None of This is True: The new addictive psychological thriller from the #1 Sunday Times bestselling author of The Family Upstairs

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Alix is a successful podcaster who features inspiring women. While celebrating her 45th birthday she bumps into Josie who shares the same birthday, and birthplace. Such a coincidence! Josie has a story to tell and pitch that idea to be on Alix's show.

This story follows two women, Alix Summers, a popular podcaster, and Josie Fair, an unassuming woman, whose profession is so inconsequential, I can't recall it. LJ: I had no idea when I started writing the book what Josie was going to unveil. I didn’t know what her story was going to be. I just knew that I was going to have to come to my computer every day and write a chapter or write 1,000 words, and that was going to move the plot along, and that was going to help me find out more about what it was that Josie really wanted to talk to Alix about. Because the initial moment of connection is Josie basically saying to Alix, “I need to talk to you about my life.” I didn’t know what Josie’s life was. I just knew she had this husband, a bit older than her, sitting by the window staring at his laptop, and a kid in a room gaming. Some people could read the ending to be ambiguous or open; a lot of people have read it as I intended it to be — not ambiguous or open — which is Josie finally confronting the truth in her head of what actually happened. But I didn’t work out until a long time after I’d written the book precisely what Josie was hiding, and what was true and what wasn’t. And then to realize, weeks after writing the book, that it was all in there. I put it all in there without really knowing what it was while I was writing it. 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. While I can’t agree that Josie didn’t do anything wrong, reading your comments has made me see that some of what she says (or thinks) is true. The ending did not spoil the book - it's just it could have been better. I would like to have seen the threads tied up nicely or differently, and then this would have been a clear 5 star book.

First thoughts were the way this one's written is so different! It's a new style with so many other media working along in the book. When I first heard about this, I could hardly believe it. A story that follows two women turning forty-five, and I am turning forty-five this year. It can't be coincidence...

As the birthday celebrations get underway, a chance encounter between Josie and Alix reveals they not only share the same birth date, but they were also born in the same hospital, on the same day, and went to the same school. Except one is psychotic, a murderer, and a serial abuser. As the words leave her mouth, Josie feels the gnawing sense of grief that she has experienced for most of her life rush through her. She’s never found anything to pin the feeling to before; she never knew what it meant. But now she knows what it means. Alix’s life and marriage is far from perfect, and Josie likes to call her out on the situation. By the time Alix feels unease, Josie has wormed her way into Alix’s life and home, with repercussions that are unforeseeable and devastating. An added treat was Buddy Reading it with my beautiful niece, Lyss. I definitely recommend it for Buddy Reads or Book Clubs. There's a lot to discuss.Celebrating her forty-fifth birthday at her local pub, popular podcaster Alix Summers 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. Interestingly, I do, and it’s fellow author and good friend, Louise Candlish. We were both flabbergasted when we made the discovery, it seemed extraordinary to us that we’d both come into the world on the same day and ended up doing the same job in the same very small orbit. Louise is a woman I feel a very strong bond with, although we don’t see each other much, I absolutely get her, and she makes total sense to me. So the impetus for using birthday twins as an opening into the novel definitely did not spring from my own experience. Instead it seemed an ideal opportunity to show how divergent women’s lives can be in spite of similar beginnings. 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. She lifts her champagne glass and holds it out toward Walter’s. He touches his glass against hers and says, “Happy birthday.”

Few New York Times best-selling novelists can say their career was launched with a bet, a handshake, and the promise of a good meal. And yet, that’s precisely how Lisa Jewell came to write her 1999 debut novel, Ralph’s Party. But….what if the proclamations of falsehoods are actually true? Sometimes nothing is ever as it seems. When Josie proposes she be a guest on Alix's podcast to tell the story of her life, Alix is curious about this strange woman. Josie lets Alix into her life and history through the podcast and Alix, in turn, gradually lets Josie into her life too. But the more Alix comes to know Josie and her past, the more she worries she's made a terrible mistake. 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? Alix felt a little smug, I think, about her perfect life and she makes a good foil for Josie, whose life is so chaotic.I enjoyed the alternating POV of both women which includes transcriptions of the podcast and scenes from a Netflix documentary on the case. Who Killed Brooke? Was Josie A Victim or a Villain? What Did Josie Mean By “Making Changes in Her Life? and more!! Link to an interview by Lisa Jewell that discusses her thoughts on the ending AND her offer in comments to answer questions! A few days later, they bump into each other again, this time outside Alix's children's school. Josie says she thinks she would be an interesting subject for Alix's podcast. She is, she tells Alix, on the cusp of great changes in her life. While podcaster Alix Summers is out with her husband to celebrate her 45th, after the big song, a woman named Josie approaches the table and informs her that she is her TRUE birthday twin---down to the year. Though Alix finds this surprising, the two go about their separate celebrations and she figures that will be the end of it. UNTIL Josie happens to run into Alix yet again - this time, outside of her children's school - and Josie has become completely enamored with Alix's podcast. In fact, she thinks she has the perfect candidate for Alix's next episode: Josie Fair herself.

I was engrossed in this story until Walter’s crimes were glossed over. It seems his repeated pedophilia was excusable because he was supposedly a good father. Can a pedo even be a good father? It doesn’t add up.Today, Jewell is the author of 21 novels, including her latest, None of This Is True. A psychological thriller, it tells the story of Londoners Alix and Josie, “birthday twins” who were born on the same day at the same hospital but who don’t meet until they happen to be at the same restaurant celebrating their 45th birthday. Soon, Alix, a popular podcast host, is bumping into unassuming Josie nearly everywhere she goes. At Josie’s suggestion, Alix begins a new podcast about Josie’s life. Dark secrets are unveiled, and the women’s lives become intertwined in very dangerous ways. In what ways are we encouraged to see Josie in a sympathetic light in the early chapters? How does Lisa Jewell’s characterization lead us to think of Josie as just a little quirky or lonely—and ultimately harmless? 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. I had a sense of panic from the beginning when the "birthday twins" Alix and Josie unexpectantly meet. The story became darker than dark the further I read. It was quite unputdownable and going places that gave me anxiety. I think Alix felt it too, I wanted to shake her!! Tell her to just R-U-N 🏃‍♂️ Which is difficult to stomach. Because a pedophile is a predator and a child is a child, and to put any sort of blame on a child is misplaced.