Oprah Winfrey may be one of the most known women in the entire world. She’s gained respect almost everywhere she’s gone. Her talk show is idolized by millions of women around the world. If Oprah recommends a particular brand of lotion – people rush out to buy it. If Oprah tells people what book to read – it zooms up the New York Times best seller’s list in no time at all. Not so long ago, Oprah broke away from her norm and chose a new book for her famous book club. The book was called, ‘A Million Little Pieces’, and within days, millions of people were reading it. Oprah referred to it as the book that kept her up at night. Soon, there were many more people staying up til the wee hours of the mornings trying to get this book finished. The author, James Frey, captivated his audience with his vivid and emotional stories that allegedly came from his own life experiences. His readers cried. His readers laughed. His words tugged on the hearts of everyone who open his book.

‘A Million Little Pieces’ spent more than ten weeks at the top of The New York Times bestseller list and sold more than 3.5 million books caught the attention of some readers who found themselves a bit skeptical. They began to dig into some of the facts that were revealed in ‘A Million Little Pieces’ in order to determine if all of the facts were indeed facts, or perhaps they were fiction.

What transpired from some skeptics taking some time to dissect specific events in A Million Little Pieces was not very pleasing to Oprah and millions of readers. It seemed that James Frey had not only proven himself to be an excellent author but he had proven himself to be a very clever storyteller as well. Many of the facts that were beautifully portrayed in his novel turned out to only exist in his imagination. While he claimed to have been in jail, in rehab, facing death multiple times and involved in many other terrifying adventures, he seems to be the only one who can verify many of the details. That’s a bit too convenient. Yes, there is a lot of truth to some of the tales in A Million Little Pieces, but there are a lot of details in the tales that were planted just to draw his readers into his story even deeper.

After the truth was revealed, Oprah came forward and admitted that she felt incredibly hurt. All of the readers who rushed out to buy A Million Little Pieces were also hurt by this enormous betrayal. Millions of people had trusted the words to be the complete truth. Instead, James Frey’s story began to crumble into a million little pieces right before his very own eyes. Maybe his next story will be about being a con artist.