The following version of this book was used to create this study guide: Oyler, Lauren. Fake Accounts. New York: Catapult, 2021.

The novel follows an unnamed narrator/protagonist. She is an American woman in her mid-to-late twenties. He lives in New York City and works writing articles and blog posts for a large media website. She finds her job unfulfilling, and she aspires to write things that are more meaningful to her. One day, she decides to go on vacation to Berlin. While she is there, she meets an American man named Felix, who is about the same age as her. They form a connection and have sex. Their connection eventually becomes emotional, and they begin dating each other back in New York City.

The narrator and Felix date for about a year. The narrator never feels quite secure in the relationship, and she also begins to grow suspicious of Felix, as she realizes that she does not know much about him. She secretly looks through his phone and finds that he operates an anonymous Instagram account in which he posts conspiracy theories. The narrator is fairly certain that Felix does not believe in these conspiracy theories and that he is just trying to amuse himself in this odd way. She thinks about how he often likes to tell lies about himself to strangers.

The narrator decides that she will break up with Felix soon, but first she goes to Washington, D.C. to attend the protest taking place on the day after Donald Trump’s inauguration. The narrator observes the protest but feels relatively numb, unmoved, and cynical. She then receives a call from a woman who introduces herself as Felix’s mother. She informs the narrator that Felix died in a sudden accident on the road. The narrator feels deep shock and grief. Her feelings are complicated by the knowledge that she had planned to break up with Felix.

The narrator soon decides to quit her unfulfilling job and move to Berlin. There, she finds an apartment with a German roommate, and she acquires a job as a babysitter. As she begins to settle into a routine, she decides to apply for a long-term visa so that she can remain in Berlin for the foreseeable future. She also begins going on dates with men she meets online. On the dates, she adopts a variety of false personas, partially as a social experiment, and partially as a form of self-exploration. However, she ultimately just feels more alienated by the end of this experiment.

Eventually, she successfully submits her visa application and receives provisional approval. However, not long after, she receives the shock news that Felix is not actually dead; he faked his death. The narrator can only speculate about what Felix’s motivations for doing so might have been, but she gives up on trying to understand Felix and his deceitful ways. In some ways, she has also given up on trying to understand herself and the world around her. She continues to live in Berlin. In the final scene, she has a chance encounter with Felix, which does not seem to bring her any sense of closure or satisfaction.