It's called "The Appeal" because the layers of deception keep "a-peeling" back!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was half-tempted to go back and reread this immediately upon finishing, so effective were the multiple reveals in the book's last third. It would probably feel like a very different book if you read it with the knowledge of what's really going on — but all these characters are so unlikable in so many different ways that I didn't really want to subject myself to their two-faced, petty correspondences again. If you can get past that, this is a really well-constructed book.