Parents' Guide to The Scammer

THE SCAMMER begins with Jordyn Monroe's arrival at Frazier University to start her freshman year. She arrives alone, as her parents are furious she's turned down Yale to attend Frazier, a prestigious HBCU. But Jordyn's grown up in a White suburban prep school world and she wants to experience life where she's one of the many not just the lone Black girl in the room. She immediately bonds with her suite mates, Vanessa, Tammy, and Loren, loves her classes, and believes she's finally found "a life worth being jealous of." Then Vanessa's brother Devonte suddenly arrives and settles in for what the girls assume will be a short stay. Devonte's just gotten out of prison after being wrongly (so says Vanessa) convicted of credit card fraud, but he's charming, handsome, and brings with him a touch of glamour from his years working in the music business. After two weeks, Devonte shows no signs of leaving and begins to exert an ominous influence over the girls. He demands they stay home to do planks and sit ups instead of going to parties, stop eating the White man's food and go vegan, and observe a strict curfew of 8:00 pm. Everyday they have to drink a special "detox" tea he prepares for them. Their living room is soon filled with students coming to hear Devonte lecture them on everything from Black liberation to women's periods. One day he shows everyone a photo of a plot of land where he's going to build "a sanctuary. A place where people like us, free thinkers, believers, the divine… will thrive." All he needs is money—credit cards will do. As Jordyn becomes increasingly fearful of what's happening, she turns for help to the only person she trusts—Nick, the sole White student at Frazier. Despite his best efforts to protect her, Nick can't convince Jordyn to break away from Devonte. Until a shocker of an ending changes everything readers thought they knew about Jordyn and why she came to Frazier.