None of This is True – Lisa Jewell

Information

• Goodreads: 4.13 out of 544,305 Ratings
• Genre: Thriller/Mystery
• Series: None
• Age Category: Adult

Summary

Popular podcaster, Alix Summers, has recently crossed paths with Josie Fair. They both were, coincidentally, celebrating their forty-fifth birthday at a local pub. How super duper cute, their b-day twins! Unfortunately, Josie pops up in Alix’s life once again, stating she’s been listening to her podcast and feels as if she has an ‘interesting’ topic for one. Josie is strange and makes Alix a bit uncomfy, but a part of her can’t help but be drawn into Josie’s nightmare of a life. Josie’s got some pretty juicy secrets that helps Alex escape her own life struggles, making for a nice and interesting podcast. Once Josie mysteriously disappears, Alix realizes that Josie has left some mystery and a dark legacy behind, putting her and her family’s life at risk. Whomp, whomp.

Review

Y’all, the title quite literally says that none of this is true. That did a pretty great job at setting me up for knowing that not one single character was going to be a reliable source of information, which was really fun considering the podcast element. We hear so many people tell a version of the story, without ever getting a genuine sense of what happened. Sure, we do get a general idea in the epilogue, but it’s given to us by someone who has already shown that we can’t trust their version of the truth. We can’t trust anyone, which is what makes this so fun. The audience gets to decide which version of the truth they believe is most believable to them. For me, I decided to – somewhat – believe the epilogue simply because I find that version the most interesting. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t still lead to some questions.

The podcast element, especially in the audiobook, is phenomenal. It was done so well and was often my favorite part of the book. You actually hear the chairs moving, people talking into the microphone, the heavy pauses. I enjoy listening to podcasts – particularly true crime podcasts (Rotten Mango and Lights Out are my favorite and I find that they are incredibly respectful towards victims; they do not glamorize the killer like I’ve seen a lot of others do). I cannot imagine how much a mind-fuck it would be to realize you have accidentally stumbled into creating a podcast on your own true crime situation. Poor Alix.

I love how all of the characters are just fucked. Not a single one is a ‘perfect’ victim. There are definitely things about Josie that makes my heart go out to her. She was groomed by an older man who was married to her mother. They slept together when she was 16 – while he was still married to her mom. I don’t care what kind of person Josie was; she absolutely could have been evil. That doesn’t change that a 45 year old man, who was married to this girl’s mother, slept with her when she was 16. Manipulated or not, she is a child. He was a grown adult. And then you’re telling me that he went on to marry that girl and have two daughters with her? No wonder she’s fucked up. Too bad she lies about everything else.

Then we have Josie’s kids, who are strange. They say they don’t see anything wrong with their dad and loved him – that’s understandable. But you also believe that him sleeping with your mom at 16 was her fault and not weird at all? No. That’s silly. Even Josie’s mom blames her, instead of her ex. I don’t know about you guys, but if my boyfriend or husband slept with my daughter and moved on to marry her, whether she was promiscuous and manipulative or not, I am still putting the blame on the adult who cheated on me with my own kid. We also see the woman that Josie paid to essentially kidnap Alix’s husband after getting him drunk. Hear me out: I don’t agree with what she did and she seems kind of silly for believing it was okay to attempt to convince a man to cheat on his wife so that she could prove to said wife that he’s good for nothing. But, she was offered 1,000. Get your bag, sis. It isn’t her fault Josie is bonkers.

Alix has to bribe her husband with sex to convince him to come home at a decent hour instead of getting absolutely plastered. And she starts her podcast on Josie feeling grateful that her life doesn’t suck as bad as Josie’s does. She uses Josie as almost a form of torture porn – a way to be grateful her life didn’t pan out that and it kind of makes her see that maybe her issues aren’t that bad. Unfortunately, Josie see’s Alix as her bestie and feels the need to protect her from her alcoholic, no-good husband. Despite the fact that he’s actually a decent guy who loves his wife and is just having a hard time with alcoholism. Sure, he can be a dick. Who can’t be?

Reading this felt like watching one of those train-wreck reality tv shows, but with murder and pedophilia thrown into the mix. I was playing Stardew Valley on my laptop while listening and was struck speechless multiple times. There are a few lags and I could definitely see someone feeling like reading it was pointless because we don’t really get a resolution and we don’t really know the truth of what happened. But, for me, that was part of the fun of reading it. It is entirely possible that there are a few other nit-picky things that I would’ve caught onto if I had been physically reading it rather than listening. I would go to say that I feel as if listening to audio would be the best way to go. It’s atmospheric and easy to listen to. Absolutely loved the way it was handled.