Celebrating her forty-fifth birthday at her local pub, popular podcaster Alix Summers 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 realise 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 Info: 400 pages. Publisher: Penguin. Publication Date: 20 July 2023
LISA JEWELL was born in London in 1968.
Her first novel, Ralph’s Party, was the best- selling debut novel of 1999. Since then she has written another nineteen novels, most recently a number of dark psychological thrillers, including The Girls, Then She Was Gone and The Family Upstairs and The Night She Disappeared, all of which were Richard & Judy Book Club picks.
Lisa is a New York Times and Sunday Times number one bestselling author who has been published worldwide in over twenty-five languages. She lives in north London with her husband, two teenage daughters and the best dog in the world.
My Review:
Disclaimer: I bloody love Lisa Jewell as a person – she’s so nice and generous and supportive to readers and authors alike. She’s literary Royalty but one of the most approachable and lovely people I know. She also writes quite well (LOL). I will admit to not reading her earlier books, but once she started writing her darker domestic thrillers in 2014 I haven’t missed one book yet.
When I saw her talking about her new book NONE OF THIS IS TRUE on twitter and Facebook I knew I had to read it and thankfully I was able to get an ARC copy from Netgalley as this book isn’t out until July 2023.
Now I realise many of you won’t be able to read this book until July but I felt I had to review it now and hope that you pop it on your wishlist or pre-order it now because it’s bloody brilliant.
None of This Is True is about two completely different women who coincidentally meet at their local pub and discover they share the same birthdays and were born in the same hospital at the same time.
Alix Summer is a well known podcaster who is looking for a change in direction for her podcast. She’s happily married, has a supportive and close family and appears to have it all.
Josie Fair is a housewife and mother. A quiet and mousey woman who doesn’t have any friends, a domineering husband and a fractured relationship with her two grown-up daughters.
When Josie asks Alix to feature her on her podcast and examine her life it seems a really good idea. Titled “Hi, I’m Your Birthday Twin” the two women start to meet regularly and slowly Josie begins to reveal her disturbing and dysfunctional past.
Upon closer investigation it appears Josie’s version of the truth may be very different and in someone else’s words “recollections may vary!” which now puts Alix and her family in grave danger.
Finally Lisa has taken the leap to the darkest side of domestic noir and this book ticks all my requirements for a 5 star read.
Firstly we have an unreliable narrator ✔, then we have a dysfunctional family ✔, a couple of batsh*t crazy characters ✔, an uncomfortable storyline ✔, a couple of dead bodies ✔, mental and physical abuse ✔, toxic friendships ✔, chapters you can’t stop reading ✔, twists and turns ✔.
