Quick Synopsis

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author known for her “superb pacing, twisted characters, and captivating prose” (BuzzFeed), Lisa Jewell returns with a scintillating new psychological thriller about a woman who finds herself the subject of her own popular true crime podcast.

Publisher’s Synopsis

Celebrating her forty-fifth birthday at her local pub, popular podcaster Alix Summer 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 realize 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?

Book Review

None of This Is True is Lisa Jewell’s latest thriller that everyone is talking about. I have read a few of Jewell’s books and have yet to be blown away. But I still enjoy them and always hope an author will surprise me.

None of This Is True follows two women who happen to share the same birthday and meet celebrating it at a local restaurant. One of these women -Alix – hosts a popular podcast and superficially has the perfect life, while the other – Josie – is living a mundane life and hiding a dark past. When Josie carves her way into Alix’s life and podcast, Alix realizes too late that Josie has many secrets and they are starting to threaten Alix’s existence.

This will not be a rave review by any means. If you were hoping it was, I promise you those are easy to find.

The title alone ruins the first major twist of the book. Because of the title, I was immediately suspicious of a protagonist, and I assumed everything that came out of her mouth was fictitious. Why would you give away a major plot point before a reader even picks up the book? It was either a ballsy move based on overconfidence about the rest of the book or an stupid error.

That said, I was pulled in with Jewell’s writing and found None of This Is True to be a quick read. It is slow to start, but I was engrossed when it did pick up. I also enjoyed the storytelling method, which employed a combination of first person narrative, podcast transcripts, and a documentary script.

Sadly, None of This Is True is not the most original thriller I have read this year. It is yet another story about a podcaster, an “it” woman who seemingly has it all, and a woman full of “dark secrets”. And even the ending, which everyone is praising, was unsurprising to seasoned mystery readers. Was it still interesting? Sure, I could overlook most of this because it was an entertaining book. However, there are some issues we should not look past.

Other reviews have skipped over the large problematic elements of this book, and I am aghast and disappointed. First, a 13-15 year old is not capable of consenting to a physical/sexual relationship under any circumstances. Worse yet, a partner 15+ years their senior is both a rapist and a pedophile. Not only does Jewell fail to call this out, she makes the pedophile out to be a good person. Instead of the teenager being treated as the victim they are, Jewell doubles down and makes them out to be a villain. If that alone does not deter you, Jewell chooses to victim blame over and over. This author’s treatment of child sex abuse and rape is deplorable.

Overall, None of This Is True is wildly popular book with an unoriginal but entertaining plot. However, Lisa Jewell ruins the book with her despicable treatment of rape victims and gratuitous depiction of a pedophile. I cannot in good conscience recommend it. Because this is not the first problematic book of Jewell’s I have read, I will not be buying her books in the future.

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