Scan barcode
ylimehurst's review against another edition
- 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
4.25
Moderate: Torture, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Blood, Adult/minor relationship, Incest, Pedophilia, Domestic abuse, Murder, and Death
Minor: Drug use
abeier's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Pedophilia, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Murder, and Gaslighting
craigpwmoroney's review against another edition
- 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
5.0
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Toxic friendship, Stalking, Gaslighting, Confinement, Bullying, Child abuse, and Eating disorder
Moderate: Pandemic/Epidemic, Forced institutionalization, Pedophilia, Kidnapping, Violence, and Sexual content
Minor: Pandemic/Epidemic and Grief
miafromorchardstreet's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Moderate: Physical abuse, Violence, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Murder, and Emotional abuse
betteroffdev's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
None of This Is True by Lisa Jewell is a gripping, keeps-you-guessing thriller that primarily alternates through descriptions of scenes from a Netflix Documentary Series on the events of the story itself, and the perspectives of its two main characters: Alix Summers and Josie Fair, who discover they were born on the same day in the same place after they first meet on their shared forty-fifth birthday. Both women find themselves, despite these commonalities, in different places in life, with the only other tangible thread between them seeming to relate to disappointment they have been feeling (albeit for different reasons) with their husbands and their life at the moment.
Alix is known for being the creator of a podcast interviewing women who have broken out of restrictive lives and marriages and turned new leafs, reflecting on all the good that's come from it because of it, and Josie sees this as her golden opportunity to become her "turning page," so to speak. As Josie offers herself up to be the latest of the subjects at the other end of Alix's podcast interviews, she begins to delve into her wild past and confusing present, taking Alix along with her. With the more that Alix learns about Josie and her past, however, the less things seem to make sense. As Josie's fascination with and yearning for a life unlike her own, much like the one Alix currently lives, intertwines with and is warped by her distorted world-view and grasp on social interactions and relationships, the two women's stories start to bleed together more than either of them anticipated going in, and disaster begins to follow.
Coming out of having finished the book now, I feel like I can easily say I liked it. The characters, all of them, are flawed in their own ways and made human through their development and our growing knowledge of them as readers while the story progresses; and this creates the environment for a story that leaves you wondering on several moments who you are really intended to believe and thus, what parts of these stories and perspectives being shared are actually the true ones?
I'd say about 90% of the book holds these elements together very well, and it is only in the drawn-out reveal of the "twist" and beyond in the end when there is any degree of falter in these elements. According to interviews with author, Lisa Jewell, she interprets (and intends) the ending of this story to be unambiguous. Given the many and several accounts the story is able to feature both through its alternating perspectives and the interviews of countless other characters that are interspersed throughout the story, the overall result that has resonated among readers are that there are many and several accounts and tellings of events and the way things have gone to reconcile to try and come to our own conclusions.
*Spoilers Below: You have been warned!*
When the dust settles at the end of the novel and we have our time jump and see characters reflecting on the events of the main story timeline, we are given several differing perspectives and the aftermath of multiple character deaths. Jewell says this is all correctly interpreted when seen as unambiguous, but I struggle to see how that could ever possibly be the case.
Three murders occur that we know of. A character is known to be a pedophile, but this is shrugged off and fairly casually dismissed in favor of him being a supposedly good father. Our primary main character, Josie Fair, is raised by an unloving, narcissistic parent, then "wins over" the feelings of a man nearly thirty years her senior as a child and lives life with him. We are given Josie's perspective, which we are then made to doubt by the accounts of others, but it is never explained why we should believe any of what Josie says when she acknowledges herself that she tells plenty of lies, chooses on several occasions to steal, shows no remorse at any point until seeing indication by another person that she should be showing some, and her disabled daughter is made comatose and found tied up in a chair.
The story, as evidenced in the way countless readers discuss the ending all over, is clearly presented as a "Who do you believe?" sort of set-up, yet our author insists it should all be very straight-forward, which it feels (at present) is impossible given the varying accounts.
This ties back to the reality that, as mentioned above, all of these characters are flawed as individuals. I cannot truly believe that any given one of them is truly "innocent," even if everything is taken at face value, because of the things at the very least that we, as readers, do get to witness and know to have happened.
All in all, I did really enjoy this book. I feel like whether the author wanted it this way or not, the ending is ambiguous and I believe that is because there are elements of it that what is written on the pages prove to be true and can back up, and elements that otherwise line up. Regardless of author's intention, it is disappointing to me when something is left with too many unanswered or ambiguous answers to questions the story creates. I feel like the epilogue could have aided some of this, but ultimately just opened more questions (as I was afraid it would).
Still, the 90% of the book up until these factors came in are enough to leave me walking away satisfied, and if this author would ever do a complete tell-all and answer all the questions that readers have clearly been left with that she feels have not been made ambiguous, I would absolutely tune in to hear what clarification she would be able to provide.
My #1 takeaway from it all? Yay Lisa Jewell, Nay Freida McFadden
Moderate: Child abuse, Physical abuse, Violence, Adult/minor relationship, and Domestic abuse
Author claims the ending should be seen as straight-forward, not ambiguous, but it feels like many questions are left unanswered when all is “revealed” at the end.wickedgrumpy's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
Minor: Infidelity, Mental illness, Chronic illness, Toxic friendship, Death, Drug use, Grief, Medical trauma, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Eating disorder, Medical content, Confinement, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Kidnapping, Toxic relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Blood, Sexism, Stalking, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Gaslighting, Torture, Child death, Classism, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Murder, Sexual harassment, Abandonment, Pedophilia, Rape, Body shaming, Excrement, Pandemic/Epidemic, Physical abuse, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
msfairyviolet's review against another edition
- 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
4.0
Graphic: Child abuse, Sexual assault, and Domestic abuse
Moderate: Murder
eveling_99's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Gaslighting, Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Emotional abuse
Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Addiction, and Grief
daffodilcherry's review against another edition
- 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
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.
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
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,
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Stalking, Murder, Domestic abuse, Kidnapping, Ableism, and Sexism
Moderate: Child abuse, Torture, Incest, Lesbophobia, and Gaslighting
The dog is uninjured and fine at the end. Josie's relationship with Walter:bo0ks_are_cool91's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Sexual assault, Pedophilia, Incest, Adult/minor relationship, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Child abuse
Moderate: Alcoholism, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, and Child death
Minor: Bullying