Booklist Reviews

Gracie (aka Tracey, aka Marianna, originally known as Erin) has been reinventing herself since her teens. Practice makes perfect, and Gracie has had a lot of it: her con-man father moved her across the UK after abruptly abandoning her mother; her husband, Oz, was a nasty piece of work from whom she finally escaped when he was sent to prison. She has become extraordinarily good at pretending to be someone else in order to make a buck or get out of a jam. But when her latest grift goes awry (she's now in the U.S., scamming a wealthy suburbanite in order to escape her sham second marriage), Gracie finds herself running away yet again—this time with her two young children in tow—to take on a new persona as a drama teacher in a prestigious Manhattan school. Eventually, her worlds start to weave together in unnerving ways. Zailckas' second novel is an excellent character study, and readers will be fascinated by the careful twists and turns Gracie negotiates to get what she wants. This is a slow burn that finally erupts into delicious flames. Copyright 2018 Booklist Reviews.

Kirkus Reviews

A habitual liar fakes her teaching credentials and takes on ghosts from her past to safeguard her children's future in Zailckas' (Mother, Mother, 2013, etc.) latest. Gracie Mueller is a con artist who learned from the best—first her father and then her first husband. When her second husband begins having more and more money problems—and takes a girlfriend on the side—Gracie realizes she's going to have to find her own way out of the mess. She picks an easy mark, a lonely, wealthy woman who hires her to design an addition to her house. Tragedy ensues, and Gracie fakes her own death and the deaths of her children to escape the consequences. Five years pass; they are all living under new identities when Gracie finds a new mark: a charming, lonely English teacher at Boulevard, one of the most prestigious prep schools in New York. She's finagled the position of drama teacher when figures from her past, in addition to some memories, begin to resurface. Gracie will have to face her childhood trauma, and her own criminal actions, in order to find the freedom to live life as herself. Because the novel is narrated by Gracie, and she's not a particularly trustworthy or likable figure in the beginning, it's slow to start. But as she begins to reveal more complexity, and more human awareness, it becomes much more interesting and even relatable. At the end of the day, Gracie is a skilled liar, but she's also a woman trying to figure out how to do—and have—it all. Her methods are just more extreme than most people's. Once she's putting more work into extricating herself from trouble, rather than orchestrating it, she becomes much more sympathetic, and it feels safe to celebrate her brilliance. An unusual female perspective defies expectations and, ultimately, entertains. Copyright Kirkus 2018 Kirkus/BPI Communications. All rights reserved.

Library Journal Reviews

With the house in foreclosure and her husband job-hunting elsewhere, Gracie Mueller becomes Tracey Bueller, then Mariana DeFelice, and talks her kids into a private school in Manhattan and herself into a job as drama teacher. Following the well-received debut novel Mother, Mother.

Copyright 2018 Library Journal.

Library Journal Reviews

Zailckas's second novel (after Mother, Mother) introduces a protagonist who is a grifter and a thief. But Gracie (or any of the other names she uses) is not your run-of-the-mill unreliable narrator. We soon learn she was raised to lie, steal, and run cons. In 2008, Gracie is struggling to maintain a middle-class life with her mostly absent husband and two children after the economic crash. She sneaks into a club in the Catskills with her son and daughter and befriends a wealthy woman at the pool. This relationship, aided by the lies of Gracie (now Tracey), grows quickly. The story unfolds over the next decade with occasional flashbacks to Gracie's life before the Catskills. In the end, the reliability of her memory and the stories she tells about herself come into question. VERDICT A death, an investigation, and the past catching up to the present makes this a fast-paced, perfect poolside read. The seemingly straightforward narrative takes surprising, unexpected turns. The characters come to life and Gracie elicits sympathy, understanding, and horror in equal measures. For fans of Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train. [See Prepub Alert, 2/19/18.]—Terry Lucas, Shelter Island P.L., NY

Copyright 2018 Library Journal.

Publishers Weekly Reviews

In this mesmerizing if disturbing thriller from bestseller Zailckas (Mother, Mother), con artist Gracie Mueller manages to save herself and her two young children from the brink of bankruptcy in New York's rural Hudson Valley after real estate agent Randy, the man she has duped into thinking they're married, gets into financial trouble. She bounces back by drawing on the skills that she gleaned from her Irish father, a grifter who took her on the lam with him at age 10 and who later betrayed her. She was also betrayed by her real husband, a swindler whom she'd become an accomplice of. After pulling off a ruse to leave Randy, Gracie settles with her children in Manhattan, where she engages in a number of scams of the rich that make use of her charm, computer prowess, and steely nerves. Assuming and shedding identities like a snake would its skin, Gracie somehow contrives to stay a half-step ahead of disaster, albeit not always believably. But while she may escape unscathed, her actions often wreak devastating collateral damage. Fascinated readers will keep turning the pages. Agent: Amanda Urban, ICM. (Aug.)

Copyright 2018 Publishers Weekly.