Cover Story by Susan Rigetti: Who’s That Girl?

Posted On September 24, 2022

Hi Readers after a long long time! This month has been too eventful for me. A lot going on personally, because of which I couldn’t get in a lot of reading time. But, I was drained & wanted something short to spike up my reading. And, I picked the perfect book for it. I guess somewhere in my subconscious I knew that I would love this book & maybe that’s why I kept it for such an occasion where I would need it the most. Not that I was in a reading slump or anything but this book just invigored my reading!

~~GOODREADS DESCRIPTION~~

Netflix’s Inventing Anna and Hulu’s The Dropout meets Catch Me If You Can, a captivating novel about an ambitious young woman who gets trapped in a charismatic con artist’s scam.

After a rough year at NYU, aspiring writer Lora Ricci is thrilled to land a summer internship at ELLE magazine where she meets Cat Wolff, contributing editor and enigmatic daughter of a clean-energy mogul. Cat takes Lora under her wing, soliciting her help with side projects and encouraging her writing.

As a friendship emerges between the two women, Lora opens up to Cat about her desperate struggles and lost scholarship. Cat’s solution: Drop out of NYU and become her ghostwriter. Lora agrees and, when the internship ends, she moves into Cat’s suite at the opulent Plaza Hotel. Writing during the day and accompanying Cat to extravagant parties at night, Lora’s life quickly shifts from looming nightmare to dream-come-true. But as Lora is drawn into Cat’s glamorous lifestyle, Cat’s perfect exterior cracks, exposing an illicit, shady world.

A whip-smart and delightfully inventive writer, Susan Rigetti brilliantly pieces together a perceptive, humorous caper full of sharp observations about scam culture. Composed of diary entries, emails, FBI correspondence, and more, Cover Story is a fresh, fun, and wholly original novel that takes readers deep into the codependency and deceit found in a relationship built on power imbalance and lies.

~~WHAT I LOVED~~

Because the outline of the story is already mentioned in the blurb above, I thought I will instead tell you what I loved about the book. I loved the characters. I liked how similar they were in terms of their aspirations & yet so vastly different in terms of their lifestyle. I loved the initial story during Lora’s internship period. It reminded me of ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ & ‘The Bold Type’. Since there was a certain lifestyle depicted in the book you would expect there to be sex scenes or drinking or even drugs. But the book manages to pull the whole story off without any of it! You don’t even realize it. Also, I loved how fast-paced the story was. Even though Lora’s naivety was mind-numbingly stupid, I still rooted for her. Even though Cat was standoffish, I still wanted to believe her. Because of all these amazing factors, the story was fired up. The writing was simplistic but everything else made up for it.

~~THE ENDING~~

This part of the post contains MAJOR SPOILERS. So, if you are planning on reading this book (please do), then I suggest you skip this part.

I always pride myself in knowing how a book will end. If not that, then I usually get a hint of what plot twists might come up. But, the ending of Cover Story had me completely baffled. I had zero idea what actually happened. When I looked online, of course there was a predictive text for Cover Story ending explained. I read so many articles but there were no explanations. Then, finally, I got answers on Goodreads. I want to state this right away because this is not my brain analyzing the entire book. I only read the first spoiler & then pieced everything else together. So, here we go!

Lora Ricci’s internship at Elle ended in August after which she rented a car to visit her parents. This is when she supposed to have met with the tragic car accident. And after this point, everything written in the diary is actually written by Cat Wolff pretending to be Lora Ricci. Before the real Lora leaves, there is a mention that she keeps all of her stuff in Cat’s apartment. So, it was very easy for a pro scammer like Cat to assume the naïve Lora’s identity. So, technically there were never two people staying at The Plaza. It was only Cat, all along. And, because the diary entries from possibly August 24^th are made up by an unreliable fake Lora (Cat), that’s why we never really know what happened & what did not. Ingenious.

There were hints all along the novel. Such subtle hints in such subtle writing that I want to give a 10-minute standing ovation to Susan Rigetti. Firstly, there was the letter that real Lora’s real parents write to NYU asking them to hold her spot but that her returning will likely never happen. Secondly, there was that chat chain with other interns where they mention that Lora fell from the face of the Earth. Lastly, there was Margot Fletcher’s observation of Cat dressed in Lora as being a familiar face. Cat dressed up as Lora fooling the FBI was a bit extreme but hey, I am here for it if it makes the fictional novel so amazing.

After I had read more than half the book, I had my suspicions about Lora. Because there was no mention of her in the FBI chats. If they were keeping such a close eye on Cat & if Lora was living with Cat, then they should have known about her existence, right? I kept expecting some kind of plot twist, but nothing anywhere close to what it actually was. Simply mind blowing!

~~TO READ OR NOT TO READ~~

If you love reading thrillers with a bit of glam, then you should read it. If you loved Inventing Anna or The Bold Type on Netflix, then you will definitely love Cover Story. If you enjoy unreliable protagonists, then this book is for you. If you are in a reading slump, then you should read this book. Also, if you are looking for a book you can read in one day, then you should pick this up. If you enjoy epistolary fiction, then you should read it. To tell you the truth, I cannot think of any reason why you should not read Cover Story by Susan Rigetti. It might have simplistic mediocre writing, but the flair of characters, the format of the book, the stunning ending & all the thrill, fun & pizzazz it has, really makes it an amazing read! I have rated Cover Story by Susan Rigetti at 4.5/5 stars!

Until next time,