👍:⁣
- The beginning chapters with Ezra and Orson at the youth behavioral camp were beautiful and heartfelt. I fell in love with both characters during that time. ⁣
⁣
𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐃𝐢𝐝𝐧'𝐭 👎:⁣
- Despite starting strong, the book steadily lost steam that it never quite recovered, despite a few attempts to add action scenes later in the story. ⁣
- The jump from "𝘏𝘦𝘺, 𝘸𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘢 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘕𝘶𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦" to "𝘞𝘦'𝘳𝘦 𝘮𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘪-𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘪𝘳𝘦𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘸" was too quick for my taste. ⁣
- I disliked how little we got to see/hear from Orson toward the end. It really formed a disconnect to the character. ⁣
⁣
𝐅𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬 💭: A lovely concept that I think could have been executed a bit better. But all in all, still an enjoyable read. ⁣
⁣
The exploration of the "American Dream", the powers of persuasion against the desperate and downtrodden, the turmoil of unrequited love, and the ultimate price of power and greed kept me interested in this one despite the slower pace. ⁣
⁣
Huge thanks to @netgalley and @simonandschuster for the opportunity to read this one early. ⁣
⁣
𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐢𝐟 📖: You like: Books with subtle cult/pyramid scheme vibes, books with a M/M romance⁣
⁣
𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: R (for sexual situations and violence)

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC! I knew as soon as I heard that this was about something cult or con like, I knew I had to read it. I overall enjoyed it, Ezra and Orson somehow end up being likable characters, at least to me... maybe I just don't have sympathy for the rich people they conned. The author does a great job of setting up their backstories for how they ended up as large-scale con men and the diversity was great. There were definitely some details taken straight from NXIVM, like the Dalai Llama visit. If you like Inventing Anna, NXIVM stuff or even anything Elizabeth Holmes related, you'll probably like this book.

I feel like this book would make such a good movie or TV show. The characters are magnetic (some of them are exceedingly charming, some of them are hopelessly relatable, and some are just easy to pity), their relationships and dynamics are so interesting and complex, and the cons are fun to read (but in a slightly stressful, hands sweaty kind of way). Also the cover is eye-catching and the title is SO clever!??!?

I think my one nitpick is that the book starts with a scene from the present, then the rest of the book is written about the events that transpired before. Not a huge deal, but I feel like removing the end scene from the beginning lends more tension to the book since you wouldn't have a sense of what happened in the end.

I received a free ARC from NetGalley but this review was posted of my own volition! (less) [edit]

I’ll admit, I love a good con (fictional, of course) and it doesn’t get any better than Ezra and Orson, two troubled teens who meet at a Last Chance Camp and bond over their shared love of scamming. They quickly escalate from small-time cons on friends and acquaintances to the big leagues of corporate fraud (with a little cult action added ad garnish) with NuLife - a company that offers users bliss. Throw in an unrequited love plot and what more could you ask for?

I breezed through this book in a weekend, propelled by the tension of the mounting house of cards the characters were building, just waiting for the inevitable topple. But there is also a lot of heart here and an intriguing look at why scammers scam.

Read if you: have watched both Fyre Festival docs and all of Inventing Anna, love to corporate intrigue of succession, wear glasses, love a good (non-murdery) cult story

Sometimes all you want to do is read a book about a codependent obsession, perhaps some unreliable narrators, throw in an audacious attempt to con rich people out of their money… well, if that’s what you’re looking for, Confidence is the book for you!

Following Ezra and Orson, who meet at a camp for juvenile delinquents, they strike up a friendship that takes them through scam after scam, until they come up with the big one: NuLife, promising its consumers a lifetime of bliss. It’s with NuLife that they reach their peak, and it’s with NuLife that things start to unravel.

The book as a whole is a satirical take on the American Dream and capitalism’s drive of it, wrapped up in some good old fashioned scamming rich people. For all that Ezra and Orson are indiscriminate conmen and probably not people you’d be friends with in real life, you find yourself liking them and rooting for them as characters in the book. They’re unreliable and morally ambiguous protagonists and that’s what makes the book so compelling.

If you’re a fan of that kind of twisted dynamic, where one character is more in love with the other than the reverse, where the codependency and jealousy is some good fucking food, then you’ll want to pick this one up as soon as you can!

This book was a phenomenal read from start to finish. An instant hook, a captivating mystery to Orson and Ezra's business and professional relationship, and the lure of capitalism at heart.

"You're not American if you're not in debt to someone."

The book opens with Orson Ortman, a handsome, charismatic man, and his "friend" Ezra Green, meeker, less charismatic, but loyal to Orson. The catch? They're in prison - but we don't know what for. This book truly surrounds Ezra and Orson's humble beginnings - both grew up poor, and met at a reformation camp, becoming business partners and close friends. They become con men, hustlers, criminals, lovers, and maneuver their way through the hurdles the business world throws at them.

"Some part of them must have known I was lying -they weren't dumb- but when it came to money, they couldn't afford to care about the truth."

I found it hard to believe that their empire could grow so fast in a matter of a decade. Especially with people being "synthesized" by fake technology and the lure of relief, inner peace, and eventually - bliss. While Orson is certainly charismatic, and could likely sell anything he put his hands on, they essentially form a pyramid scheme. For lack of better wording, their "NuLife" product is similar to watching a televangelist perform God's "healing miracles". How it warps into a multi-billion dollar company, so fast is riveting, but is admittedly beyond belief. The pacing was spectacular in the beginning - watching them grow from small drug deals into fledgling companies was satisfying. I loved the way they tricked everyone initially - but the Jenga pieces were slowly displaced, and their empire grew far too large. It suspended my belief, and it began to drag on every so slightly. Besides that, I enjoyed this book significantly more than I thought I ever would! I would hands down recommend this.

What absolutely tore me apart was the undying, cruel torment of Orson's "love" towards Ezra. They were intimate - but Orson slowly withdrew from Ezra. "Business appearances" he'd say. And at every change, Ezra took it all. He took every smack in the face, every betrayal, and still loved him regardless. I'd honestly describe his love for Orson as Stockholm Syndrome at best. The unease Orson settled into my heart was awful. Ezra did too - they both had toxic traits. At parts I needed to take a break - it was absolutely heartbreaking to read, unsettling, and sickening.

"I'm not saying we'd stop everything. I'm just saying that maybe we'd try to keep it from being so obvious. People talk. People notice things."

The ending was a bittersweet poison, a cruel reminder of Orson's alluring, manipulative nature and Ezra's absolute forgiveness and loyalty. This is a friendly reminder that nobody in this book is absolved and a reminder of the toxic ecosystem that Ezra and Orson inevitably share.

"What was wrong with me that I couldn't have him?"

Overall, a thrilling, emotional tale of "The American Dream" with a twist, big stakes, and the grifters behind it all. 4/5.

*I received an ARC in exchange for a fair and unbiased review from NetGalley.*

CONfidence follows a scam run by two delinquent teenagers as it devolves into an international spiritual and technological cult.

Ezra and Orson are deeply flawed characters— while they start off vowing only to con the rich and terrible, their greed and newfound power launches them far beyond their original intent, so far as to become involved in a political coup in the global south. Frumkin does an excellent job of exploring the evolution of their complex romantic relationship from their early teens to late twenties, as their feelings for each other become entangled with their business. I love when gayness is well-integrated into a plot-driven novel, and Frumkin does so beautifully.

The reader knows from the start that the scheme will fail, yet it can’t be helped to turn page after page, sucked in by the fervor of the characters. If you enjoyed ‘I Care A Lot’ on Netflix, definitely try Confidence for your next fix of scheming conning gays.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Simon&Schuster for the opportunity to read and review this book!

representation: disability (legal blindness), mlm

Trigger warnings on Readerly.

Thanks to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for an ARC of this title.

This was enjoyable for the first 45% and then got off the rails and never got back on them again. It's an interesting picture of scammy wellness-adjacent culture, but this had an annoying tendency to yadda-yadda over the actual nitty gritty of how the two main characters get to their position of power (there's a lot of telling vs. showing), and some metaphors about blindness that don't entirely land, along with a bunch of small side-detail jokes that add nothing to the plot.

This book! It is completely a divergence from my "normal" read. I usually read books by women, mystery/thrillers and historical fiction. I dabble in everything, but books like this (by a man!!!) are ones that I don't EVER usually try.

In this case, I am SOOO glad I did. Although I didn't find the characters particularly likable or charming, I found that I was drawn into the story anyway. Although I didn't love Ezra or Orson, I was rooting for them (especially Ezra). Ezra was a difficult character not to root for... He was in an emotionally uneven relationship with Orson-- things were always on Orson's terms, with Ezra fearing to speak out about his own feelings, for fear that Orson would drop him and go a different way. We've all had relationships/friendships like that, so it was so easily relatable to me.

I also found it funny that for as hard as the two men worked on their con, they could have had a real job and not be worried about arrest or prosecution. They wouldn't have made as much, obviously, but they would have been okay, in the end.

This story was engaging, and a surprisingly good story, even for someone who doesn't normally read this genre.

Ezra tells this story from his prison cell, looking back over his life from the perspective of someone who has finally been caught- not repenting but reflecting. This is both a love story and a cautionary tale. Ezra, the brains of what becomes the con that brings him down, would do anything for Orson, the beauty and charmer of the pair. They've spent their lives conning people, including themselves. Those who follow the financial pages will no doubt find parallels to real life but Frumkin has been careful, I think, to stir the mix enough that nothing sticks to any one IRL rat. It's humorous and sad at the same time. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. A good read.

3.5 I'm not sure what I think of this book. I was expecting this to be a "quirky character" book. Which it was, in a way, but usually you like the characters. I can't decide if I liked these characters or maybe I just didn't get the whole thing. It's not a dystopian book, but the relationship of the characters, at times, felt like they were in a dystopia - maybe of their own making. I think ultimately it's trying to be a dark comedy about capitalist greed, but I'm not sure. I've heard this is being compared to Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, which I absolutely loved, but I'm not seeing it. I would not discourage anyone from reading this book if interested. Perhaps someone else will find a deeper meaning to this book than I did. Thanks Net Galley for this opportunity.