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This is my first Lisa Jewell novel, and I enjoyed it very much. It is definitely NOT a police procedural with limited police characterization in the story. It follows Alix, who is celebrating her 45th birthday and encounters Josie, who is at the same restaurant. They discover that not only were they born on the same day but at the same hospital. Alix does podcasts, and Josie worms her way into Alix's life and asks her if she would like to tell Josie's story in a podcast. Alix is game and the podcast, so to speak is afoot.
Shortly after, they bump into each other again outside of the school that Alix's children currently attend, and Josie's attended years ago. I found myself having this conversation with [a friend], Yasmin, where I embarrassedly told her that I was thinking I’d like to write a novel. She said, ‘I’ve had so many people tell me they want to write a novel. Just do it. Don’t say you’re going to do it; just do it. In fact, write three chapters. If you do that, I’ll take you out for dinner to your favorite restaurant.’ We shook hands, I wrote three chapters, and she took me out to my favorite restaurant. But she also made me send those three chapters out to a load of literary agents, and she made me keep writing by demanding more and more chapters. So, it didn’t just end with the bet. She was there for the full duration of that first novel.” But….what if the proclamations of falsehoods are actually true? Sometimes nothing is ever as it seems. Which is difficult to stomach. Because a pedophile is a predator and a child is a child, and to put any sort of blame on a child is misplaced.Lisa Jewell always manages to capture you into the story with the way she allows the characters to grow within the book, never knowing what is true and what isn’t! Alix Summer was celebrating her 45th birthday with a large group of friends at her local Pub, when she meets her birthday twin in the Ladies room-an unassuming woman called Josie Fair, who was quietly celebrating with just one older gentleman. Turns out they were both born on the same day, in the same year at the same hospital. And she was born at St. Mary’s too. Funny, you know I always thought I was meant to be one of two. I always wondered if my mum had left the other one at the hospital. Maybe it was her?” She sees Alix getting to her feet and heading toward the toilet, jumps to her own feet, and says, “I’m going to the ladies.”
None of This is True is a psychological thriller about two women who, through a chance encounter, learn they are birthday twins. Their unlikely meeting turns into a podcast in which shared confidences become the motive for murder. A few days later, they bump into each other again, this time outside Alix's children's school. Josie says she thinks she would be an interesting subject for Alix's podcast. She is, she tells Alix, on the cusp of great changes in her life. Plus she had all those weird conversations with Alix about how much better off she’d be if he was dead. So I’m not sure I buy her story that it was an accident. What was Josie’s Endgame? Erin recovers and moves in with her sister. Josie is still on the run. She sends Alix a letter claiming that Nathan’s death was a accident.It doesn't end there, these two women seemingly share frustrations with each of their respective partners. Alix, whose husband, Nathan, is a binge drinker and frequently fails to come home, and Walter whose age gap has become even more noticeable to his much younger wife. Although she feels ‘groomed’ and controlled from the age of sixteen. A storyline which makes this difficult to endure in some parts, but they are real life issues so of course we should cover them. Josie could say that she was suffering from battered woman syndrome, but why tie her daughter to a chair, the daughter she claims was being abused by Walter? To me, this shows Josie was lying. The reason I am not giving None of This Is True five stars, which I thought I would for 95% of the book, is that I feel conflicted about the ending. Maybe it is because I have certain expectations from Jewell at this point, and the ending here didn't fit with them... I just know that I wanted more from the final chapters. In a way, it felt unfinished. Could there be a sequel lined up? The police call and say that Josie’s elder daughter, Roxy, has been located. Roxy claims that she was in love with Brooke and that her father never harmed anyone. One irritation was the structure….it was a story revealed through a podcast then on Netflix. Too layered.
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