None of This Is True by Lisa Jewell

---

⭐ 5/5 Book Review: None of This Is True by Lisa Jewell

👉 Grab None of This Is True on Amazon (affiliate link) 📚✨

---

⚠️ Trigger Warnings

• Grooming & child marriage 🚨

• Domestic abuse & manipulation 💔

• Physical assault 🩸

• Child neglect 🚸

• Deaths (murder, accident, heart attack) ⚰️

• Gaslighting & psychological abuse 🧠

---

First Impressions

I simply LOVE when a book title literally gives it all away… and yet still manages to shock me. That’s exactly what Lisa Jewell does here.

The title says it outright: None of This Is True. So the whole time, I’m reading like:
👉 “Okay, Josie is lying. She’s obviously lying.”

Her husband even warns Alix not to believe a word she says. She’s stealing random little items from Alix’s house. She’s clearly unstable. But then Jewell flips everything on its head: what if Josie is telling the truth? Or what if SOME of it is true, but not the parts we think? 🤯

This book is all about layers of lies, manipulation, and the unreliable nature of storytelling. And I ate it up. Easy 5/5 stars ⭐.

---

📖 Overview (No Spoilers Yet)

None of This Is True (2023) is the 21st novel by bestselling author Lisa Jewell, queen of psychological thrillers. It blends the vibe of a true crime doc with a dark domestic suspense story.

Two women, born on the same day, meet by chance in a pub: Alix Summer, a polished podcaster, and Josie Fair, a very unsettling 45-year-old with a story to tell. Josie convinces Alix to let her be the subject of her next podcast… and soon Alix is pulled into a disturbing web of secrets, lies, and violence.

But as the title reminds us—none of this may be true.

---

🚨 Spoiler-Filled Plot Summary 🚨

Alright, deep dive time!

Birthday Twins 🎂

Alix and Josie meet at a pub, both celebrating their 45th birthday. But while Alix has the picture-perfect life (or at least the Instagram version of it), Josie’s life is… bleak. She’s married to Walter, a man she met at 13 (!!), married at 18, and had two daughters with: Roxy and Erin.

Josie proposes Alix interview her for a podcast, documenting her “big changes.” Against her better judgment, Alix agrees.

---

Josie’s Story Gets Darker 🌑

During the recordings, Josie confesses:

• Walter may have been abusing Erin.

• Erin is nearly housebound, eats baby food, and rarely leaves her room.

• Roxy ran away years ago under mysterious circumstances.

Meanwhile, Josie is creeping into Alix’s personal life—stealing tiny things from her house, wearing her clothes, and gossiping about Alix’s alcoholic husband, Nathan.

---

Chaos at Home 🏚️

Josie and Walter come over for dinner one night. Nathan flakes. Josie storms home furious. Hours later, she shows up beaten, saying Walter attacked her and Erin. Alix reluctantly lets her stay.

But things spiral:

• Walter is later found dead in the bathtub.

• Erin is discovered tied to a chair, badly beaten and comatose.

• Nathan disappears, last seen getting into a car rented with Erin’s credit card.

Police suspect Josie.

---

The Brooke Reveal 💔

As the podcast continues, Josie confesses about Brooke Ripley—Roxy’s girlfriend who went missing years earlier. She hints she killed Brooke out of jealousy. Later, Brooke’s body is found in the family’s garage.

But wait… that’s only Josie’s version.

---

Death, Death, Death ⚰️

• Walter is dead (but later we learn it was a heart attack when he heard Josie might confess).

• Nathan turns up dead after being held captive by Josie. She insists it was an accident—she only wanted to scare him so he’d be a better husband to Alix.

• Josie flees, sending Alix creepy texts.

---

The Final Twist 🤯

Over a year later, Josie hears strangers on a bus talking about the Netflix doc based on Alix’s podcast. She remembers the night of Brooke’s death:
👉 It wasn’t Josie who killed Brooke. It was Roxy.

Josie and Walter just helped cover it up.

So… was Josie really a murderer at all? Or has she just been the unreliable, manipulative storyteller the whole time?

The answer: None of this is true. Or maybe all of it is.

---

✍️ My Thoughts

• The Netflix documentary-style format was brilliant—it really felt like I was watching a true crime show unfold.

• Josie is one of the most unsettling characters I’ve read in ages. Manipulative, pathetic, terrifying, and weirdly sympathetic all at once.

• I adored how the ending forces you to question EVERYTHING. Did Josie kill Brooke? Did Roxy? Was Walter abusive? Or did Josie invent it all? We’ll never know.

This is Lisa Jewell at her absolute best—dark, layered, twisty, and impossible to put down.

⭐ Final Verdict: 5/5 stars.

---

📚 If You Liked This, You’ll Also Enjoy:

• The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell 🏚️ (another creepy family thriller)

• The Last Mrs. Parrish by Liv Constantine 🕶️ (domestic suspense + unreliable narrator)

• Local Woman Missing by Mary Kubica 👩‍🦰❓ (layered secrets & shocking reveals)