Reviews with content warning for Incest - None of This is True

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

tthatguyty's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark mysterious slow-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

2.5

The concept of the story is great- just not the best execution. 3rd person pov is hard to follow personally and makes it hard to connect to the characters. It took a bit to just gather what was going on and the end felt very rushed and the true ending just makes you feel “that’s all?”

Content Warnings

karolinaz's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-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

Content Warnings

sophierose129's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark 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

3.5

Content Warnings

themichellegray's review against another edition

Go to review page

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

5.0

It's very rare for a psychological thriller to receive a 5-star rating from me but here we are.

While the content within this story was disturbing it was delivered in such a unique format. Both the pacing and reveals were masterfully written which held my interest until the very last page. Even after finishing the story, the author left me contemplating the narratives within this book and in real-world true crime "content".

There are so many layers to this novel and I'm impressed with Jewell's ability to simultaneously write a shocking story while providing commentary on the sensationalization of real-life cases.

Content Warnings