Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

None of This Is True by Lisa Jewell

19 reviews

kashby's review against another edition

i liked the first two acts but when the theme went from being about how people who experience trauma sometimes gain the capability to harm others into how this girl is cray cray 😝 and forced an old man to date her i was kind of over it. the writing was really good but i just didn’t really fw the ending or how walter’s character was handled.

---

Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Gore, Kidnapping, Medical content, Stalking, Injury/Injury detail, Eating disorder, Grief, and Infidelity

Minor: Blood, Toxic friendship, Bullying, Drug abuse, Toxic relationship, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pandemic/Epidemic, Pregnancy, Sexual violence, Vomit, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Drug use

josiemeyer's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Toxic friendship, Murder, Abandonment, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Sexual harassment, Death, Emotional abuse, Alcohol, Child abuse, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual content

craigpwmoroney's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective 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

5.0

This book keeps you guessing until the end. It's narrative is told by multiple people each one, unreliable in some degree. It is hard hitting, but a very good read.

---

Content Warnings

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

andieobrien99's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Woah! What a rollercoaster of a book!

It was creepy. It was intense. It was sad. It was good!

This was my first time reading one of Lisa’s books and honestly I have to read more! 

This gave me the chills reading it! 

The fact there’s people out in the world who are like that just gives me the heebee Jeebees

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, Violence, Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Pedophilia, Alcoholism, Gaslighting, Grief, and Murder

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

---

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

gabriellesimpson's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense

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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Pedophilia, Toxic friendship, and Murder

Moderate: Death, Mental illness, Child abuse, Alcoholism, Adult/minor relationship, Emotional abuse, and Stalking

Minor: Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, and Kidnapping

emkrob's review against another edition

challenging 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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Kidnapping, Death, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Death, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Violence, Physical abuse, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Sexual content, Torture, Death of parent, and Confinement

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.

---

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

kaleydearest's review against another edition

mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship

Moderate: Pedophilia and Death

Minor: Alcoholism, Sexual content, Child abuse, and Sexual assault

allisonsmith120's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship and Alcoholism

Moderate: Murder, Pedophilia, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence

Minor: Pandemic/Epidemic, Stalking, Infidelity, and Sexual content