Reviews tagging 'Sexism'

None of This Is True by Lisa Jewell

6 reviews

lestatbp's review against another edition

mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

0.25

A terrible book. I felt like I read the notes and outlines for five different books. 

The first part is nice and slow and mysterious. About halfway through it all goes to hell with messy plots, characters who all of a sudden act differently or disappear from the story, characters that appear from nowhere and have nothing to do with the plot, and and hundreds of red herrings that are just there for no reason (not ever referenced again, just filler to confuse your mind).

It's a real shame because it could have been a great story. It almost feels like it was written by AI because it has huge gaping holes or things said about characters that make no sense to a human mind. 

I read 150 books a year and, honestly, it is the worst book I have read in five years. Don't waste your time. I assume the rest of her books are as bad, so I wouldn't bother with trying another one by the "author." 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Incest, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

Just a terrible book that seemed to stuff in as many "triggering" topics as possible whether they pertain to the story or not. It was a really bizarre experience reading this.

wickedgrumpy's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

When it comes to ambiguous open endings, I usually don't mind because I can imagine what I want to follow as an epilogue.  That requires having a good foundation though and this book lacked that in spades.  When the title is the book, you question everything.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

daffodilcherry's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

A psychological thriller following the link between two women, Alix and Josie, who meet when they realise they share their birthdays. Josie then asks Alix to make a podcast about her, unravelling her life. Interspersed in their tale are flashforwards to a true crime documentary made from their story. 

This story reads like a Netflix/BBC miniseries that gets crazy popular and that everyone's mum is obsessed with. The first 50% is amps up the tension between the two women, but ultimately it goes along very slowly. The second 50% is fast paced, desperate and dramatic. My one ultimate annoyance with this book is the title: None of This is True.

It ultimately spoils the fact that Josie is lying about the exact circumstances of her life.

if it had been named differently I think the revelations of the second half would have hit a lot stronger. However, the ending was so very satisfying (ending spoiler:)

especially the final twist of Josie's final chapter where she may not be as diabolical as we were lead to believe...

 

In terms of diversity, both Alix and Josie are white cis women, married to their husbands. Everyone appears to be ambiguously white and straight, except for, some of Nathan's friends and

Josie's daughter Roxy, who is a lesbian with her dark moments.

Erin is autistic with smooth food preferences and is the gamer queen of my heart. 

I very much enjoyed this as an audiobook, with two excellent main narrators and then a full cast making up the interviewees of the inserted documentary moments. My only gripe with it was that at times in the documentary aspects the interviewer's voice was very quiet, but otherwise it was good.

Wheelhouse: narrative parallels/foils, women protagonists over 45,

unreliable narrators,

spliced in revelations in the form of interviews.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Domestic abuse, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Kidnapping, Stalking, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Incest, Torture, Lesbophobia, and Gaslighting

The dog is uninjured and fine at the end. Josie's relationship with Walter:

allegedly started dating when she was 15 he was 42, describes grooming behaviour, alleges that he is physically, emotionally and fiscally abusive towards her.

spoiler for the twist of Josie and Walter:

this is then twisted when her children allege that she was manipulative and emotionally abusive towards the whole family, including Walter, and that she may have attacked him as he died.

Josie's relationship with her children:

Erin is autistic and while Josie is mostly supportive in terms of providing her with food she likes there is an underlying current of slight abelism when it comes to Josie's views on Erin. Josie ends up fighting Erin, restraining her in her house and abandoning her for dead while stealing her money. Roxy appears to have a more fraught relationship with Josie, with allegations of child abuse and that Josie allegedly sabotaged her relationship with Brook. There is a custom made child's chair with restraints which apparently Josie used on Roxy.

Josie's final plan:

she kidnaps Alix's husband and ends up killing him, apparently accidentally.

Roxy:

final final twist spoilers: Roxy might have been the one to have killed her then girlfriend Brook.

david_slack110507's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

My first Lisa Jewell book and it did not disappoint. I listened to this rather than reading it and I feel like listening to the audiobook version made for a better experience of the book as not only did it add voices to the characters and gave them additional personality but it also allowed for the podcast transcripts, interview clips, and parts of the documentary to all come to life better than they would have on the page with some really good sound design. 

This was a very messed up story that focuses on the blurred lines of what is true and what is false and how far someone will go in lying to themselves, so they believe it, particularly with Josie in the ending. Josie was an interesting character to watch as when from her perspective she repeatedly lies to the audience and shapes the narrative in a way that suits her and what she truly believes is the case and it is only later on that we start to be encouraged to question whether or not what she is saying is truthful and has any merit to it. Alix felt like at times she was a representation of the audience who are trying to piece together Josie's story while also eventually coming to point out the lies in what is considered to be the truth. I felt like the two were very interesting characters to follow as they interweave in and out of one another's lives. Josie's story of being a victim, whether her narrative is real or not, does not place her as a villain because of the things that she has said has happened to her and the subject matter is dealt with in an appropriate fashion without being written off when it comes to light that at least certain things are proven to be not true. 

The ending of the book was a major highlight for me as it seemingly wraps up the story in a clear and concise fashion in which every major plot point or secret is explained and its importance is revealed only for the final chapter to be from Josie's perspective to flip the narrative on its head due to how it questions the finality of the ending and whether or not the narrative has been properly revealed or manipulated due to who is control of it. In the ending, Josie seemingly believes that she is innocent and has done nothing wrong including the murder of her daughter, Roxy's, friend Brooke which she blames on her daughter. I liked this to be the ending chapter of the book as not only is it a good representation of the theme of control of a narrative but it also ends with the 'true' narrative of the book being up to the reader as to whether they believe what was accepted as the general truth by the majority of the public, the truth believed by Josie (that is most likely a narrative she created to avoid taking the blame) or maybe a bit of both (e.g. the murder of Brooke could be what Josie said that it was not actually her but her daughter and so she along with her family helped cover it up linking back to what Walter feared earlier in the book about something being revealed to the police). Even though it appears that it has an open and shut case ending, it could also be picked apart and given a different interpretation depending on the reader which made me appreciate the writing even more. 

Overall, I really enjoyed my first Lisa Jewell book, and it makes me excited for whenever I get around to reading the other books I have of hers as well as the rest of her books. The twists and turns that were consistent throughout kept me invested and the characters particularly our main ones were very interesting in themselves. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Sexism, Sexual content, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

Minor: Bullying, Confinement, Infidelity, Misogyny, Pregnancy, and Pandemic/Epidemic

mads_jpg's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

I have a lot of thoughts about this book. 

The positives:

• I liked the non-linear storytelling through the Netflix clips that start to reveal certain details.
• The story was interesting enough that I read it quite quickly despite the length.

The negatives (Spoilers!):

• The book seems to paint Josie as a man-hating feminist, which doesn't sit right when she then goes on to kill the only men in the story.
• The author said in the acknowledgements that she wrote this book in less than a year, and it shows, because given the inclusion of something as sensitive as pedophilia she did not portray it in a responsible way.
• I can't tell if the book is a commentary on or a victim of the idea of the 'perfect victim' who never does anything wrong. 
• The way the author described Josie's grooming by Walter was awful in almost every case, either saying she "allowed herself to be groomed" or that she in fact wasn't groomed at all and actually seduced Walter herself. Which still wouldn't make it ok since the adult is ultimately responsible for shutting that kind of thing down.
• Every character is incredibly unlikable, and their actions make no sense. E.g Pat who is reviled as this full of life, go getting woman just let's her 16-year-old daughter take her 40-year-old boyfriend from her? And doesn't do anything to stop it?
• Why the hell is Alix still working on the podcast after Nathan goes missing AND after he's confirmed murdered?!?!?! I was reading this assuming the police/documentary filmmakers had gotten a copy of the podcast, not that she'd RELEASED THE DAMN THING.
• Alix mourns Josie's victims as people who were killed "for no good reason at all", and that was a big issue for me. I really did feel like I had no idea why she would go this far, and the last minute twist in the epilogue doesn't account for that.
• I'm all for an unreliable narrator story, but at no point did it feel like the reader had any chance at following what was really going on, and the ambiguous ending made that even more frustrating, but that's probably just a me thing and not a legitimate issue.
• It was also bloody annoying how many times the author said Josie could hear the sound of Erin's headphones through the door, there's literally no way that's possible without Erin sustaining serious ear damage, I'm sorry but no.

Overall this felt like a dangerously careless representation of some very serious issues given the amount of trigger warnings I had to add to this review.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

prairieraven's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Incest, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism