None Of This Is True

None Of This Is True is a well-named, twisty psychological thriller about two women who randomly meet and find out that they share the same birthday. This tenuous link is followed by a 'chance' encounter and leads to a complex and progressively disturbing connection between Josie and Alix. 

The chapters pivot between the two main characters. Josie Fair is a 45-year-old married mother of two young women who is unhappy with her home life and 45-year-old Alix who is a popular podcaster who interviews Josie as part of a series she's doing called "All Women". Although Josie doesn't fit the typical mold for Alix's interviewees, Alix agrees to follow Josie as she attempts to change her life. 

Woven into the story were excerpts from a NetFlix documentary series which I found slowed the tension of the main story. What this book does well is the slow burn thriller. I am not normally a fan of slow burn reads, but this book had me hooked. It's a story that will make you uncomfortable with its heavy, emotional topics and how Jewell builds her tension at just the right pace to keep her readers invested. We simply don't know who to trust and Josie, in particular, is unreliable and increasingly unstable and I wanted to figure out what was going on. The only wee disappointment was that the ending, while shocking, felt too abrupt and less satisfying than I was expecting after all the build up. 

Dark, intense and filled with lies, manipulation and deception, I enjoyed this slow burn suspense read in all its dysfunctional domestic glory. The last couple of Jewell's books were good but this book puts Jewell back at the top of her game with a thrilling, creeptastically awesome suspense story.

Disclaimer: My sincere thanks to Atria Books for my advanced copy which was provided in exchange for my honest review.

My Rating: 4.5 stars

Author: Lisa Jewell

Genre: Suspense

Type and Source: Trade Paperback ARC from publisher

Publisher: Atria Books

First Published: August 8, 2023

Book Description from GoodReads: 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.

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?