Review: Faking Friends by Jane Fallon

FAKING FRIEDS 

by JANE FALLON 

*My thanks to the publisher for an advance copy of this novel via NetGalley* 

Imagine what might happen when you make a last minute trip home to surprise your fiancé, and then hope to go on and surprise your best friend by turning up at her Birthday Party, but when you get home you find it full of things that clearly belong to another woman? And what if that other woman turns out to be your best friend?

Meet Amy, or Aimee because she 'was born in the 1970s when it was apparently essential to spell names using random extra letters wherever possible', who finds herself exactly in this position! 

Sit down, curl up and welcome to another fabulous story from the talented Fallon, who once again entertained me with a great storyline, well crafted characters and a few hours of pure enjoyment! 

It's a long time since I lived in London or was the age of the main characters in this story but thanks to Fallon's engaging writing I was at once settled in their lives and very much at home in their locality. Fallon pulls you into the story quickly, with her relaxed style, great sense of humour and because she creates such relatable characters in relatable situations. 

The story begins with Amy returning from New York where she has been working as an actress on a TV series. Although Amy is enjoying success in America, she still has her feet firmly on the floor. It's only a bit part, she's about to get written out and most of her auditions and previous roles consist of playing 'Woman in the Pub' or 'Woman in the Park'. I loved the humour and insight into the world of acting that Fallon captured in this character and thought it much more interesting to see a character pursuing a career they are passionate about and always sounds so glamorous with a bit more of a reality check. It also emphasises both Amy's more humbling personality, her less outgoing side and her attitude of working hard and quiet determination. All this makes her immediately likeable and the reader is completely on her side when we see her world ripped apart in twenty four hours.

The story unfolds quite unpredictably. Having discovered her best friend's possessions in her fiancé's house, Amy decides to pretend to return to New York but in fact rents a flat the other side of London and begins to hatch a cunning plan in which to quietly get her revenge. With modern technology it is even harder to disguise your whereabouts so I enjoyed Amy's attempts to recreate her New York apartment in a corner of a friend's spare room and having to keep a second alarm clock so she knows whether it is morning or evening when she Facetimes Jack. 

Amy's revenge begins on quite a small scale. She lets herself into the Jack's flat when he's at work and tinkers with things - careful not to draw too much suspicion but enough to try and create an argument between him and Mel, her apparent best friend. But as her anger, frustration and hurt build, she starts to cause more trouble, for both Mel and Jack, as she intercepts their post, emails and Facebook profiles. All the while she is desperately trying to find herself another job so that her final serving of revenge can be that she has a new flat, new job and show she is successful without them thank you very much. All the while also, Fallon weaves in Mel and Amy's back story, revealing more about Mel's character and their relationship from when they were teenagers. More to make you dislike Mel and want to see Amy succeed in her vengeful plans! 

Halfway through the game that Amy has started, things become a little more dangerous, risky and threatening. Fallon strikes an impeccable balance between telling a humorous story about friendship with an increasingly thriller like plot line as the stakes are raised. There are plenty of twists, complications, near misses, clever tricks and at one point I thought I might need to make a chart to follow which devious lie was being played on who! What might on first appearance seem to be a lightweight, easy read about a cheating boyfriends shows itself to be sophisticated, multilayered, evocative and emotive story with lots of different threads all knitting themselves tightly together to ensure a completely satisfying and suitably rewarding ending. As the title suggests this really is an exploration of friendship; faking a friendship to achieve an end game and also how many friendships might in fact be fake or what claim to be. 

I admire Fallon's ability to write a story about revenge without creating cliched characters or having to introduce slightly contrived situations in order to keep the reader on side. Some of the things the girl do to each other are unreasonable and cruel but the reader always understands the motives and it's always in keeping with the nature of the story and the characters. Amy is clear that she does want to make Jack sorry for what he has done and she does want to punish Mel, but she has integrity and shame as her actions become more risky and cause more jeopardy. She's flawed and we like her more for it. Similarly, with Mel, Fallon creates a character who has barely any redeeming features so the reader does not feel much sympathy for her when things go wrong. Each time we are given some information that might sway us into thinking differently, Mel manages to do something that reinforces what we always thought. Fallon's characterisation of Mel and Amy is commendable and the interaction and dynamics between the two girls is impressively insightful. 

Despite being this novel being about a working woman who lives independently, there are aspects to 'coming of age' in this novel. I enjoyed Amy's growing understanding about what real friendship looks like and her growing realisation about who her real friends are. But as Amy says, 'Once you find your real friends, you have to hold on to them.' If you can do that then you will be fine. 

Faking Friends is a fabulous read. A highly enjoyable book to spend a few hours with; full of drama, romance, tension and universal issues everyone will identify with. Fallon is fast becoming my go-to author when I need some love, laughter, light relief and basically just a very good book! 

Faking Friends is published on 11th January by Penguin. I highly recommend you get yourself a copy!