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A review by themermaddie
None of This Is True by Lisa Jewell
4.0
jesus christ, what a book. this is a slow release thriller that absolutely refuses to let you know what's going on until the very end, and even then, can you really be sure?
the vibes here are so so unsettling, although i will say it feels like nothing of consequence happens for a while, it's just bad vibes all around until the action starts to really pick up around 70% of the way in. meanwhile you're left with all these stories, and it's hard to trust anything you're reading bc the setting strokes paranoia. neither josie nor alix are very likable but because the story is told from their dual povs you become very intimate with their thoughts and you just can't help feeling sorry for both of them, for something or another.
i love the way this book plays with the truth, i felt like information was fed to me teaspoon by teaspoon, and i felt frustratingly in the dark for basically the whole thing. and even then the book ends with a seasoning of potential falsehood to cast a shadow of doubt on the supposed "final" version of the story. i like this kind of doubt, it makes me feel unsteady in a way that makes books like this linger with me after i've finished it. if you've read verity, you'll know what i mean.
the book is told half through josie and alix's present day povs and also transcribed interviews/scripts of a Netflix show covering the "gruesome tragedy" that you have to get through the whole book to find out about. it was an interesting way to pace the book, it sometimes slowed it down a bit and was often times confusing, but it definitely built up tension and suspense really well. i'm sure that a reread of these excerpts would be interesting now that i've read the ending. as much as i enjoyed the ending for its strange tenuous relationship with the truth, there were also certain little details that could've been cleaner to make those seeds of doubt stronger, to make them more potentially true, instead of being somewhat unconvincing bc they're so easy to poke holes through.
despite that though i really enjoyed this one, felt very gaslighty! buddy read this with Daniel love u king <3
the vibes here are so so unsettling, although i will say it feels like nothing of consequence happens for a while, it's just bad vibes all around until the action starts to really pick up around 70% of the way in. meanwhile you're left with all these stories, and it's hard to trust anything you're reading bc the setting strokes paranoia. neither josie nor alix are very likable but because the story is told from their dual povs you become very intimate with their thoughts and you just can't help feeling sorry for both of them, for something or another.
i love the way this book plays with the truth, i felt like information was fed to me teaspoon by teaspoon, and i felt frustratingly in the dark for basically the whole thing. and even then the book ends with a seasoning of potential falsehood to cast a shadow of doubt on the supposed "final" version of the story. i like this kind of doubt, it makes me feel unsteady in a way that makes books like this linger with me after i've finished it. if you've read verity, you'll know what i mean.
the book is told half through josie and alix's present day povs and also transcribed interviews/scripts of a Netflix show covering the "gruesome tragedy" that you have to get through the whole book to find out about. it was an interesting way to pace the book, it sometimes slowed it down a bit and was often times confusing, but it definitely built up tension and suspense really well. i'm sure that a reread of these excerpts would be interesting now that i've read the ending. as much as i enjoyed the ending for its strange tenuous relationship with the truth, there were also certain little details that could've been cleaner to make those seeds of doubt stronger, to make them more potentially true, instead of being somewhat unconvincing bc they're so easy to poke holes through.
despite that though i really enjoyed this one, felt very gaslighty! buddy read this with Daniel love u king <3