The Knockoff

A Novel

By: Lucy Sykes, Jo Piazza

Narrated by: Katherine Kellgren

An outrageously stylish, wickedly funny novel of fashion in the digital age, The Knockoff is the story of Imogen Tate, editor in chief of Glossy magazine, who finds her twentysomething former assistant Eve Morton plotting to knock Imogen off her pedestal, take over her job, and reduce the magazine, famous for its lavish 768-page September issue, into an app.

When Imogen returns to work at Glossy after six months away, she can barely recognize her own magazine. Eve, fresh out of Harvard Business School, has fired “the gray hairs,” put the managing editor in a supply closet, stopped using the landlines, and hired a bevy of manicured and questionably attired underlings who text and tweet their way through meetings. Imogen, darling of the fashion world, may have Alexander Wang and Diane von Furstenberg on speed dial, but she can’t tell Facebook from Foursquare and once got her iPhone stuck in Japanese for two days. Under Eve’s reign, Glossy is rapidly becoming a digital sweatshop—hackathons rage all night, girls who sleep get fired, and “fun” means mandatory, company-wide coordinated dances to Beyoncé. Wildly out of her depth, Imogen faces a choice—pack up her Smythson notebooks and quit, or channel her inner geek and take on Eve to save both the magazine and her career. A glittering, uproarious, sharply drawn story filled with thinly veiled fashion personalities, The Knockoff is an insider’s look at the ever-changing world of fashion and a fabulous romp for our Internet-addicted age.

Entertaining!

I loved this book, couldn't wait to hear more. Kept you on the edge of your seat and perfectly described as a mix of The Devil wears Prada and Silicon Valley! Love love love

I’ve tried to listen to it twice

So, I’ve tried to listen to this book twice. I absolutely loved the Devil Wears Prada movie, but I’m finding myself with the same issue with this book that I had with the book version of The Devil Wears Prada: when authors write about fashion, they tend to get stereotypical and one dimensional. I’m finding that especially with the Eve character, there’s not much depth. You’re obviously supposed to hate her and find her reprehensible, but the truth is that magazines are becoming a dead medium and someone needs to bring them into the next century. There must be a much better and more compassionate way to do that, and I think that anyone that spent time at Harvard would probably behave in a similar way and make some pretty serious missteps and miscues, but overall there needs to be more humanity written into adversaries. It’s just not reasonable. If you’re looking for solid escapism into the fashion world and a good story akin to Devil in a well-told manner, this is your book. It just wasn’t for me.

Couldn't get through this book

This is a book I might actually enjoy reading, but the narrator ruined it for me.
I have tried for months (bought it in July). I really wanted to like it because the story seemed entertaining, but I just couldn't get into it (fell asleep several times only to be woken up by the narrator yelling ... so I would not recommend wearing headphones).
Although the narrator did a good job separating the characters, unfortunately 90% of the time it was over the top.

Enjoyable

Katherine Kellgren triumphs again! So nice to read about a kind career woman who loves and respects her husband and kids.

Love, Love, Love

What did you love best about The Knockoff?

I want more! This book was a little predictable, but in the end I found it entertaining and a great story line. If you are Gen X and you work with Millennials, you will want to read this book!