'I'm a liar. I'm a thief. I'm capable of almost anything'
The girl on the cover of Patric Gagne's new book, "Sociopath: A Memoir," looks out impassively beneath uneven bangs, lips pursed in a way that suggests there's trouble behind the mask, like the time she stabbed a grade-school classmate with a pencil or, as she grew older, broke into houses and stole cars.
An unapologetic confession or perhaps a warning comes a few pages inside: "I'm a liar. I'm a thief. I'm emotionally shallow," Gagne writes. "I'm mostly immune to remorse and guilt. I'm highly manipulative. I don't care what other people think. I'm not interested in morals. I'm not interested, period. Rules do not factor into my decision making. I'm capable of almost anything."
That bold declaration leads one to wonder about the veracity of a memoir written by a confessed, if charming, part-time fabulist: "I'm not a perfect messenger," Gagne said during a Zoom conversation while sitting in front of a bookcase in a house in a city she asked not to be identified over concerns that others with might contact her. "I know my stories are true, but I also know not everyone is going to believe them."
