Horror Book of the Week: None of this is True

 

This week’s Horror Book Recommendation is NONE OF THIS IS TRUE by Lisa Jewell. 

The book was published in August 2023 by Atria Books and is on the bestsellers list for Ghost Mysteries and Women’s Crime Fiction. 

The book has received positive reviews so far. Reviewers have described this book has gloriously dark with clever twists and layered characters. 

Customers who bought this book described the book as a deliciously wicked tale, and a page-turner. 

However, there was some criticism regarding the story not being consistent and there being too many disturbing events that bordered on depressing. 

Quick Review based on Sample

The story opens through the eyes of Josie Fair. It is her 45th birthday and she goes to celebrate it at a gastropub with her husband Walter. Her husband seems surprised at her choice but doesn’t say another word. 

It is at this pub, that Josie spots another woman, Alix Summer. It is her birthday too! And would you know it, Alix Summer is celebrating her birthday too, and that too her 45th. 

Josie is elated to find her birthday twin and ends up studying the woman who is there with her husband, friends, and family. Eventually Josie draws up the courage to go and speak to Alix in the washroom. Alix is polite but to her Josie is just a stranger and so she quickly changes the topic and converses with her sister. 

And from thereon begins Josie’s obsession, although she may not have realized it as she goes through Alix’s social media. 

Alix on the other hand is shown to be getting a little irritated with her husband Nathan as he disappears after their night out only to return late in the afternoon after going for drinks with his friends and sleeping at a hotel. 

Meanwhile, Josie is obsessively trying to find a connection with Alix and discovers that her kids went to the same school as her kids. 

The story is definitely captivating from the very first page and the characters are neatly constructed to have contrasting personalities. 

But there is a shadow of a twist approaching and you know something is afoot although you just can’t put your finger on it. 

The fact that the novel’s title is None of this is True, you begin to wonder how much of what you are reading is actually true. Or are you being deceived? 

NONE OF THIS IS TRUE Plot (Taken from Amazon)

Celebrating her forty-fifth birthday at her local pub, popular podcaster Alix Summer crosses paths with an unassuming woman called Josie Fair. Josie, it turns out, is also celebrating her forty-fifth birthday. They are, in fact, birthday twins.

A few days later, Alix and Josie bump into each other again, this time outside Alix’s children’s school. Josie has been listening to Alix’s podcasts and thinks she might be an interesting subject for her series. She is, she tells Alix, on the cusp of great changes in her life.

Josie’s life appears to be strange and complicated, and although Alix finds her unsettling, she can’t quite resist the temptation to keep making the podcast. Slowly she starts to realize that Josie has been hiding some very dark secrets, and before she knows it, Josie has inveigled her way into Alix’s life—and into her home.

But, as quickly as she arrived, Josie disappears. Only then does Alix discover that Josie has left a terrible and terrifying legacy in her wake, and that Alix has become the subject of her own true crime podcast, with her life and her family’s lives under mortal threat.

Who is Josie Fair? And what has she done?

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