Trey is tired of always running, always leaving and never having any long-term friends. But when your dad is a con man and you’re his 12-year-old partner, it’s not easy to go straight.
Trey is tired of always running, always leaving and never having any long-term friends. But when your dad is a con man and you’re his 12-year-old partner, it’s not easy to go straight.
By the ripe old age of 12, Trey has learned the ropes of setting up a good con: One, his dad gets him into a fancy school. Two, he makes friends with kids from wealthy families. Three, he slowly helps his “grieving” single father mingle with the right parent groups, aka the right people with too much money on their hands.
Then his dad takes it from there.
The con can involve everything from his father selling interests in a racehorse to an “investment opportunity” for a new business. Those aspects aren’t Trey’s concern. His job is to just establish the friendships, then set up a sense of believability and trust. From there, it’s just waiting for the right word from dad.
When his dad whispers the word Houdini, they’re off to another life, another name, and another con.
It’s all gotten so smooth, so seamless that Trey’s little sister, Arianna, is champing at the bit to take on a bigger role. She’s even gotten good enough to draw her own friends’ families into a scam.
Problem is, things are starting to get a little sticky for Trey.
He’s gotten old enough to start wondering about the ethics of it all. His dad says he shouldn’t worry: They only choose the very rich as their marks. It’s sorta like a Robin Hood approach, Dad says. They take from the black-hearted wealthy people and give to the poor: Themselves.
But is that really the truth?
Lately, Trey has started to make friendships that are … actual friendships. Some of those kids aren’t mean or selfish at all. Some are great kids. So, is it wrong to cheat and (kinda) steal from their parents?
For that matter, Trey wants to, well, keep going to the school he’s enrolled in. He’s started to enjoy the sports teams he’s joined and really likes the surrounding towns. He wants to stay, to belong.
Of course, he can never tell his father any of that. Dad has made it clear that that kind of attitude can be trouble. It can lead to caring for other people. And caring can lead to mistakes.
Dad and Arianna aren’t bothered by any of that. They don’t pause to consider. They don’t falter. They don’t want to stick around. The only thing concerning them is the current score.
Trey, however, can’t stop thinking about something he can’t be thinking about: How can he get them … to stop?
There’s no mention of faith in this story, but Trey must wrestle with his understanding of right and wrong. His father had raised Trey and his sister with a twisted sense of how they should treat the world outside your family. And Trey is challenged by a teacher to consider classic ethical questions in class. Those conundrums lead the boy to a more biblical concept of the value of kindness, honesty and doing what’s right by others.
None.
It’s clear that Trey adores his father and looks up to him as a “genius” of a man. Trey’s sister, Arianna, feels the same way. But Trey begins to feel guilty about some of his own choices and then realizes that they’re directly connected to the demands of his father. As such, Trey begins pushing back against things he believes to be unfair and unjust. For his part, Trey’s dad is willing to see the wisdom of his son’s concerns. And he ultimately proves that he loves both his children.
Trey meets and becomes good friends with a girl named Kaylee who, among other things, is willing to work hard for environmental causes she believes in. She challenges Trey to invest in things he cares for.
Kaylee’s father, Mr. Novak, teaches at the school. And he raises questions in an ethics class that get Trey and other students to think about the right and wrong ways to approach life and deal with other people.
Trey meets several other teachers and parents, and they all seem to be good people. But later we learn that one family is as deceptive as Trey’s family. And that’s yet another instance that leads Trey to consider good and bad choices that people make, as well as what lies beneath someone’s surface actions.
The family get into a car chase while running away from a scam. We hear the story of a kid who slides down a banister and hits his netherregions painfully on the newel post.
It’s evident that Trey really likes Kaylee for a number of reasons … including the fact that he thinks she’s cute. Arianna keeps teasing her brother that he “loves” the girl, but Trey denies it.
What do you think about people who cheat others? Some people justify all sorts of choices based on their “need to survive.” But are there more important values to consider?
In that same vein, Faker raises some ethical questions that Trey and others must answer. But where do people actually find the answers about their values and choices in life?
Take a look at James 3:17, Luke 6:31, Proverbs 10:9 and Proverbs 11:3. What are these verses saying to us? Can you think of other verses that give us insight into how we should approach people around us?
This is an involving story that raises ethical questions about the value of friendship; the need for honesty; personal reparations for those we’ve wronged; and even the bad choices that parents might make. The only drawback to this tale is that there are some past deceitful choices in the mix that don’t receive a comeuppance.
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Book reviews cover the content, themes and worldviews of fiction books, not necessarily their literary merit, and equip parents to decide whether a book is appropriate for their children. The inclusion of a book’s review does not constitute an endorsement by Focus on the Family.
After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.
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