Another perfectly plotted thriller, fraught with human emotion and a devastating darkness!

I don’t know how Lisa Jewell does it, but every book I read of hers immediately draws me in and has me hooked on the characters, the plot and the deep dive into the human psyche. None of This is True did exactly this and I could not put it down! In fact I read until 4am to finish it, because I needed to know what happened that desperately. This is a book that takes its time to build (don’t misinterpret that to mean it’s slow, as it’s not - the pace is excellent!), really winding up the tension and unsettling atmosphere, culminating in a cracking crescendo of an ending. Going into this story we know that not all we are reading will be true, but I genuinely couldn’t see where this novel was going. It’s twisted, surprising, clever and engrossing. The style really helps create razor sharp suspense, as the narrative flows through time-stamped moments and snippets of a Netflix true crime documentary on these events, after the fact. I loved how this captured glimpses of what was to come, whetting my appetite to continue turning goes and discover the truth. What is revealed is a story far more shocking than the lies told prior…and that’s saying something!

As with all of Lisa Jewell’s novels, None of This is True is so thematic and timely. I loved how this story really explored our cultural obsession with sharing our story and how dark and dangerous that can actually be. It’s a distinctly 21st century desire to over-share every aspect of our lives and Jewell perfectly taps into the manipulative narcissism of this through Josie. As with any novel Jewell writes, the characters are drawn with such reality. Protagonists Alix and Josie are both wonderfully complex. Both of them are flawed in gravely human ways, both of them are plausible blend of light and shade. However, as the story progresses, the shift in Josie’s behaviours and forever changing stories add a genuine sense of unease to the narrative. I was conflicted for much of the read, as Alix can be frustrating in her situation but is ultimately sympathetic, and I flitted between feeling sorry for Josie and loathing her. As the story progressed, my feelings became more visceral as the power of Jewell’s writing delivered an increasingly tense and emotional conclusion perfectly. One thing you can guarantee with one of Jewell’s novels is that you will be taken on a journey: you’ll be moved, probably enraged, gobsmacked, on the edge of your seat, and - most significantly - be impacted. This story is a brilliant exploration of relationships, abuse, family, mental health and our overarching desire to construct our own truths. It also really got me thinking about the voyeurism that true crime media provides audiences and the potential glorification or sensationalism of such horrific occurrences. If you are a true crime fan, you will absolutely love this novel! If you’re a fan of a psychological thriller that keeps you guessing and deals with social issues in a thrilling way, you’ll also love this. If you’re a long-standing Lisa Jewell fan, you won’t be disappointed (you’ll love this too!)…and ALL of this is true!

I loved, loved, LOVED this book! Definitely the best Lisa Jewell I have read. It starts innocently enough, and just gets darker and darker - you get the sense that there is so much sliding around under the surface that you don't know. As small pieces of truth are revealed, it becomes increasingly unnerving and horrifying.
Anyone who has ever enjoyed a psychological thriller will absolutely enjoy this book - highly recommended!!

I was hooked on this one from the start - Josie and Alix meet by chance on their birthday, discovering that they share a birthday and were born in the same hospital. They are, however, two very different women.

I cringed on behalf of Josie a lot through the book, but also wondered if she was as innocent as she seems. She was cunning and it was fascinating to read.
I loved the inclusion of the Netflix extracts, alerting the reader that there is something more sinister to come, and these definitely made me want to read on.
Another absolute cracker from the thriller queen, full of twists that kept me guessing right until the end.

Fantastic read - Lisa Jewell is an amazing author and never seems to disappoint. This is juicy and gripping from the start, disturbing and bold in a way many thrillers won't dare to do. I couldn't put it down!

I don't even know where to begin with this. This book left me speechless. In true Lisa Jewell fashion, she delivers a book that is packed with suspense, lies, and treachery of all sorts.

When Alix meets Josie her life takes turns that she never could have expected. Throughout the entire book you are left guessing what happens next, who to believe, what to believe and you are left wanting more. Josie slowly inserts herself into Alix and her families life. As she does so, Alix is left wondering if Josie is who she claims to be? After a strange chat with Walter (Josies husband), she starts to get a sense that all isn't as it seems and starts to question her motives. The ending will have you white knuckling the arm of the couch.

A special thank you to netgalley for the ARC copy.

I am a big fan of Lisa Jewell and was super excited to get this NetGalley arc!


I LOVED this one. It’s so clever and twisted. I loved that the format is a mix of story, podcast transcripts and descriptions of the documentary. Because of the way the story is told, it could easily become a film/show which I would absolutely watch.

It’s an absolute page-turner and I cannot recommend this enough.

Not my usual reading fare, but my daughter is a massive fan, so getting an ARC for her, and seeing what she liked for me, made sense.

None of This is True begins (framing device apart) with two women, previously unknown to each other, celebrating their 45th birthday on the same day in a Queen's Park gastropub:

- Alix, a semi-successful podcaster, well-off and married to a city businessman, there with a large group of friends

- Josie, unassuming and there with her much older (he's over 70) husband, both rather fishes-out-of-water in the environment (in a nice detail, Josie looks up the menu beforehand and googles many of the ingredients)

The two meet in the toilets and realise they are "birthday twins", even born on the same hospital ward, and Josie suggests that Alix tells her story on her podcast.

That this will all end very badly indeed (and end in multiple deaths) is foreshadowed early on in one of the novel's key framing devices - that the whole thing has been made into a Netflix true-crime series, with scenes from the story re-enacted over audio from Alix's podcast and interviews with others involved.

Jewell can certainly write, and the first 2/3rds of this kept me racing through the pages as, as the novel's title suggests, Alix, and the reader, wrestle with how much of Josie's surprisingly dramatic life story is true, as well as her gradual intrusion into Alix's own life.

On the -ve side, the revelations / wrapping up in the last third was a little anti-climatic, particularly given the book's opening already sets up the drama. And it also felt the resolution backed away from one of the challenges posed by Josie to Alix, whether her marriage was really any more functional than Josie's and whether Josie was actually doing her a favour.

Jewell makes an interesting narrative choice that, framing device apart, the story is narrated from alternating close third-person perspectives between Alix and Josie. For Alix this makes sense, but given Josie appears to be hiding a lot, it raises the question of what exactly we are reading as the close third-person narrator seems equally fooled at times - although in a neat coda to the novel Jewell does suggest an answer, while leaving the reader with more questions.

Overall - although not my usual style of book, I was relatively impressed.

Thanks to the publisher via Netgalley for the ARC.

Lisa Jewell always with amazing surprises.
I love this book so much, Can't wait Netflix series 🙃
WOW!!!!! Hooked from the first page and read this book in one sitting… Full of tension and suspense. A real page turner, a domestic noir but OMG so much more!!!!!

How does Lisa Jewell do it? Each one of her psych thrillers is more compelling than the last. Once I started reading this I just couldn’t stop - and now I’ve finished it in a day and am bereft. None of This is True is gripping, twisty, heartbreaking and truly terrifying. The podcast format is brilliantly executed and if it hasn’t happened already, I’m sure Netflix will snap up the rights. Bravo!

Oh. My. Word.

Only Lisa Jewell can bring you a book which absolutely terrifies you but you also can’t stop reading.

I read this in two evenings flat, it was unputdownable. But please do not read this with the lights off or when you are alone, it is heart thumpingly good, very disturbing indeed.

When Josie is out celebrating her 45th birthday with her husband, she sees a table next to hers also celebrating the 45th birthday of Alix, a successful podcaster. When Alix starts to work with Josie to document her life through a podcast, it starts a chain of events with far-reaching consequences.

If you loved ‘The Family Upstairs’, you are in for a treat with this, it is very dark and totally unexpected.

Probably my book of the year! Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the arc in exchange for my honest review.

Wow what a psychological thriller this book is. A family with so many problems and how they play out.
A famous pod caster who is drawn in without knowing it and how it affects her family.
The last famous twist to the story to finish it.
A great book from start to finish.

This is bloody brilliant!

It’s so intensely creepy, I love it.

We start to get hints that all may not be as it seems early on but it is so well paced. I especially like the almost dual narrative with the Netflix interjections!

I was approved for this book on Thursday evening and I’ve just finished it this morning (Saturday) - talk about a page turner! Every time I read one of Lisa Jewell’s books I think they can’t possibly get any more gripping … but then they do! The things I found that make this one particularly gripping and unique are the format (if you like true crime documentaries and podcasts like me🙋‍♀️, this is 100% the one for you) - her writing style makes it so easy to visualise exactly what this book would look like were it on screen, I actually want to watch it now! (And I’m sure at one point I actually started believing the characters were real 😂.) Also, the level of doubt that is constantly fed to the reader (as is often the case with the consumer of TC docs) so that you never know what really happened. I’d love to know if Lisa herself really does know the true story here! This was an incredible read, one of my faves of her thrillers (so far!).

Well I genuinely don't know where to start, Lisa jewell has done it again, a gritty story with great characters all brought together to a satisfying conclusion, took me two days to read this and kept me reading well in to the night, I'm actually quite upset it's over

Well. Well! This is a cracker of a book, I have struggled recently to find books that make me want to stay up late at night devouring every word but this one, this one I could not put down! Creepy and intriguing in equal measures. Josie is a strange character and you are desperate to understand her and find out what she’s done right from the start, and you just know she’s not as innocent as she seems. The format of a podcast interspersed with extracts from a documentary alongside first person narrative works so well to keep the pace going. They’re a lovely little twist at the end as well! Read it, Lisa Jewell at her best!

After binge-reading The Family Upstairs and The Family Remains at Christmas and having throughly enjoyed every minute, as well as reading several books previously by this author, it was safe to say that I was very excited to receive an advanced copy of her latest title.

‘None Of This Is True’ sees two women, Alix and Josie, celebrating their 45th birthdays on the same day in the same restaurant. They are birthday twins. Their chance meeting is just that until a few days later, after Josie has listened to all of the famous podcasts that Alix has produced, another meeting outside Alix’s children school, sees the two women discuss a new podcast topic. Although wary of this mysterious stranger, Alix can’t resist the thrill of a good story and welcomes Josie into her life, an action that will cost her dearly…

Lisa Jewell has done it again, her writing style draws you in from the very first sentence, you know from that point in that you should just wave goodbye to your life until you have finished the book! It’s another masterpiece, setting the scene with the detailed descriptions of both characters lives, little elements drip fed through the chapters giving you clues as to the truth but never quite giving it away, which is succeeds in doing right up to the ending, one I wasn’t expecting to be honest but I should’ve known better with Lisa’s twists! It’s going to be one of those books that stays with me and that I keep thinking about, highly recommend and well done Lisa on another blockbuster read!

I’m normally impressed by Lisa Jewell and I was again.

Told as story that has become a Netflix show and a podcast, Josie meets Alix at her birthday dinner, Alix is also celebrating her birthday, it turns out they are both 45, and both born in the same hospital. Birthday twins.

Josie is confusing and needy and complex, Alix isn’t sure but thinks Josie would make a great interview subject for her podcast.

This book is packed, it has carefully written relationship troubles, shocking pasts, lies and death. It is a quick read probably due to my inability to put it down.

It’s a clever book and it is well crafted.

A Sea Of Red Herrings..
A forty-fifth birthday celebration in a local gastro pub brings together ‘birthday twins’ Alex and Josie - from there things begin to go rapidly downhill. Amidst a sea of red herrings, much misdirection and an unravelling of lives the game begins and continues in earnest. The insertion of the Netflix documentary adds another dimension to an already immersive storyline and a plot where characters are deftly drawn and often complex. A stunning psychological suspense where absolutely nothing is as it seems and nobody is as they seem - so, perhaps, none of this is true.

Absolutely brilliant. Lisa Jewell always is, and I've read every single one of her books, but I do feel this one is another step up. 5 big stars.

An absolute page-turner that had me reading late into the night (and early hours of the morning).
Lisa Jewell takes a deliciously dark turn down a twisty, narrow rabbit-hole with this one!
Alix and Josie are 'birthday twins' - born on the same day, in the same year, even at the same hospital. But their lives are very different and Josie is drawn like a magnet to Alix's life that seems to be the polar opposite to her own.
She finds a way to inveigle her way into Alix's world, believing that this will be her ticket to happiness and a way out of her humdrum, dull, sometimes problematic life. Alix welcomes Josie tentatively at first, but quickly becomes the welcoming, sympathetic friend who she believes Josie is so desperately seeking.
But thinks aren't what they seem.
I think Lisa Jewell has upped her own ante with this one!!!