“Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram allow us to paint beautiful pictures of our lives. But many of us feel like fakers. If people really knew who we were, what would they think? Would they still care?

What would it look like if we stopped pretending? Faker not only explores that question, but provides the thrilling answer found in a short story told 2,000 years ago.”

So goes the description on the back cover of Nicholas T. McDonald’s new book, Faker: How to Live for Real When You’re Tempted to Fake It. Written primarily for Jr. and Sr. high school and college young adults, Faker exposes the dark fear inside all of us. What would happen if people knew who I really was?

McDonald begins by identifying this fear using humorous, relate-able anecdotes from his own young adult years. Weaving stories, Scripture, dialogue, and applicable pop culture quotes kids will recognize, the author persuades the reader to relax, be vulnerable, and admit to having the same fears.

Teens will appreciate McDonald’s frank, open, easy style of writing, cartoon images strategically placed here and there, and short sound bites divided with headlines, making it easy to start reading and get drawn in to read “just one more.” The chapters are just the right length (McDonald must still have some youth left in him), and there are only seven of them, making the entire book doable for even the most reluctant reader.

Whet Your Whistle

Want to read a few quotes from the book? Here are some of my favorite:

Being a faker is ugly. Not only does it cause us to live on an emotional roller coaster, it also causes us to look down on others when their masks aren’t as pretty as ours.

Here’s an example of how he uses pop culture quotes to make his points:

And no matter what background we come from, I think we can all agree: the world doesn’t really revolved around “me,” does it?  In fact, I know that the moments when I forget myself—the moments when I’m overwhelmed by beauty—are the moments when I feel most alive. It’s like Beatrice Prior said in Veronica Roth’s Divergent: “This is the first time I’m happy I’m so small.”

When was the last time you felt small?

He helps us take our myopic focus off ourselves and points us to something bigger and more interesting:

This is the point: God not only has the right to be King—He is King. Again, this is great news for fakers. Whenever I’m tempted to think that my failures are devastating, or think I made myself successful, I can look to this truth: God, the King and Judge, is truly in control. Not me. He gives, and takes away. Whenever I’m tempted to fret about pleasing people, I can remember, “These people don’t have ultimate power. God does. He controls my life, not them.”

He asks important questions:

So, are you a people-pleaser or a people-lover?

I know I spend more time getting people to like me than thinking of their good—especially when it comes to people who don’t catapult me up the social ladder. When people don’t approve of me, or when they insult me, I quickly retreat. I’m not interested in them. I’m interested in their admiration.

But these attitudes are what make us fakers in the first place. When we try to usurp God’s throne, we need to do whatever it takes to win the respect of others; we’ll fit whatever mold they so choose. And we end up ignoring God’s true standards: love of Him and others.

He uses the element of surprise:

Here’s his [the tax collector’s] secret. Are you ready? It’s not accepting himself, warts and all. It’s not looking in the mirror and saying, “I’m great!” It’s the opposite. The tax collector says: “I’m not going to fix my flaws or forget them.” When he looks in the mirror, he says, “I give up.”

McDonald wraps up the book with the gospel. It’s lovely. He calls all fakers (that’s me) to give up and fall into the “volcanic purity” of God’s incredible love.

I’m not a teen (although I have a theory that we are all 16 inside forever), and I enjoyed this book. It was a clear, concise call to be vulnerable and real with the key to succeeding at it. The gospel.

You can get this book on Kindle today—or pre-order a hard copy on Amazon.