Names Have Been Changed

 

Names Have Been Changed by Yu-Mei Balasingamchow, 272 pages.

The lockdowns were hard on everyone, and after a personal emotional shock Ophir (not her real name) desperately needs a way to process her life, so she starts a podcast. She began life under a different name, in Singapore, but after her involvement in a petty crime yields serious criminal consequences, she decides to go on the run instead of going to prison. That was 10 years and many identities ago, and trouble has followed her around the world, but this is finally her chance to tell her story, whatever the consequences may be.

I didn't dislike this book, but I do feel like it is a very different book than I was sold on. Most places seem to be classifying it as a crime novel (mostly just the initial petty crime, followed by a lot of variants on using forged papers and resisting arrest) or a thriller (definitely not), for what is mostly a leisurely confessional style. I listened to the audiobook, which I definitely think enhanced my experience, both for selling Ophir as a person and for making the podcast format pop. Selling Ophir as a flawed but real person with a voice you could hear emotion in really helped, because I have to admit that even with all that I found her a little insufferable. I think I would overall class this book as sort of interesting, but not particularly great.