reply

@Asher, I’m glad you found the discussion, and even gladder you brought up the I WANT TO GO HOME parallels. I thought of that when reading but didn’t make a good mental note of it. I had been expecting a bit of a NO COINS, PLEASE vibe in this book and was tickled to find a bit of Rudy Miller in addition. (In my mind, I fuse IWTGH and NCP as wild summer break stories involving rebellious campers and hapless counselors. I was expecting more of NCP in FAKER because of the scammer element.)

“Kormanpocalypse.” — nice

 I recall the term “cathartic convergence” from literature analysis back in school, and I think I’ve heard music’s “harmonizing crescendo” used to describe the same thing. That technique is so satisfying for the reader. Didn’t we get that when the CableWeb Communications van was unmasked as an FBI surveillance operation–and the interwoven revelation that Logan and the Romanos are another faker family, alongside Trey’s Cameron Frey-esque destruction of El Capitan and Mona becoming a Kirkwood and I.C. All being unmasked? That’s a lot of seemingly disparate threads being tied together to make possible an otherwise inconceivable outcome where Trey’s family goes straight and gets to stay in Boxelder. 

As for “Son of Faker” as an alternate title: How about “Son of Houdini”?