You’ll Never Believe Me: A Life of Lies, Second Tries, and Other Stuff I Should Only Tell My Therapist

Ferrell debuts with a raw and riveting account of how she became infamous for scamming New York City’s hipsters. Adopted from South Korea as a five-month-old by Mormons in Salt Lake City, Ferrell weathered both the church’s religious strictures and casual racism from classmates and acquaintances. Insecure and lonely, she fell in with a bad crowd after her parents’ divorce, shoplifting and committing check fraud as a teenager. In 2008, Ferrell moved to New York, where she charmed a string of men—mostly Brooklyn artists—whom she subsequently fleeced. The New York Observer nicknamed Ferrell “the Hipster Grifter,” and, while serving nearly a year in jail for her crimes, she began to drop her hard-edged persona as she met and bonded with her fellow inmates. After her release, Ferrell became a prisoners’ rights advocate and developed a production company that focuses on work from women of color. With a combination of bruising vulnerability and self-deprecating humor (“I was like a law-breaking Martha Stewart. Oh, wait”), Ferrell’s audacious coming-of-age tale pairs the thrill of true crime with the redemptive arc of a good memoir. It’s a deliciously edgy testament to reinvention. Agent: Lily Dolin, UTA. (Jan.)

This review has been updated.