None of This Is True by Lisa Jewell

Amy  

mystery, psychological thriller

None of This is True is a twisty psychological drama by Lisa Jewell.  When Josie encounters a woman, Alix, celebrating her birthday at the same restaurant in which Josie is celebrating her own birthday, they discover that they were actually born on exactly the same day in the same year at the same hospital.  Josie cyber-stalks Alix to discover that she’s a well-respected podcaster. Josie decides she wants to tell her story and make some life changes and Alix agrees to make a podcast about it. From then on, as we learn more about both women little by little, it is obvious that these two families have some serious, disturbing issues that are not being addressed sufficiently.

This book was almost un-put-downable. Initially, Josie’s family was so sad and tragic that I was compelled to find out more (as was Alix). But as more was revealed through both women’s actions, their conversations, and snippets of some sort of retrospective analysis taking place at some point in the future, I had to keep turning the page (or, rather, listening to the audiobook) to find out not only what tragedy occurs but the truth about Josie’s situation.

The unreliable characters kept the mysteries interesting. As the title warned the reader that nothing is true, I had my antennae up the entire time trying to figure out the lies from the truths. It was fascinating. The other four books I’ve read by Jewell all involved disappearances and this was no exception. However, the disappearances in this novel did not have the central focus of the story.

Trigger warning that this book covers pedophilia and is very disturbing at times.

The audiobook had ELEVEN narrators! But it was primarily just two narrators, one voicing Alix (Nicola Walker) and one voicing Josie (Louise Brealey).  They did a terrific job with perfect voice acting and nice vocal repertoires.  However, the production itself, with the outside interviews sounding tinny and investigative, and the way they differentiated conversations and witness statements made the whole audiobook a terrific experience. They even had creepy music between sections which, surprisingly, worked well with this book.  I give the entire production an A.