This engrossing thriller blends gritty crime storytelling with solid, realistic family drama. Nick and his family are in the Witness Protection Program, due to his father's past association with a dangerous crime boss. However, they are continually forced to move and switch identities because of Nick's father's continued criminal ventures. Nick worries that another move will destroy the renewed sense of possibility that he's found through his job on the school paper, his friend Eli, and Eli's attractive sister, Reya. That's before he finds Eli's body and begins to suspect that Eli's death isn't the suicide it's made out to be. Nick's attempts to investigate lead to revelations about the town, his friends, and his family. Giles ably handles multiple themes, not shying away from the racial tension that exists in the small southern town (Nick is African-American, and Eli and Reya are Latino), while avoiding making it a primary focus. This mature crime story expands beyond high school walls to address the challenges of maintaining meaningful relationships and the cost of loyalty.
Fake ID by Lamar Giles is a book that combines action and mystery very well. The plot of the story was strikingly different from other books but in a good way, however, there were some parts of the book I found boring. The reason why I found some parts boring was because the author talked about topics in the book that were not relatable to the actual story line. Aside from that I thought it was a wonderful book that explained and showed characters really well. An example of this is when Nick is talking to the reader about his backstory. I would recommend this book to a young adult audience and people who like action and mystery.