Joined in 2023 
82 
63 About this deal
I have to say that if I had covered up a murder five years ago, the very LAST thing I’d want to do would be to go on a podcast to talk about breaking free from my past. Unless I either wanted to confess or to be notorious. What is your take on the ending of None of This is True? Josie and Alix are birthday twins. When they meet for the first time while celebrating their birthdays at the same restaurant, Josie is immediately intrigued by Alix and her seemingly charmed life. While they were born on the same day at the same hospital, they lead very different lives. Alix has two adorable children, a doting husband, and is a popular podcaster. In contrast, Josie is miserable because she married a controlling forty-year-old man at only sixteen years old, has one runaway daughter, and the other won’t come out of her room. Josie also wants to be the only one to set the narrative. She doesn’t want Alix talking to anyone but her. Not her mother, not Walter, not Brooke or her daughters.
Meet Josie Fair, a 45-year-old part-time seamstress. Married to a man significantly older, she has decided to change the course of her life in her 45th year. Alix comes into her life at just the right time--a podcast host, she is the perfect woman to help Josie share her intriguing story. Alix and Josie’s lives become intertwined in more ways than one, culminating in a chilling crime. Nathan sits heavily next to her and rolls his Scotch around a solitary ice cube, one of the huge cylindrical ones he makes from mineral water. “Her?” he says dismissively. “That is highly unlikely.” 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. Plus, if this were the case, why wouldn’t Roxy be furious at Walter as well as Brooke? Clearly she is not at ALL angry with him. Erin says that Walter and Josie fought, and when Erin came into the room, Walter was lying on the floor bleeding. Josie refused to call an ambulance. Then Erin hit her mother (which is why Josie ended up looking battered at Alix’s.) When Erin woke up, she was tied to a chair.Many thanks to Atria Books and NetGalley for the digital review copy of this novel. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.
Have you ever met one of your birthday twins, a person born on exactly the same day as you? I remember being at work one day, taking a woman’s details, and it turned out we were born merely an hour apart, albeit in different parts of the globe. A strange bond, nonetheless. Celebrating her 45th birthday at her local pub, podcaster Alix Summer crosses paths with an unassuming woman called Josie Fair. Josie is also celebrating her 45th. Not specifically, no. I’ve listened to a few weird true crime podcasts over the years, but don’t get much time to listen to audio as part of my day to day life. My inspiration for this book was taken much more from TV documentaries such as Abducted in Plain Sight, Don’t F**k With Cats, The Tinder Swindler, etc., those documentaries where you get to the end and think to yourself, “What the hell did I just watch?” That was exactly the feel and impact I wanted for my book. 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.
SE: This book has multiple layers of storytelling. There’s the narrative, but then there’s also the podcast that Josie and Alix do, and interspersed throughout the book are scenes from a Netflix show based on the podcast. Why did you decide to write the story in that way? SE: Do you know when you sit down to write where the story is going at all? Or what the ending is going to be? It took me awhile to sort out my thoughts on this one, as it was not quite what I expected, but that isn’t a bad thing. I buddy read this with my sister Irina, and part of the reason I love reading the same book as a friend or friends is due to the fact that you can really hash out your book review content ahead of time. We both ended up with similar feelings on None of This Is True, and foremost agreed that it was a compulsive, must read suspense tale.
Great Deal 
New Comment