This book is one of the weaker books by Lisa Jewell. I didn't enjoy it as much as the beginning of the book dragged on for too long versus the end of the book was wrapped up in very few pages.

Good, twisty thriller that keeps you guessing! Who is manipulating who? A random connection between two 45-year-old women leads to strange secrets being revealed, partially through a podcast format. A good vacation read!

Lisa Jewell's books are engaging and always keep me guessing. Although this one was more predictable than most, it was pretty good. You will be rooting for Alix to 1. get a clue about Josie and 2. kick her husband out. The podcast style of the novel was intriguing.

#thrillerfriendsbuddyread review

Thank you to the publisher #partner for gifting me an ebook via NetGalley and the audiobook via Libro.fm.
———
Lisa Jewell has been one of my auto-buy thriller authors since 2 years. I’ve read 4 of her books so far. 𝑵𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝑶𝒇 𝑻𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝑰𝒔 𝑻𝒓𝒖𝒆 is her very best work yet, and several of my friends agree.
I personally love me a thriller that goes beyond the expected twists and jaw dropping. I love me a thriller where the book becomes a social commentary and leaves you wondering larger nature/nurture topics at play, such as “who is the real victim here?”, “At what point does one become responsible for the actions we take?”

Alix Summers and Josie Fair couldn’t possibly be more different from each other. The only common element is that they both share the same birthday that they coincidentally celebrate in the same location, which is how they bump into each other.

Alix is a popular podcaster and Josie is a seamstress who becomes obsessed with the podcasts and lures Alix into creating a new series of podcasts of Josie’s life. In the story of Josie’s life, we learn that Josie and her husband, Walter, began a relationship when she was a minor. We also learn that Josie’s family dynamics is far from perfect. Both Alix and the reader become entangled in Josie’s spiraling life but as the reader, we also realize that Josie may not be entirely truthful about everything and might have some vested interests towards Alix, especially when she starts showing up at Alix’s home in the middle of the night.

I kid you not when I say this is one of the most propulsive, WTF thrillers I’ve read this year. Thriller lovers, you MUST add this book to your wishlist!!! The ending makes for a great discussion with friends with the added social commentary I described above.

📖 BOOK REVIEW

BOOK: None of This is True
AUTHOR: Lisa Jewell
FORMAT: Physical
GENRE: Psychological Thriller
DID I CRY: No
PUB DATE: 8/8/23
RATING: 10/10
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you so much @atriabooks @atriathrillers for my #gifted advanced copy of #NoneOfThisIsTrue out now!

MY THOUGHTS

The way that this book took over my life this summer and I forced my friends to pass my copy around our friend group before it even published🤭 it’s been a lonnngggg time since a thriller messed with my brain & had me so invested 👁️👄👁️ from start to finish!!!!!

I want to keep this brief because I truly believe that going in without knowing a THING is the best way to approach this one. All you need to know is that you MUST pick this book up (trust-me-buy-it-thank-me-later type of purchase). And once you get to the recycling bin scene… buckle up the remainder of the book😌🫡

S/o to the queen @lisajewelluk for so quickly answering my DMs ✨demanding✨ to know the TRUTH about the ending — which she so kindly provided me. We LOVE an ambiguous ending with room for debate🤭

Thank you to @atriabooks for the #gifted arc.

OMG. What did I just read. That was so freaking good. I know. Not for everyone, but YES, YES, YES, this book was for MEEEEEEEEE! Hi, I am your Birthday Twin!!!!!!!!!!! Easily one of my top 10 books of the year. Thank you Lisa Jewell!!! I will never ever look at denim the same again. BHAHAHAH

✨ 𝐌𝐘 𝐑𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

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.

💭 𝐌𝐘 𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐒:
Wowzers! This one was a wild ride and I was hooked from the very first page. This book revolves around birthday twins Alix and Josie, whose paths collide while celebrating their 45th birthdays at a chic restaurant on June the 8th. Fun Fact- my birthday is also June 8th, but I was born three years after these two, so I’m kinda sorta their birthday twin, too.

I started with the eARC (thanks @netgalley) but ended up using my Audible credit to snag the audiobook so I could listen while driving, walking the dogs, doing chores, and even while working. It was that good— I completely submerged myself in this thriller and needed to keep the story going around the clock. I stuck with the audiobook because the full cast narration was fantastic. I love podcasts and listening to the audiobook made the podcast segments truly come alive. I also grabbed this book in my Book of the Month box bc I loved the cover and really just had to have this one on my bookshelf! So yeah, I have it in three book formats, lol.

This book has already received a ton of attention from book worms around the world and after reading it, you totally understand why! It’s dark and twisty and keeps you on your toes exploring creepy possibilities throughout. I really did not see the twist at the end coming. It was something I had considered earlier on but quickly dismissed as I moved onto other theories. So that was a fun surprise!

𝙍𝙚𝙖𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙞𝙛 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚:
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Flawed families with secrets
📱 Podcasts and documentaries
🎭 Unreliable characters
🔢 Multiple perspectives
😮 Page turning binge reads

A huge thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for my advanced copy. The thoughts and opinions expressed above are my own.

I'm a long time Lisa Jewell fan and this is the best in recent years. It's a perfect fall thriller. Dark, twisty, and hard to put down!

I'll read anything that Lisa Jewell puts out and this one did not disappoint. Definitely a complex psychological thriller. The clue is in the title, but then who is lying? Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Many thanks to my friends at @bookclubfavorites @atriabooks and @simon.audio for the #gifted free copies of this book.

THIS BOOK!

Chilling. Mind blowing. Unputdownable. Quite possibly THE perfect psychological thriller.

It’s been a long time since a thriller has WOWed me like this. I went in with extremely high hopes, and still, this was so much more than I had anticipated.

Deftly crafted with incisive layers, Jewell kept me on the edge of my seat, never quite sure what to trust. The brilliance of the novel is in its title after all.

The unique formatting- with short chapters that are part narrative, part podcast transcript, and part documentary- added to the sense of foreboding and kept the plot moving at a breakneck speed.

I was completely absorbed, loving every twisted detail, right down to the last explosive revelation. And what a discussion I had with @bookmarked.by.becky and @rachellelovesreading after closing that last haunting page.

Two recommendations:
- Go in blind. The less you know the better.
- Find a buddy to read it with. This book begs for discussion.

This one is worthy of all the praise, from the eerie atmosphere to the crafty characterization and the expert plotting. But ultimately, the best acclaim I can give is this: You NEED to read this book!

Truly, it’s Jewell’s best to date!

🎧 With a full cast and background sound effects, the audio was a standout. It made the podcast and documentary sections truly come alive and gave the characters a distinct voice in each narrative section.

NONE OF THIS IS TRUE by Lisa Jewel ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

OH MY GOSH! My jaw dropped multiple times. I read this in less than 24 hrs. The format makes it feel like you are listening to a podcast but also watching a true crime netflix documentary. It makes for a binge worthy read!

None of This Is True is a psychological thriller about two women who, through a chance encounter, learn that they are birthday twins. Their unlikely meeting turns into a podcast in which shared confidences become the motive for murder. Chapters alternate between Josi and Alix. Josie is alluring, intense and odd. She is off-putting but you just can’t look away! Alix’s chapters are not as interesting in that sense, but she offers stability to the story. She is also dealing with issues in her marriage and is the host of the podcast.

This is an addictive page turner that I couldn’t put down, but I wouldn’t call it a fun read. Some of the darker themes include pedophilia, alcoholism, and physical and emotional abuse. I think if you read Verity you could handle this one. (I will never be the same after Verity and that book makes me ill!)

It definitely gets creepy, but I appreciated the lack of detailed gruesome scenes, mostly just alludes or enough detail to get the picture. Explicit language warning.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Mood: 🍿🫗
Romance: none
⚠️Check tw (mentioned above)

Thank you to @netgalley and @atriabooks for the advanced review copy.

If you were in my family and tried to get my attention the last two days, you would have been disappointed. I was listening to "None of This is True" by Lisa Jewell, and good luck trying to get me away from it. This was a spine chilling, haunting, un-put-downable read/listen. I'm naming this my book of the year, in regard to a story that kept shocking me and also had some of the best writing I've read in ages. This book could be used as a textbook on how to write a phycological thriller, as far as I'm concerned. And I loved the way the story was laid out.

Alix is a successful podcaster, seemingly living the perfect life in London. From the outside, everything looks shiny and perfect. But Jewell is an expert at writing characters that are multifaceted and real. In a chance encounter, Alix meets Josie in the restroom of a restaurant where she is celebrating her 45th birthday with friends. Josie tells Alix it is also her 45th birthday, and christens them "birthday twins". Then in what seems like another random encounter, they meet again in front of Alix children's school, Alix has been looking for a new direction to go in her podcast series of successful women. Josie suggests her own life as an interesting study, because she is ready to make some big changes, and wants to rehash the past with Alix.

So the story is told through two viewpoints. We have Alix's first hand, very immediate telling of events. We are carried through her initial interest in telling Josie's story, and then the slowly mounting dread as events begin to unfold. We are also told Josie's story firsthand, but it is through her podcast interviews. With every interview she unfolds a new facet of her life story, but we are left wondering, can we trust her version of events.

To me Jewell's writing in this book is phenomenal. She tells a gripping story, but also, she makes me think. I'm 66 years old, and I've learned there is a lot of grey in life. Yes, there are black and white issues, but people themselves, they're complicated. Jewell gives us a story where all the main character's are complicated, and we're left to form our own opinions about them.

I'm now going to discuss other reviews, not from a viewpoint of arguing with them, but just to express a different point of view for potential readers who might be interested in forming their own opinions. When I went to Goodreads, I expected to see universal love for this book, and people did like it. But there were quite a few reviewers who were upset by the treatment of one of the characters. Spoiler Alert: I may reveal plot lines here you don't want to know! Some readers were upset that Jewell gave Josie's husband, considered a pedophile because he married a sixteen year old as a 40+ year old man, any redeeming qualities. Two things about that. If you are a person who has experienced something like this and it is a triggering storyline, then I'm one hundred percent sympathetic to your views, and I would say, maybe don't read this book. However, if you are a member of the new book police, by which I mean people who immediately rush to "cancel" or ban books they don't agree with, then I disagree with you. Jewell is not trying to condone this character's behavior. In fact, she goes out of her way to constantly condemn it in the strongest tones. BUT, that doesn't mean that the character can't have facets of their life that are not so reprehensible. This is real life, people. And if you think the character of Josie is a victim, and ergo, that excuses anything she might do, then you weren't readying very carefully near the end of the book. Jewell presents evidence that although, yes, what Walter did was totally wrong, maybe Josie was always in control of her narrative. It makes for an interesting question, which makes for a much more interesting story than if he is a horrible, dark, person who has never done anything decent in his life, the END. It is ambiguous, a great quality that can make the reader have to think.

For me, Jewell writes a brilliantly engaging, dark, eerie, frightening story, that deserves all the stars!

And special shout out to the audiobook, which I was able to get my hands on. The excellent Nicola Walker who stars in some of my favorite BBC dramas, is the narrator, and she makes Alix feel so extremely real. I liked the way the podcast interviews actually sounded record, and not such fresh sound (for lack of a better description). The whole thing deservew every audio award out there.

Thank you to NetGalley, Atria Books, and Lisa Jewell for allowing me to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is my most recent Booksta Made Me Do It read and it lives up to the hype. This is definitely one of Jewell’s best books. The jumps between the Netflix show and real time story were done so well and really kept me intrigued. I read this one but many reviews say the audiobook is fabulous so maybe check that version out. So why 4 stars instead of 5? I had a feeling I knew where things were going so go in blind for this one if you can!

Totally addictive from page one. The perfect book for a long plane ride or "read in one day" beach read. A woman with a disturbing childhood and family life tries to worm herself into another woman's life.

What starts off with a seemingly harmless and random meeting in a restaurant (“𝘏𝘪! 𝘐’𝘮 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘣𝘪𝘳𝘵𝘩𝘥𝘢𝘺 𝘵𝘸𝘪𝘯!”) rapidly takes an unusual turn in this completely engrossing thriller by Lisa Jewell. This book has received overall glowing reviews and I have to agree. This is one of my favorite Lisa Jewell books!

I loved the unique structure of the story, a Netflix documentary about a podcast that centers on Alix Summers, a beautiful and successful woman who seems to have it all, and Josie Fair, the slightly offbeat woman who will become the subject of Alix’s new podcast series. They meet the night of their birthday celebrations when Josie approaches Alix in the ladies’ room and they exchange mutual birthday wishes.

Right away, it is obvious that there is something off about Josie, but I had no idea of the twisty thrill ride I was about to take. Josie soon ingratiates herself into Alix’s personal life, crossing lots of boundaries but all the while giving Alix a gripping story of her life for the podcast.

I am so glad I went into this one blind, because the less you know about the story the better. There are some really brilliant twists, and the cast of characters is likewise absolutely unforgettable. The first page was just as unpredictable as the last and I had to go back and reread it once I finished the book. One of Lisa Jewel’s best books!

(𝘔𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘪𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘺 𝘤𝘰𝘱𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬. 𝘈𝘭𝘭 𝘰𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘮𝘺 𝘰𝘸𝘯.)

Wow Lisa Jewell has done it again!!

None Of This Is True, which is a psychological thriller, is about a popular podcaster named Alix Summer who meets a woman, Josie Fair, while they’re both out celebrating their forty-fifth birthdays. A few days later after running into each other again, Josie tells Alix that she’s been listening to her podcasts and thinks she might be an interesting subject for her series. The more that Alix learns about Josie’s life, she finds it to be strange and complicated, and although Alix finds her unsettling, she can’t quite resist the temptation to keep making the podcast. With Josie trying to infiltrate Alix’s life and her home, and her obsession with her continuing to grow, Alix realizes that she should have never gotten involved with Josie and that she made a horrible mistake. Until a few disappearances start happening does she realize that her and her family are in extreme danger…

First of all, I am such a huge fan of Lisa Jewell and I went into this book with such high expectations knowing that I would enjoy her new release immediately. I loved how this book had such a unique and different premise than I’ve ever read before in a thriller, and I loved the mixed media style of writing throughout the book, with snippets from Alix’s podcast, the Netflix documentary series, and various text messages and video messages interspersed throughout the text. I loved all of the messy and dramatic aspects of each character and the interesting backstory for each one, and how there were so many toxic relationships going on where you had absolutely no idea who to trust in any given situation. I also loved how short the chapters were in this book, which made it such a fast read for me, and how there was practically a cliffhanger at the end of almost every chapter where I couldn’t put the book down to stop reading and needed to know what would happen next. There were definitely a lot of hard and difficult topics that were discussed in this book, such as the grooming and manipulating of young girls, mental abuse and controlling of young girls or people in general, and the psychological abuse that certain characters went through during this book, so that’s something that readers should definitely look out for before reading.

Overall, I absolutely loved this book from beginning to end. I loved all of the twists and turns that were happening at every chapter, and with so many things happening at once where you need so many questions to be answered that I couldn’t put the book down. This is why Lisa Jewell with forever be an auto-buy author for me and why her books have become some of my all time favorites.

Thank you again to Atria Books, NetGalley, and Lisa Jewell for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you, NetGalley and Atria Books for an advance copy of this book! I loved it! True Crime fans-this one's for you! Check out the premise: Alix Summers crosses paths with Josie Fair who just happens to be celebrating her 45th birthday too. When Josie bumps into Alix again, she begs her to let her be on Alix's popular podcast series. Alix feels she needs to switch things up with her show and although she finds Josie to be very unsettling, she decides to go along with it.
I don't want to say more and give something away, but I didn't know who in the story I could trust! There were quite a few surprises, even when you think you have it all figured out.
This was my first Lisa Jewell novel and I will definitely be reading more!

The lives of two women inexorably intersect in this deeply dark and unsettling new thriller from Lisa Jewell.

"Hi, I’m your birthday twin."

Podcaster Alix Summer and Josie Fair cross paths the night of their 45th birthday. Josie, a seemingly unassuming mother of two, is immediately drawn to Alix, whose life appears to shimmer in a way hers does not. Days later, they meet again at Alix’s children’s school. In what feels like fate, Josie decides Alix is exactly the person she needs at this crossroads in her life.

After binging Alix’s podcasts, Josie brazenly suggests Alix consider recording a podcast about her—someone at the cusp of great changes.

In a decision that would upend Alix’s life, she agrees. As Josie confesses every dark secret—from her relationship with her husband, to hers with her two girls, Alix reels in the shock of it. The more she gets to know Josie, the more her instincts tell her to cut this off for good, but the draw to know more overpowers. Soon, Alix and Josie’s futures are inextricably intertwined, dead bodies uncovered in the wake of the chaos.

Jewell delivers an unflinchingly dark and provocative thriller teeming with surprises. It’s a story about families, friendships, identity, and the secrets we hide behind closed doors. Transcripts of Alix’s interviews juxtapose present-day narrative, to unravel Josie’s complicated life. Unreliable characters cast constant doubt, especially in the story’s shocking climax, where I couldn’t help but second guess what I deemed as ‘truth.’ Just like Alix, I felt a visceral need to read more, to know what happened, to see this twisted tale to its end. I plowed through the pages, relishing in the unpredictability of it all.  I've been reading Lisa Jewell for years, and this latest is my new favorite!

It's the dark, bingeworthy thriller you need right now.

Synopsis—
Decently famous podcaster, Alix is celebrating her 45th birthday with family and friends when she meets Josie, a woman who is also celebrating her 45th birthday. The two get to know each other and eventually develop a friendship after Josie asks Alix if she can be the subject of Alix’s next podcast series. But it doesn’t take long for Alix to realize something isn’t quite right with Josie.

My Thoughts —
Between 3.5 and 4 stars on this one. It was good. A solid read. But I wasn’t shocked or blown away by anything. I kept hearing how twisty this novel was, and I’m not sure I totally agree. It was still well worth reading, and I definitely recommend it as a good thriller!

Wow. I rarely give a thriller 5 stars, but this one was just phenomenal! The twists and turns keep coming in, riveting from the first to last line.
I did this on paper and there are many visual clues to changes in location, format etc with bold type face or italics. I haven’t heard any of the audio version but wonder if some of the flow would get lost on an audio.

*thank you Atria Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this advance edition in exchange for an honest review.