By: Lisa Jewell
Narrators: Kristin Atherton, Ayesha Antoine,
Louise Brealey, Alix Dunmore, Elliot Fitzpatrick, Emilia Fox, Thomas Judd, Kate MacDonald, Dominic Thorburn, Nicola Walker, Jenny Walser
Simon & Schuster Audio
ISBN: 978-1982179007
Publisher: Atria Books
Publication Date: 08/08/2023
Format: Other
My Rating: 4 Stars (ARC)
Lisa Jewell returns with a scintillating new psychological thriller about a woman who finds herself the subject of her own popular true crime podcast.
Celebrating her forty-fifth birthday at her local pub, popular podcaster Alix Summers crosses paths with an unassuming woman called Josie Fair. Josie, it turns out, is also celebrating her forty-fifth birthday. They are, in fact, birthday twins.
A few days later, Alix and Josie bump into each other again, this time outside Alix’s children’s school. Josie has been listening to Alix’s podcasts and thinks she might be an interesting subject for her series. She is, she tells Alix, on the cusp of great changes in her life.
Josie’s life appears to be strange and complicated, and although Alix finds her unsettling, she can’t quite resist the temptation to keep making the podcast. Slowly she starts to realise that Josie has been hiding some very dark secrets, and before she knows it, Josie has inveigled her way into Alix’s life—and into her home.
But, as quickly as she arrived, Josie disappears. Only then does Alix discover that Josie has left a terrible and terrifying legacy in her wake, and that Alix has become the subject of her own true crime podcast, with her life and her family’s lives under mortal threat.
Who is Josie Fair? And what has she done?
My Review
Lisa Jewell returns following The Family Remains with her latest, NONE OF THIS IS TRUE, a dark and twisty psychological thriller about a woman who finds herself the subject of her own popular true crime podcast— where nothing is as it appears.
Two separate women are celebrating their forty-fifth birthday at a local pub. Josie and Alix. (Birthday twins). They were born in the same city, hospital, and the same place to celebrate their 45th birthday.
Alix Summers is a famous podcaster aspiring women for second chances. She is happily married, has a great home, two young children, and a successful husband. Nathan is keeping late-night with drinking benders, causing friction in the marriage—otherwise, a perfectly curated life from social media views.
Josie Fair, housewife, a plain Jane. Josie met her husband when she was 13, and he was 40—married to a much older man, mother of two daughters in their twenties. Her life is unsatisfying and unfilled.
Josie manipulates chance meetings with Alix to insert herself into her life. She is quite clever and is obsessed with being a part of Alix's glamorous life. Josie has been listening to Alix’s podcasts and thinks she might be an interesting subject for her series. Does Josie want to help her escape her sad life?
Josie’s motives are much more sinister than simply becoming the subject of a podcast, and soon, she creates far more complications than Alix ever anticipated.
Josie tells Alix about her traumatic life of abuse and neglect (pedophilia, child abuse, spousal abuse, alcoholism, trauma, and murder). Shocking, but are Josie’s stories true? Josie becomes a stalker. Could Alix help Josie? OR did Alix make a mistake agreeing to make this podcast?
Alix develops: Coming to Netflix in May: Hi! I'm Your Birthday Twin! 2019 A podcast within a documentary, with host Alix Summer—better known for her All Woman series of podcasts about successful women. The new podcast is about a local woman born on the same day as her.
Things become strange, dark, and weird—where nothing is as it seems. Josie's life is complex and unsettling, but is she telling the truth? Alix is intrigued and put off by Josie at the same time. As the project progresses, Alix starts to learn more about Josie, and within weeks, her life is in shreds, and three people are dead.
Then Josie disappears. Has Alix become the subject of her own true crime podcast, plus her entire family is in danger. Who is Josie? The secrets are peeled back, and you must read to discover the dark unknown. Most of the story unfolds from Josie and Alix’s points of view, with snippets of interviews from a Netflix show filmed a couple of years after the meetings.
Lines are blurred between fact and fiction. The author cleverly keeps the reader guessing about Josie and a perfectly fitting title with unreliable characters and menacing undertones. The ending is a bit anticlimactic and ambiguous (some may like or dislike it), and you may have to suspend your disbelief.
The power dynamic between Alix and Josie was fascinating, and you had to question a successful journalist like Alix to be so trusting.
Complex, eerie, unsettling, claustrophobic, and disturbing with a creepy vibe. A twisty wicked game of cat and mouse whydunit! As always, Jewell is imaginative and clever, a skilled writer with her signature twisty, intriguing plots and characters. Lisa's fans will love NONE OF THIS IS TRUE.
Thanks to Atria Books for a gifted ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
@JudithDCollins | #JDCMustReadBooks
Pub Date: Aug 8, 2023
My Rating: 4 Stars
Praise
"A moody, slippery novel where nobody is as they seem. As breathtaking story is revealed within story, readers peel back the layers to find revenge, a meditation on the damage done by the past, and characters who could walk into the room and sit on your sofa. Here Jewell cements her position as queen of character-led fiction." —GILLIAN MCALLISTER, New York Times bestselling author of Wrong Place, Wrong Time
Lisa Jewell is on top-form with this pitch-black fever dream of a book - darker, twistier and more compelling than ever."
—RUTH WARE, New York Times bestselling author of The It Girl
"Gloriously dark, so clever and completely addictive - this is Lisa Jewell at the very top of her game. This book kept me up reading late into the night and haunted my dreams!"
—LUCY FOLEY, New York Times bestselling author of The Paris Apartment
"Gloriously dark and twistier than a twisty thing."
—JOJO MOYES, New York Times bestselling author of Someone Else's Shoes
"I adore Lisa Jewell, and this is her best yet. I adored the unreliable characters, their dark secrets, the fateful collision of their two different worlds in the same corner of London. I simply could not leave it alone, and had to keep reading until I'd reached the heart-stopping conclusion. Utterly irresistible from the very first page."
—KATHERINE FAULKNER, author of Greenwich Park
"None of This Is True is so suspenseful, so smart, so insightful. It's all three, in equal measure, all the way through. I loved the theme of family in all its glorious (and sometimes soul-destroying) forms. Lisa Jewell writes her characters with such emotional intelligence and generosity that I cared about all of them...she takes the most universal observation and tosses it in very lightly at the end of a funny sentence—and it truly takes my breath away. So much of this novel will stay in my mind forever and that's a tremendous gift."
—KATHERINE HEINY, author of Early Morning Riser
"With so many versions of events, the ending shatters, leaving readers to decide whose is the truth...[it's] hard to look away from."
—KIRKUS REVIEWS
"Jewell devotees who love the author’s signature twisted characters and acidic cultural commentary will be satisfied by this pitch-black outing and its shocking climax…Gillian Flynn and Paula Hawkins fans, this one’s for you.”
—PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
“Jewell’s newest could be her best yet… A terrific novel from a consistently satisfying writer.”
—BOOKLIST
About the Author
Lisa Jewell is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of nineteen novels, including The Family Upstairs and Then She Was Gone, as well as Invisible Girl and Watching You. Her novels have sold over 10 million copies internationally, and her work has also been translated into twenty-nine languages.
Connect with her on Twitter @LisaJewellUK, on Instagram @LisaJewellUK, and on Facebook @LisaJewellOfficial. WEBSITE
