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 20-something 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.

©2015 Lucy Sykes and Jo Piazza (P)2015 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"Sykes and Piazza brilliantly satirize and skewer the freakiest aspects of today's changing fashion landscape with all its blogtastic insanity. Bravo girls!" (Simon Doonan, creative ambassador for Barneys New York and author of The Asylum: True Tales of Madness from a Life in Fashion)

"This is what it's really like working at a glossy, New York fashion magazine. Makes The Devil Wears Prada look like My Little Pony." (Toby Young, best-selling author of How to Lose Friends and Alienate People )

"In the interest of full disclosure I must reveal that Lucy is my MUCH older twin (by over half an hour). So I am biased. But even if Lucy weren't my sister, I would still say that The Knockoff is a bang-on, absolutely of-the-moment, super-trendy, amazingly witty take on the world of online and magazine fashion. " (Plum Sykes, best-selling author of Bergdorf Blondes)

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.

Enjoyable

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

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.

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!

Great book!

I loved the fun inside look at the fashion industry and its blend with technology. I liked the perspective of the slightly older main character living in a millennial time trying to get her bearings. The narrator was great, although the American accents were a bit suspect lol. The one thing I wish I'd seen was more character development of the villain. She was so bad...all of the time. I didn't feel like we had her perspective enough and when we did get it, she was hard to understand. Her motive for going through life just seemed weak to me. I would've loved for her to express complex emotions and ideas, like Imogen. Overall great story tho, lots of fun.

full of fun

The Narrator was Devine in her ability to change voices of characters and bring emotion and energy to the story,which was well written and so entertaining.

Be afraid--be very afraid!

This book is widely entertaining. I enjoyed the narration very much; in fact, since "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies," Katherine Kellgren is my favorite narrator!

This book explores a part of 20-something culture I had never before encountered, and it terrified me! If Lucy Sykes and Jo Piazza's telling is accurate, then be very afraid for the future!

Great book, great beach read, highly recommend it!

Enjoyable entertainment

I almost couldn’t wait to the final act on this not because I wanted it done but because I was so invested in getting satisfaction thankfully I was fulfilled and I devoured it.

Fun read

Loved the book! It was very relatable and current! The book managed to deal with challenges we encounter but kept the tone light and enjoyable. Good conquers evil!