None Of This Is True by Lisa Jewell
Publisher: Atria
Pub Date: 8/8/2023

Thank you to Atria for the free advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

GoodReads Synopsis: 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.

Review: None of This Is True by Lisa Jewell follows Alix, a popular podcaster, who becomes entangled with Josie, a mysterious woman celebrating the same birthday. As Alix delves deeper into Josie’s dark secrets for her podcast, she unknowingly puts her own life and her family’s at risk, discovering the terrifying legacy Josie has left behind. I liked None of This Is True. The alternating chapters from Josie, Alix, and Alix’s podcast created an engaging narrative. I particularly found Josie’s perspective and Alix’s podcast episodes to be the most captivating. While I found Alix’s character and her family a bit dull, I understood their purpose in the story. The book tackles heavy subjects like domestic abuse, emotional abuse, gaslighting, and pedophilia, which made it a dark and intense read. I was able to anticipate most of the major twists, but the pacing felt a bit inconsistent at times. Nevertheless, I appreciated the way the story concluded. Overall, I would give this book a solid four stars. I recommend this book if you’re a fan of Lisa Jewell’s work.