Wow! This is roughly the third mystery book I’ve ever read and I flew through it. Lisa Jewell is a new author for me but one I will definitely be reading again.

This book felt like a fast read only because it kept me on the edge of my seat. I was constantly desperate to learn more, and did not feel like I could be at peace with the story until I knew how it ended. Even now I’m still not at peace with it to be honest, but that’s kind of the point. The title itself says it all.

One of the main characters, Alix, is so likeable and someone I think many readers will be able to relate to. Josie on the other hand, is not. These characters contrast one another so perfectly and it keeps things interesting to be constantly switching between their points of view. Trying to understand what you’d do if you were in Alix’s position.

All in all, I have to give this story 4 stars because I found there were a few things that went unanswered (although as previously mentioned, this may have been intentional) and the ending was not as jaw dropping as I expected. But it was a super enjoyable read, that kept me simultaneously entertained and disturbed throughout!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an electronic copy to read and review.

What did I just read?! This book was incredible. I absolutely devoured it. The format incorporates narrative pieces interspersed with transcripts of podcast interviews making it so much fun to get different perspectives. Alix and Josie are incredibly complex and well developed characters. It is incredible how Lisa Jewell is able to write characters so well that you don't really notice when your feelings for them start to change. I highly recommend this book - especially if you can read it in one go.

Lisa Jewell is one of my favourite thriller writers, and I think this might be my new favourite of hers!

This book is deliciously dark, disturbing (please check trigger warnings first) and super twisty! Oh my goodness. Weird and creepy does not even begin to describe the Fair family.

I adored the style of writing, and the dual timelines regarding how information was introduced to the reader. Being able to see what was going on in Alix’s life and Josie’s simultaneously makes the twists even more shocking. Often times, I can guess what is going to happen, but I could not figure out these characters for the life of me! Each twist was a genuine surprise to me, and that made it even more enjoyable. I could not put this book down and finished it in 24 hours!

If you enjoy thrillers, you absolutely have to read this book! I cannot recommend it highly enough!!

This book was just, wow 🤯⁣
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Alix Summers and Josie Fair are birthday twins. Born on the same day, in the same hospital, they first meet while celebrating their respective 45th birthdays at a local gastropub. ⁣
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Alix is the host of a popular podcast about inspiring women. She's just recorded the thirtieth episode of the series and she's ready for something new. When she and Josie cross paths again, and Josie tells her she has an extraordinary story to share despite her ordinary appearance, Alix is intrigued. As each recording session progresses, Alix's feelings of unease continue to grow, but she won't cut off contact until she hears Josie's whole story. And by the end of it, Alix has become the subject of her own true crime podcast.⁣
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Josie was such an off-putting character, but quickly captured my attention just as she did Alix's. I really liked the different POVs and how parts of the podcast were interspersed throughout the book. None of this is True was so well done--the pacing, the characters, the revelations. I blew through this one so fast.⁣
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None of this is True is one of the best psychological thrillers I've read this year! ⁣
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Thank you @simonschusterca for the complimentary digital arc.

Happy Publication Day @lisajewelluk on your latest book None of This is True. Thank you @netgalley and @atriabooks for my arc of this 5 ⭐️ read! Lisa Jewell is an auto-buy author for me so I jumped at the chance to read an arc of None of this is True! It was truly amazing. Psychological thrillers are my jam and this one might be one of my favourites! I went into it blind as I new it would be good but holy twisty mind blowing plot twists. I enjoyed the character development and the pace of the story. I was intrigued from start to finish.

The story was good and intriguing and definitely made you read so you could get the whole story. I thought everything was paced well and did not have a long stretch where not much was happening then everything happened at once. Josie was the one character I did not trust right from the start. Just the way she did things and her train of thoughts made me not trust her at all. I felt like Alix was very naïve and a bit one dimensional at times. I had a hard time connecting to any of the characters and felt more like a spectator to a train wreck in the making (it could be how this is supposed to be). I was able to guess most of the plot by 25% in and felt like it was predictable to a certain point. Yes the ending brings more question and keeps yourself wondering what is really true? Overall I did enjoy but something was missing for me.

Lisa Jewell will forever be my favourite. After a multi-year reading slump brought on by my own journey into motherhood, I walked into a bookstore craving the joy I used to find in the pages of a book. I knew nothing about the books that were on the display tables, and just picked a few up that looked kind of interesting. I remembered that as a child I like mystery books, so when a Lisa Jewell book blurb piqued my interest, I brought it home with me. That was January 2019. Over the entire previous year, I had only read 6 books but that year I read 19. I then read 21 in 2020, followed by 90 and 105 books in the following two years respectively. Now, at the beginning of August of 2023, this is my 109th book already of the year. So, Lisa Jewell literally represents something really dear and special to me and I will always love her books.

And so, yes, I loved reading None of This is True. This book was so engaging — it just consistently grabbed me and had me anticipating what was coming around each new ‘corner’ (paragraph, page, and chapter) because I knew there’d be another twist coming. I loved the way Jewell used format here, mixing thriller literature with the formats of a true crime podcast and a true crime documentary. I could just imagine how weirdly circular and meta it would become if it ever did get picked up by Netflix for an adaptation (and I would watch the heck out of it!). This was a unique and thrilling way to tell a story. Since thrillers can get stale and rote, I loved how Jewell played around with the format here.

The title is clear that this will book will have you questioning everyone’s perspectives. Is there a single trustworthy narrator? This is what the reader is challenged to determine. You are unlikely to discover a likeable character in this tale, yet the reader will still be challenged on what characters they find sympathetic and why. As a reader of this book, we’re tasked not just with trying to piece together all of the hanging threads that Lisa Jewell leaves all over the pages of this story that are clearly leading to something very sinister, but we’re also tasked with questioning why the characters are behaving as they are and whose trauma should be prioritized over others. It makes not only the characters morally grey but it puts the reader in this same complicated space of questionable morality as well.

In the course of this novel, we meet Alix and Josie. They discover each other out to dinner, both celebrating their forty-fifth birthdays. Upon realizing that they share a birthday, they find themselves looking for another level of connection. Josie sees many similarities between her and Alix and desires to connect to this other woman in order to journey alongside her to a place of growth and change, while Alix, a popular podcaster, sees Josie as an opportunity to tell a new story highlighting perhaps the differences between these two women born on the same day in the same hospital. Through their singular perspectives, as well as some of the stories of other women witnessed through the telling of this podcast, their stories are woven together to allow the reader to see a glimpse of motherhood and womanhood through different experiences — mothers who had a child they didn’t want, mothers who tried to love challenging children, and mothers who are left at home to keep everything together when their husbands are unreliable. What does it mean to be a “good” mother, a “good” wife, a “good” friend, and a “good” daughter? How can a woman maintain or re-establish control over their own lives when they also have so many others depending on them?

But, while asking these questions, Jewell also asks whether we should believe women when they tell the stories of their trauma. In this question, she walks a very precarious line that makes me as a reader uncomfortable. This is either the mark of great literature or thoughtless prose. I really hope that this is an example of the former, but I cannot be sure. Regardless, take care if you are a reader who has also experienced trauma. Look up content warnings and take them seriously. Read some of the lower-rating or un-rated Goodreads reviews that contain spoilers if you’re concerned that this may be a triggering topic.

Thrillers in general tend to dive into uncomfortable and traumatic experiences. Thriller readers know this. Here, Jewell has gone a step further by either being careless with where the blame lies in such traumatic experiences or she is forcing readers to come face to face with our own biases that look for villains in the wrong place. I believe that Jewell is not being careless but crafting a thriller that goes beyond the pages and challenges the reader, but some readers are not in a place to read it that way. A thriller should be enjoyable, and this one is written so well to keep a reader turning pages. But know yourself before picking this book up and avoid it if it won’t be enjoyable to you.

None of this is true by Lisa Jewell

- [ ] Birthday twins
- [ ] A chance meeting
- [ ] Dysfunctional families

I loved the format with the Netflix document snippets in some of the chapters which helped with further information.

Lisa Jewell has done it again. She never disappoints.

Lots of twists and turns and I loved it.

I highly recommend this and all other of her books 📚

I was so excited to get an advanced eARC from NetGalley and Aria Books in exchange for my honest review.

We meet Alix and Josie as they are both celebrating their 45th birthdays and discover they are birthday twins. Alix is the host of a podcast and Josie gets her to agree to interview her as she tells her story.

This story is intense, intriguing and disturbing and I loved it! The dual timeline, and dual POV with the combination of a podcast and Netflix series really added so much more to the story. I flew through this book and couldn’t wait to find out what the twist was going to be! If you are looking for a good thriller be sure to pick this one up!

Look for it August 8, 2023. You won’t regret it!

Multilayered, tense, and guileful!

None of This Is True is a meticulous, compelling thriller that takes us into the life of Alix Summers, a successful podcaster who finds her life turned upside down when on her forty-fifty birthday she bumps into a seemingly unremarkable woman also celebrating the same birthday whom she decides to feature in her next series. But Josie isn’t as ordinary as she first appears, and underneath all the subterfuge and denim lies some deep, dark secrets that once they come to light will expose a history of unimaginable terror and violence that will ultimately shatter Alix’s comfortable family life forever.

The prose is intricate and raw. The characters are secretive, manipulative, and consumed. And the plot using a mix of narration, scripts, and interviews, intertwines and unravels seamlessly into a creepy tale about life, loss, family, manipulation, obsession, abuse, deception, jealousy, mind games, violence, and murder.

Every year I’m always excited to read the latest Lisa Jewell release, and this year I have to say I think it might be one of her best. None of This Is True is one of the most spine-chilling, tragic, menacing tales I’ve read, and is without a doubt one of my new all-time faves.

Dive into a truly troubled mind in Lisa Jewell’s latest, None of This is True.

This is a twisty one, folks. More psychological than grisly (although there is a bit of that, too), this book definitely plays with your brain. I loved the premise and structure of the story. It is truly clever. From the description alone, the reader already knows a lot. At first, I found myself thinking, ‘But isn’t there going to be more?’ Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of juicy details to discover along the way, but the plot, in general, is pretty much what you read in the description. The ingenious part is the characters.

Lisa does a terrific job of crafting each character. We get to read the point of view of both Josie and Alix, with little sections of a Netflix script in between. What we are left with as a reader is to determine who is telling the truth. Who can we trust? Who can we believe? We meet other characters connected to each of the women, too, Josie’s husband Walter, Josie’s mom, Alix’s husband, and others, and each of them brings new perspectives to confuse us and make us question what’s really going on.

It’s a thinker of a book. I found I had to keep putting it down to ponder on it before picking it back up. For me, it wasn’t an escapist, tear-through-it kind of thriller. It was more of a read-in-smaller-sections and give-it-some-time-to-settle sort of book. If that vibe is what you live for, you’ll like this story.

4.5/5 This was a perfect summer page turner. I was hooked right from the beginning and had so much trouble putting it down - I read it in about 2 days!

It's got creepy vibes, unreliable characters, podcast/interview elements, short chapters and an ending that makes the reader go "huh?!" It's a great read on a gloomy, rainy day like today!

This could be my favourite Lisa Jewell book yet!

This is a dark, disturbing, twisty psychological thriller.

Alix Summer is a podcaster who seems to have it all. She has a successful career, lots of money, a beautiful family, and a bright future. Josie Fair, Alix's birthday twin, is dull by comparison and is extremely envious of Alix. After a chance meeting in a restaurant, Josie manages to insinuate herself into Alix's life and turns it upside down.

I was on the edge of my seat while reading this novel and was focused on trying to distinguish the truth from the lies. The story was very unpredictable and the only reason that I didn't award it 5 stars is due to victim blaming. Josie is completely cringy but I don't think a 13-16-year-old girl should be blamed for stealing her mom's boyfriend, a man in his 40s. Icky.

Superb! Another Lisa Jewell win. This is a sick and twisty story that I could not put down. It kept me guessing and wondering for a long time. I liked the juxtaposition of the podcast/Netflix interviews, but there was something about the Netflix title each time that made me cringe. Regardless, it would be a Netflix show I'd watch! Great story, if you like Lisa Jewell you're in for a treat!

🖤None of This is True🖤

None of This is True is probably my favourite Lisa Jewell book to date. I am not going to talk about the plot because I think it's best to go into this one blind if possible. However, there are a lot of potential triggers in this one, if this is something that is of concern to you, Storygraph does have some listed.

This story was unsettling, dark and a total mindfuck. There are multiple points of view so you get the story from two different angles which was really interesting. One of them is definitely an unreliable narrator but it is done so well. It kind of reminded me of Verity in that you are left not knowing what really happened and I’m still thinking about it. I was immediately hooked by the story and it kept me guessing the whole way.

If you’re looking for a thriller to binge this summer, I would recommend this one!

Thank you to @netgalley and @simonschusterca for the eARC in exchange for an honest review! None of This is True is out on August 8th!

⭐5/5 stars⭐

Reading this story was like taking a walk with a friend where you are gently guided on the journey. It made me curious and was very enjoyable. I would recommend.
The title says it all. Question all statements and look deeper for the truth.
Thank you Simon&Schuster and NetGalley for the advanced reading copy.

I’ve had to think about how I would rate and review this one for a few days. I’ve seen so many glowing reviews so I’m probably a bit of an outlier here. While I did find the story and the writing pretty engrossing, I thought maybe it was a little bit repetitive. I also couldn’t really figure out why Alix kept letting Josie into her life. I know it was for the podcast but it honestly didn’t seem like she had that much to gain or that it was worth it. Alix seems like she puts up with a lot in general and I’m not sure why.
After finishing it, I remembered that the title of the book is None of This is True and realized that I couldn’t actually trust anything that happened. Ultimately, I don’t think it played up enough on the fact that there was an unreliable narrator, which is why I forgot about that while reading. However, maybe that was the point?
I did really like the way parts of the story are told through a Netflix documentary that included interviews with other characters and transcripts from Alix’s interviews with Josie. I thought this was pretty unique and a great way to tell parts of the story that the reader wouldn’t otherwise get to see.

I think None of this is True is Lisa Jewel's darkest, most twisted one yet, and I couldn't stop reading it.

oh to have a mind like lisa jewell's.

None of This Is True is everything i love in lisa jewell's writing. it was an entertaining and mystifying read about unreliable characters and trying to decipher what is true and what are lies.
i thoroughly enjoyed the flow of this book. the back and forth in accompaniment with the netflix scenes were so intriguing and riveting and kept me reading. from the beginning, you can tell things are not as they seem, and hearing information unravel will continuously keep you on the edge of your seat. i didn't know what was happening and was so interested to find out.

thank you netgallery & simon & schuster canada for this e-arc!!

This book is “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… before she knows it, Josie has inveigled her way into Alix's life-and into her home.” - shortened Goodreads summary

I am SPEECHLESS. I think this is the best book I’ve ever read. What a journey! I kept writing my guesses in a note and I didn’t get anything right. The twists keep coming until the very end. You NEED to read this book. I’m going to be buying this book for all the readers in my life this Christmas.

Definitely check the trigger warnings for this one.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for this advance reader copy. All opinions are my own.