I was really looking forward to reading this new YA nonfiction title. I think there ought to be more action in the nonfiction category for young adults, and the topic is intriguing. Who doesn’t wonder about imposters and con men?

For this book, Mr. Barton chose ten famous pretenders who managed to fool a lot of the people for a long time by claiming to be someone they were not. The chapters focus on both men and women, people such as The Great Imposter, Ferdinand Waldo Demara and Mary Baker, who convinced Victorian England for a while that she was really Princess Caraboo from the island of Javasu. I liked the variety of people, settings, and circumstances that made each of the ten stories a good read.

However, and here’s my big issue with this book, I absolutely hated the choice that was made to tell the stories in second person. I felt as if I were being kidnapped and dragged forcibly into the tricksters’ lives and minds, one after the other, instead of being invited to think about who these people were and what impelled them to present a false identity to the world. I didn’t like it. Here’s an example; you see what you think:

“You weren’t hurting anybody. In fact, really, you’ve always been out to help, to share your impressive talents and energy and intellect with the world. But clashing with abbots, downing barrels of beer, going AWOL from the U.S. Army, and faking suicide to get out of the U.S. Navy made it a bit difficult to bestow those gifts as Fred Demara. So you took to borrowing birth certificates and academic credentials and writing letters of recommendation for yourself on official stationery you’d swiped.”

If you can handle a entire book in which you are invited to participate in multiple personality disorder, taking on ten different identities in 121 pages, this book is for you. The revolving I.D. turnstile gave me a headache. The second person point of view felt gimmicky and annoying. FYI, I didn’t like the Choose Your Own Adventure books that were so very popular back when I was a children’s librarian either, but my students loved them.

But, hey, you decide if you want to inhabit the minds of ten different imposters for a few pages each. If so, go for it.