Applied truthiness
The Deepest Fake
by Daniel Kalla
Toronto: Simon & Schuster Canada, 2025
$25.99 / 9781668032534
Reviewed by Sophia Wasylinko
*
Liam Hirsch seems to have it all: a beautiful, accomplished wife, two creative teenagers, and a Seattle-based company at the forefront of AI technology. But just as TransScend is about to launch TheirStory, its newest product, everything comes crashing down.
Liam learns that his wife Celeste is having an affair. Then, he receives an ALS diagnosis. Not wanting to burden his family with that knowledge, Liam secretly applies for MAID while pushing for an earlier release date for TheirStory.
But more cracks appear. Someone is embezzling company funds. A previous TransScend product manipulates voters during an election. Then, Liam discovers someone has tampered with his medical records. And that must mean that someone close to him is trying to take down TransScend—and Liam himself.
Unable to trust anyone he turns to Angela DeWalt, the private investigator he’d previously hired to track Celeste. Together, they embark on a mission to uncover the truth—no matter who, or what, tries to stop them.
The Deepest Fake comes as AI evolves and infiltrates more spheres of daily life. Established platforms like Slack and Grammarly have added generative AI to their features, while AI tools like ChatGPT and Gemini have grown in popularity. And let’s not forget software used to create or edit audiovisual media (in other words, make “deepfakes”). While it’s fascinating seeing how much the technology has grown, it’s also terrifying—especially since it’s getting harder to tell if something’s a deepfake or not.
Which is the perfect metaphor for Liam’s story.
The Deepest Fake was the first novel I’d read by Daniel Kalla (High Society), a Vancouver-based emergency room physician and clinical professor at the University of British Columbia. Whether a thriller or historical fiction, his novels explore timely topics in the medical field and the moral implications of one’s actions, and this latest book is a good example.
Kalla presents medical information such as Liam’s symptoms (which may or may not be ALS) in a way that’s easy for non-medical readers to understand. This is primarily accomplished through conversations with medical professionals who use simplified terms, comparisons, and some humour.
For example, Dr. Gloria Chow tells Liam, “[Think] of the chemicals in your blood sample like a bag of Halloween candy that a kid is trying to identify in the dark after a night of hardcore trick-or-treating… By the end, she knows pretty well what each candy is. She’s also out of candy and has a terrible gut ache, but that’s beside the point.”
I also appreciated the handling of the topic of MAID, which is legal in Canada and twelve American jurisdictions (including the State of Washington). MAID is different from euthanasia (illegal in the US as of 2025), where patients are administered a lethal injection by a physician. In the case of MAID, adults who have six months or less to live (such as those diagnosed with ALS) and who are of sound mind are prescribed that same injection, which they administer themselves. Although manyAmericans believe terminally ill patients should have the right to seek MAID, it is still a controversial subject.
Kalla approaches end-of-life with compassion and objectivity. As Dr. Heather Glynn tells Liam,seeking MAID is a choice that needs to be carefully considered and which can be changed without judgement: “Mr. Hirsch, despite your resolve, please remember it’s normal to have doubts or second thoughts as the time approaches. Some people even change their minds. Those feelings are valid, and they shouldn’t be ignored.”
The novel does an excellent job at presenting Liam’s thought processes leading to his initial decision to seek MAID, as well as Andrea’s insistence that he tell his family first. Her views stem from the experience of learning that her father, who’d suffered from inflammatory arthritis, ended his life without telling her his decision beforehand.
In one heated conversation, Liam asks Andrea, “Will it help my kids to know that their dad is going to wither away in front of their eyes?” She counters, “Whose pain are you trying to spare, Liam? Yours or theirs?” It is a question that MAID advocates and opponents continue to debate.
The relationship between Liam and Andrea evolves from one of business to friendship and then something deeper. They become more vulnerable with each other as the reality around them grows uncertain. While I didn’t always agree with their actions, I at least understood the motivations behind them.
Given the stakes, it’s understandable that Liam starts suspecting everyone and everything. However, Celeste feels much too weak of a suspect. Her background in AI is never fully explored, and while it’s possible that she’s pretending to be a worried wife and mother, she doesn’t appear often enough to allow readers to form an unbiased opinion of her.
And while we have several examples of people interacting with TheirStory, we don’t see many uses of HisStory, making it difficult to understand the differences between the apps. (Admittedly, it’s difficult to explain technology in a way that does not overwhelm readers.) While this book kept me engaged on the medical side, it left me somewhat disappointed on the technological one.
Overall, The Deepest Fake is both a good introduction to Kalla’s writing and a gripping read that presents readers with fascinating yet disturbing questions: How do you regain trust in someone who previously broke it? Can you trust yourself and your identity, especially with AI making it easier to deconstruct and distribute personal information? Are our choices really our own if the people and technology around us manipulate them for their own devices?
We might not have these answers, but Liam and Angela have a chance to find theirs.
*
Sophia Wasylinko graduated from VIU, where she contributed to student publications. She was also one of the founding members of GOOEY Magazine and will edit its Fall 2025 issue. Sophia works as a library page and freelance content writer for Ichigo and spends much of her free time reading and revising one of her novels. She’s also on Bookstagram. While Sophia’s temporarily relocated to be with family in the Thompson-Nicola region, she hopes to return to the place that captured her heart: Vancouver Island. [Editor’s note: Sophia previously reviewed Matthew Hughes for BCR.]
*
The British Columbia Review
Interim Editors, 2023-26: Trevor Marc Hughes (non-fiction), Brett Josef Grubisic (fiction and poetry)
Publisher: Richard Mackie
Formerly The Ormsby Review, The British Columbia Review is an online book review and journal service for BC writers and readers. The Advisory Board now consists of Jean Barman, Wade Davis, Robin Fisher, Barry Gough, Hugh Johnston, Kathy Mezei, Patricia Roy, and Graeme Wynn. Provincial Government Patron (since September 2018): Creative BC. Honorary Patron: Yosef Wosk. Scholarly Patron: SFU Graduate Liberal Studies. The British Columbia Review was founded in 2016 by Richard Mackie and Alan Twigg.
“Only connect.” –E.M. Forster