YOU'LL NEVER BELIEVE ME by Kari Ferrell - Spotlight

 

Kari Ferrell, formerly known as the "Hipster Grifters" compelling, edgy, compassionate, laugh-out-loud memoir, YOU'LL NEVER BELIEVE ME (StMartinsPress).

Before Anna Delvey, before the Tinder Swindler, there was Kari Ferrell. Adopted at a young age by a Mormon family in Utah, Kari struggled with questions of self-worth and identity as one of the few Asian Americans in her insulated community, leading her to run with the “bad crowd” in an effort to fit in. Soon, stealing from superstores turned into picking up men (and picking their pockets), and before she knew it, Kari had graduated from petty theft to Utah’s most wanted list. Though Kari was able to escape the Southwest, she couldn’t outrun her new moniker: the Hipster Grifter.

New York City’s indie sleaze scene had found its newest celebrity—just as Kari found herself in a heap of trouble. Jail time, riots, bad checks, and an explosion of internet infamy and fetishization put her name in the spotlight. Beyond the gossip and Gawker posts, there’s a side to Kari the media never saw—until now.

By turns rollicking and irreverent, warm and compassionate, You’ll Never Believe Me tells Kari’s story for the first time. A heartfelt narrative of redemption and reconciliation as Kari eventually dedicates her life to activism, social justice, and setting the record straight, this memoir introduces a fresh, hilarious new voice to the literary stage and offers readers a nostalgic, uplifting, and at times unbelievable book that grapples with truth, why we lie, and what it means when our pasts don’t paint the whole picture.

Perfect for today's social climate.

Who says crime doesn’t pay?

So-called “Hipster Grifter” Kari Ferrell — who scammed her way through Brooklyn in the aughts, working for Vice while writing bad checks — is hoping to make her comeback with "You'll Never Believe Me."

Word at the SXSW festival in Austin is that Ferrell is cashing in on the recent public fascination with scam artists like faux German heiress Anna Sorokin (aka Anna Delvey), Fyre Festival’s Billy McFarland and “Tinder Swindler” Simon Leviev.

Sorokin is currently the subject of Netflix’s hit show “Inventing Anna,” while McFarland was at the center of two competing popular documentaries from Netflix and Hulu.