‘Love in a world of liars, cheats, narcissists, fantasists and phonies’ by an ex-Fairfax Media staff writer
I love the book title of Fake by Stephanie Wood.
Such a simple name for such a complex story of love, lies and loss in the modern world of internet dating.
Fake was released by Vintage Australia (Penguin Random House Australia) last year and has been nominated for the Australian Book Industry Awards 2020.
Wood is an award-winning long-form writer and a former senior staff writer at Fairfax Media’s Good Weekend magazine.
A survivor of a toxic relationship, her book is a firsthand account and stark warning to others.
Fake has many highlights that can help us start and finish our own writing, whether that be an autobiography, memoir, biography or other life-story project.
Let’s take a closer look…
What is the book about?
Fake starts with Stephanie Wood on an investigative roadtrip in the Australian countryside.
She retraces a trip she took with her lover Joe to see his sheep property.
By gathering precise location information Wood hopes to verify whether he owns the land or not.
She suspects the farm was another of his countless lies.
Wood and Joe connected online and she was not particularly impressed with him when they first met in person.
But over time they formed what she thought was a loving relationship.
Joe seemed a good catch: a retired architect turned sheep farmer with big-time property dealings, a divorced and caring father to two school-aged children, plus the owner of a Sydney Harbour home and a kelpie dog.
As a journalist Wood was aware more than most about confirming claims and facts.
Every time she thought something Joe said or did was a little too good to be true or far fetched she would double-check and seek evidence.
But as niggling doubts and broken plans kept stacking up Wood asked herself: who is this man?
She goes on a journey to find out more about the true Joe while shining a spotlight on others like him and victims like her.
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Highlights of Fake by Stephanie Wood
Firstly Fake is more than a deeply personal memoir.
The first half of the book is Stephanie Wood detailing her relationship with Joe.
But in the second half she goes on a quest to contact others burnt by Joe and consults with personality disorder and relationship experts.
Via Wood’s journalistic skills we learn much about people like Joe.
Such as the fact they are over-represented on dating apps.
That they lie compulsively plus break plans and hearts relentlessly.
And also that they use others merely as characters who enable and witness their three-act plays of daily delusion and fantasy.
Another interesting point highlighted in this book is how complicated, layered and fantastical fake stories can be.
Wood says people like Joe go to unbelievable lengths to construct false identities and events.
Indeed for most normal people the time and effort required to weave and maintain such elaborate stories seems impossibly onerous.
Wood gives countless examples, however, of note is Joe’s blue yacht.
He has photos to prove it, some featuring his kids onboard.
Joe says he will take Wood out on the vessel but on his trip to their rendezvous he reportedly encounters a sailing couple in distress who he heroically tows back to shore.
Of course Joe never captained the blue boat and never owned it.
He had simply encountered it for sale in a Sydney marina.
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Takeaways for writers
Reading others’ life-story works is a wonderful way to explore what is possible with our own writing.
It is also a super opportunity to get motivated and inspired to start typing.
One notable takeaway from Fake is how honest and truthful Stephanie Wood is about her doomed relationship.
She was mortified to reveal she had been duped but does so to stop the same thing happening to others.
Another point to note is how Wood uses all her investigative techniques to find out as much as she can about phonies and fakes.
She does a super job weaving in experts’ interview quotes, reader comments plus statistics and data.
The most impressive element of Fake for me, however, is Wood’s writing about life lessons she has learnt.
This includes clarity about princess mythology, guarding against willful blindness to truth, and being happily single.
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Final say: Fake by Stephanie Wood
This book is a jaw-dropping journey down a modern rabbit hole of love and internet dating plus so much more.
Read it if you are single, married, do or don’t have a family.
Fake will open your eyes to a group of toxic people who you or a loved one may encounter personally or professionally.
Well done Stephanie Wood for sharing her story and illuminating this darkly complex topic.
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Your say
Are you keen to read Fake? Or what did you make of the book? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Send me an email or leave a reply in the comments section at the end of this article.
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This article first appeared on the website Forever Young Autobiographies.com.
