Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

None of This Is True by Lisa Jewell

21 reviews

emmy_readz's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

2.0

What did I just listen to? Way too many uncomfortable handlings of sensitive topics like child grooming, sexual assault, mental disability, mental health, the list goes on and on. It's like Jewell was trying to be edgy by including certain aspects but instead came across with him victim blaming energy. Alix's kids were an afterthought, honestly not even sure why they were included other than to make the two MC kids go to the same school and connect them. I think we were supposed to be unsure of who to believe with the dual POV and making Josie have a semi sympathetic voice but it came across as pathetic and selfish. Whether you believe Josie or not her motivations don't make sense regardless. The multimedia aspect of the podcast made it interesting and the pace was great. The audiobook is definitely worth a listen as it has a full cast and gives you the full multimedia experience. With the hype this book and Jewell as an author has, I'm pretty disappointed.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Pandemic/Epidemic, Physical abuse, Toxic friendship, Stalking, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Death, Murder, Gaslighting, Ableism, Child abuse, Sexual assault, Pedophilia, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Medical content, and Alcohol

thetearex's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Mental illness, Alcohol, Pedophilia, Eating disorder, Grief, Infidelity, Child death, Stalking, Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Blood, Incest, Bullying, Child abuse, Death of parent, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Violence

silverhill's review

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.25

A total page-turner! Simultaneously horrifying and engrossing. Josie was awful, but I devoured the book to see what would happen or be revealed next. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Toxic relationship, Murder, Adult/minor relationship, Gaslighting, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Mental illness, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Kidnapping, Bullying, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Pedophilia, and Physical abuse

colorcrystals's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Alcoholism, Pedophilia, Toxic relationship, Infidelity, Stalking, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Child death, Child abuse, and Adult/minor relationship

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, Drug abuse, Murder, Violence, and Blood

Minor: Bullying

aliireads's review

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Good book! It keeps you reading bc you want to know what is true and what isn’t. It is very disturbing and creepy/unsettling as Josie shares her story and as Alix learns the truth. Kind of disappointed that Josie is never found/caught. But the book ends well! It’s interesting how the story moves along between how it actually unfolded. , recording the podcast and the Netflix show. It is a dark book with some very violent and disturbing scenes, some parts are kind of underdeveloped (like Brooke and Roxy or Erin and Roxy), but the story moves along well. I would recommend this one 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Blood, Cursing, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Pandemic/Epidemic, Alcohol, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Murder, Stalking, Torture, Violence, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Grief, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Toxic friendship, Adult/minor relationship, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Abandonment, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Death of parent, and Rape

youmns's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

3.75

Significantly better than I thought it would be at first. Horrifying as a train wreck, equally difficult to look away.

I didn't think I'd enjoy this listen. Boy, was I wrong. The fully-voiced interjections add a lot to the story, adding a layer to the experience. This sort of thing isn't in my wheelhouse - trauma porn, beach read, that sort of thing - but, wow, was it well-written.

Josie starts out totally sympathetic, a pitiful woman who lost so much of her life trapped in an early marriage to a much older man. The more you hear about her life, the less sympathetic she is. Alix starts out the golden goddess, like so many influencers out there, putting out a certain image on her socials, but her life is shown to be just as normal as (or more dramatic than) the average person. None of the principal characters is who they appear to be. The title is pretty spot-on.

Just a note:

They're not actually birthday twins. Alix makes a comment about how they met in a pub on the eve of their birthday, meaning her own was on Sunday while it's established right away that Josie's is on Saturday.

Surprised nobody thought to check, frankly.

I don't think I'll seek out anything else by Lisa Jewell, but I wouldn't necessarily turn my nose up if a friend recommended it. What a ride.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, Child abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Murder, Domestic abuse, Stalking, Kidnapping, Death, Gaslighting, Mental illness, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Incest, Torture, Cursing, Bullying, and Toxic friendship

flamming_bluejeans's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Stalking, Adult/minor relationship, Death of parent, Death, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Murder, Addiction, Violence, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Mental illness

Minor: Excrement, Body shaming, Pregnancy, Bullying, Cursing, Eating disorder, and Pandemic/Epidemic

dizpig's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Stalking, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Physical abuse, Pedophilia, Toxic relationship, Alcoholism, Mental illness, Gaslighting, Violence, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, and Death

Moderate: Bullying, Addiction, Alcohol, Confinement, Blood, Child abuse, Eating disorder, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Murder, Mental illness, Cursing, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Animal death, Pandemic/Epidemic, Pedophilia, Infidelity, Bullying, Lesbophobia, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Torture, Stalking, Medical trauma, and Infertility

illiteratewench's review against another edition

4.5

None of This Is True (2023) by Lisa Jewell is a thriller novel that follows two women, Josie and Alix, who are birthday twins. They were born on the same day in the same hospital but at age 45, their lives seem drastically different. Josie is starting to feel deeply unhappy with her life and looks towards Alix's with envy. Alix is a podcaster who usually interviews successful women, until Josie promises her that her life story is a crazy one that deserves to be heard, and while she isn't a successful aspirational woman, she can become one. 

The only reason this isn't a 5 star is that I'm sure sure some of the themes hold up under lots of critical thought and analysis. It was for sure a 5 star experience, I stayed up to finish it and didn't want to put it down. It's twisty and turny and you're never sure whether or not Josie and her story should be trusted at face value or not. 

The things I don't think hold up with deeper thought are

themes of p*dophila and age gap relationships. Spoiler for the ending of the book! As you read, Josie slowly goes from victim to villain as her lies are unraveled and it's revealed she killed someone. Simultaneously, her husband goes from villain to victim. 

Josie's husband Walter is 27 years older than her. They have been together since she was 15 and he was 42. He was a contractor doing electrical work on her family estate, as well as dating her mother. He was already cheating on his wife and two sons with Josie's mother, eventually leaving them for Josie. 

Josie twists many things about Walter but these are facts that, to me, are irredeemable. The fact that Jewell tries to pull a "but he's actually a really good guy!" on us with a man who cheated on his wife, then cheated on both his wife and mistress with the mistress's underage daughter who he marries and has another 2 kids with, is insane. Especially when the mistress, Pat, claims that Josie (again, her 15 year old daughter) was a sociopath who seduced Walter to steal him from her. I'm sorry but a grown man cannot be seduced by a child unless he is a p*do. End of story. 

So yeah, that leaves me really conflicted with how to rate this. But again, the experience was just so fun and juicy at the time. My rating might be inflated because I don't really read thriller, so maybe one day I'll look back critically and bump this down, but at the moment I still really enjoyed the book and the experience, but I would hesitate to recommend it for this reason.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Murder, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Emotional abuse, Incest, Sexual violence, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Sexual content, Rape, and Stalking

Moderate: Child death, Death of parent, Infidelity, Alcohol, Alcoholism, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Vomit and Bullying

littleereads's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Adult/minor relationship, Pedophilia, Violence, and Alcoholism

Moderate: Incest, Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Kidnapping, and Murder