This is the second novel by Barbara Bourland that I've read. Her debut, I'LL EAT WHEN I'M DEAD was a sharp, well-crafted satire of the fashion (publishing) world. The characters were great, the prose excellent.

In FAKE LIKE ME, we get a similarly excellent novel, this time taking aim at the contemporary art scene. Also like the author's first novel, it's not *just* about the art scene/industry. It's also a well-observed and well-crafted character study - about how contemporary life and expectations can cause women to struggle, and overcome challenges that (frankly) they shouldn't be forced to confront. Throw in the additional idiosyncrasies and BS of the art world, and you get quite a toxic/difficult mix. The character's voice was intriguing and quite different from any I've read (that I can think of), and pulled me through from the start.

Another great novel by Bourland, I very much look forward to reading whatever she comes up with next. Recommended.

I really enjoyed reading this pseudo-mystery about the art world. The plot is intricate with some excellent twists. There are hints of The Likeness and The Secret History (but I liked it better than the Tartt book). Excellent focus on the grind of making art. I wonder if writing is a similar grind for the author.

4 stars.

TL;DR:
Characters: Authentically imperfect
Writing: Sometimes slow, usually pretty
Plot: Art-centric, a slow burn at first but raced toward the finish line

I was really pleasantly surprised by Fake Like Me. Art isn't usually my scene but this novel isn't really about art- I would say it's more about authenticity and identity. I wasn't expecting it to be a mystery/thriller so that was a pleasant surprise, but if you're expecting a breakneck pace, you'll be disappointed.

Downsides: the middle section dragged a little
Upsides: I truly didn't realize that the protagonist is never named (makes so much sense though!), the mystery kept things interesting

ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book is fantastic. I love this author. You never quite know what you are going to get but it will be wonderful. In this, the main character starts as a student at an art school. She goes to see an exhibit by an artist she admires and it sets her down a life path that turns out to be very interesting. This may not be the most realistic thing, but it's certainly entertaining.

Read this book. But also read her other book. Because that was fantastic also.

She met her when she was nineteen, a fledging art student meeting Carey Logan, an artist part of a collective called Pine City. She admired her strange work, her notoriety, Carey was the in artist, Pine City the in group. Then she hears that Carey had stopped creating, turning instead to performance art, and then kills herself. Why did this happen? Our no name artist wants to know, wants to know obsessively. In time she gets her chance, after experiencing a tragedy of her own, and what she finds is so much more than she expected.

The avant garde art scene, I find it fascinating and something I will never personally experience. Those who create for their livlihood where so few actually make it. This is a study of those creators, but also of a young artist struggling for her own future and becoming enveloped in something she never expected. This is in parts strange, part mystery and part revelation. Our unnamed young artists backstory helps explain her insecurity and her intense quest for her own artistical recognition but also
her own search for self. It takes us deep inside the strange world of the rich and famous, of friendships that form and cement the participants in a course of action that could lose them everything they worked for. It was quite good, but felt the ending was the weakest part of the story. It did though, show us where our young artists future may possibly lie.

ARC from Netgalley.

When you open novel by this author you literally never know quite what you are going to get. Her stories are all very different, quirky, with unusual, yet extremely developed, characters and served with a huge dollop of satirical humor.

Beyond stylish. Eloquently written. For fans of art and the art scene- and those who know it's not all what it seems. Not a true horror novel, but a trickling thriller.

Magnificent!!! This is a book about art: how we define it and how hard it is to succeed as female artist. Told through the eyes of an unnamed, striving female painter, FAKE LIKE ME tells the story of the Pine City five, an art collective living on an estate in upstate New York. The unnamed protagonist holds Carey Logan, one of the Pine City Five as her idol, her unacknowledged mentor. But when Carey commits suicide by drowning herself, the painter is bereft - her most significant role model couldn't succeed in this world, so how can she? But then the painter gets the opportunity to be guest at Pine City's bucolic home. But instead of being welcomed with open arms, she finds hostility and buried secrets. FAKE LIKE ME makes the reader reflect on the nature of art and gives us a sense of how physically grueling and soul satisfying it can be to create art. I loved it and will buy many copies as gifts.

This column includes Fake Like Me. It was published in the Toronto Star on July 13 and online



https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/2019/07/16/families-become-entangled-in-crime-and-mystery-in-these-hot-summer-thrillers.html

Fake Like Me, Barbara Bourland
The nameless narrator, a Manhattan artist of billboard-sized canvasses, had long identified with Carey Logan, a creator of body-part sculpture and member of the fabled Pine City collective. Carey killed herself (“she filled her boots with cement and walked into the lake”) in 2008. Now three years later, our narrator realizes her dream: working in Carey’s studio at the Pine City retreat. Here she will learn more than she counted on about Carey’s life — and death. Bourland’s first novel, I’ll Eat When I’m Dead, was merely OK. Fake Like Me, which she describes as “a love letter to the labour of artmaking,” is the work of a writer who has hit her stride.

hile worried that she’ll never paint again, an unnamed narrator has a breakthrough. She begins to come out of her shell. She was rather successful, and even begins to travel with her work. She becomes extreme interested in learning about another artist, Carey Logan. She learns that Carey has a very similar style. As a matter of fact, the closer she looks at Carey’s work, she noticed that Carey used a model of hers in a recent sculpture.

Our unnamed artist is quite determined to see who Carey is and what she is all about, so she is shocked to discover that Carey has just committed suicide. So the narrator does all she can to learn who Carey actually was. However, she suffers a tragedy. Her apartment goes up in flames, and all of her paintings have been destroyed.

Now homeless and without any money, she must recreate her art, or her career will be ruined! Hopefully, she will be up to the task. While in the process of working hard, she jumps into the mystery as to who Carey was and what really happened as to how she lost her life.

As I truly have no interest in art, this story did not do a lot for me. What kept me interested was the rush of getting the commissioned work done, as well as the personal relationships that grew during the course of this story.

Many thanks to Grand Central Publishing and to NetGalley for this ARC to review in exchange for my honest opinion.

It's 1996 and the unnamed narrator of this story is a fledgling artist from Florida, currently a sophomore at the Academy in NYC, and feeling pretty lonely in the big city. One day she notices a group of five young and beautiful artists who are 'making it' in the art scene. Three of them have graduated from the same art school she's attending and all are becoming well known for their nihilistic and shrewd work, rather all of a type. But it is a young woman of the group named Carey Logan who is the hottest of them all with her hyperrealist sculptures of human body parts.

Oh, how our narrator would love to be just like her and be part of that group now known as Pine City. They form an exclusive artist collective by that name, moving into an old resort in upper New York state, where each has their own studio and other artists are allowed to come by invitation only.

Fast forward to 2006 and Carey has stopped working in sculpture and taken up performance art. The reviews are not kind and Carey does one last performance in which she commits suicide on film.

Now three more years have passed and our unnamed artist is making a bit of a splash herself with her billboard-sized paintings when disaster strikes and her loft burns with most of her work inside. She lies to the gallery owner who is selling her work about the extent of her loss and now she must quickly repaint several works for her upcoming show. It's an impossible, super human job and where can she find a studio big enough to hold her work at this late date? One art patron she meets comes to her rescue ands says she can get her a spot at Pine City. Wow! Her dream is finally coming true.

The remaining four Pine City artists are not particularly welcoming at first. And she finds it odd that none of them will talk about Carey at all, even though her work still obviously influences theirs. Is there more going on here than meets the eye?

I enjoyed the story but I don't think it's going to be everyone's cup of tea. I think you have to be very interested in art and enjoy reading the details of the creative process. The minutia does slow the story done a bit but I think the pace does make sense. It gives the reader an understanding of all the work this artist must go through to recreate her paintings and save her career. Desperate times.

I had at first marked this as a 'thriller' but it is not. The touch of mystery is very light but rather interesting when you finally learn what's going on at Pine City. I think the story is much more about relationships and how people use other people.

I received an arc from the publisher via NetGalley for my honest review. Many thanks.

Barabara Bourland loves looking at the world with satire claws. This book looks into the art world and how fake it can be. There is a large part dedicated to the main character working as a painter and all the insecurities that went along with not being established. When all of the main character's work burns down in a freak accident she has to recreate her entire exhibition in three months without anyone knowing. While she does this she chases after the phantom of Cary Logan, the artist who the main character always feels like is always ahead of her even after her death.

I love this book that it took me awhile to even write a review for why I loved it. It's so realistically personal to measure your work to another persons who you've never met.

I loved this book! A great mixture of literary fiction and psychological thriller, with a talented young artist uncovering secrets when she follows in the footsteps of her hero. The protagonist is so well realized and I loved the focus on her art. I read Bourland's debut a couple of years ago and this is a million miles better. A book I will be recommending to everyone.

I love the title, Fake Like Me. It made me wonder immediately what the book could be about? I read Barbara Bourland’s novel, I’ll Eat When I’m Dead and liked it so I was looking forward to reading her next book.

Described as “dark, glamorous, addictive” its a must read!

What really happened to Carey Logan?

After a fire decimates her studio, including the seven billboard-size paintings for her next show, a young, no-name painter is left with an impossible task: recreate her art in three months-or ruin her fledgling career.

Homeless and desperate, she flees to an exclusive retreat in upstate New York famous for its outrageous revelries and glamorous artists. And notorious as the place where brilliant young artist Carey Logan-one of her idols-drowned in the lake.

But when she arrives, the retreat is a ghost of its former self. No one shares their work. No parties light up the deck. No one speaks of Carey, though her death haunts the cabins and the black lake, lurking beneath the surface like a shipwreck. As the young painter works obsessively in Carey’s former studio, uncovers strange secrets and starts to fall–hard and fast–for Carey’s mysterious boyfriend, it’s as if she’s taking her place.

But one thought shadows her every move: What really happened to Carey Logan?

I love the setting of the art scene, I love the east coast. The author’s dry wit comes through in the writing which I LOVE. This is an absolute must read!

Order now and enjoy on June 18.

A young un-named painter with potential is poised to make waves in the art community with her collection of seven billboard-size paintings.  When her apartment goes up in flames and decimates the entire collection, she lies to her gallery and says that six have been safely crated and stored; only the final painting she was still working on has been destroyed.  
The gallery decides it's in their best interest to have her to re-create the final piece, which has already been sold, in total secrecy.

Now homeless and without a single piece for her show, she searches frantically for a studio available on short notice where she can re-create all seven pieces in their entirety in just three months.
The artist is in awe when an acquaintance gets her a spot at the exclusive artist retreat known as Pine City in upstate New York. Pine City isn't just a resort, it's also the name of the collective of five artists who own it.

Carey Logan was a member of Pine City, and the idol of our main character.  Carey's work was brilliant and her life ended far too soon when she purposefully stepped into a lake and drowned.

When our no-name artist arrives at Pine City, she finds it's full of secrets. The retreat is shadowed by Carey's presence and yet none of the dead artist's friends will speak about her; she has been removed from every photo on the grounds, and none of the remaining collective will share their work.

Across the lake is Max, our MC's childhood friend who has been famous most of her life for being wealthy and then earned fame with her photography skills.  Max swears total secrecy when she learns that her friend is re-creating her entire show but soon it appears Max has motives for keeping her secret.
Carey Logan not only designed the home Max now lives in, but she was represented by Max's husband, Charlie.

The MC learns that Charlie's gallery is in a legal battle with Pine City over a rumored final piece of art by Carey. 
What was the final piece?  Why is Pine City so secretive about their work and the legacy of Carey Logan?

Fake Like Me fits solidly into the women's fiction genre but it also surprised me by being a dark satire as well as a thriller set in the glamorous contemporary art scene.  
The characters are overwhelmingly pretentious and take themselves far too seriously, but as in all good satires, it was incredibly entertaining. 
I wasn't expecting the mystery surrounding Carey Logan to be so compelling; I couldn't turn the pages fast enough to uncover the truth.

Thanks to Grand Central Publishing and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.  Fake Like Me is scheduled for release on June 18, 2019.

Thank you to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for providing me with an ARC of Barbara Bourland ‘s newest novel. Below is my unbiased review.

Carey Logan was once the IT Girl of the art scene until she committed suicide leaving both her peers and admirers wondering why. Now there’s a new raising star in the art world and she bares both physical and artistic similarities to Carey. Soon, this unnamed artist finds herself following and living in Carey’s shadow; what will she discover and how will she handle the fragile balance between art and reality.

This is a story of perception, art, human behavior and the blurred lines of creativity. It’s also a mystery and literary thriller perfect for fans of Maria Hummel, Heather Rose and Taylor Jenkins Reid.

A dark mystery from an art industry insider, and an imaginative dive into social engineering and the price of success.

Bourland uses a trick from Daphne Du Maurier, keeping her main character nameless and in the shadow of another woman. After that all similarities cease as we enter the edgy, back stabbing world of art. The main character idolizes an artist who dies and whose studio was totally destroyed by fire. Jane Doe is now trying to recreate seven huge paintings that are scheduled for the artist”s upcoming show. Faught with tension, deceit and subterfuge, this book is a dark and delicious look into the world of art and the price people are willing to pay for fame

5 HUGE STARS! After reading the description for Fake Like Me, I knew I had to read it! Barbara Bourland has combined several book genres (general fiction, women’s fiction, mystery and even a little romance) together to masterfully spin an absolutely fascinating storyline. I have to say at about half way through, I was thinking Fake Like Me was a great read, but by the end, I was thinking it was an epic read! This 5 star novel would be a fantastic book club selection—I would love to discuss this book (for hours lol)! I highly recommend Fake Like Me to everyone— so flipping phenomenal!! I truly look forward to reading more from Barbara Bourland in the future!