None of This Is True by Lisa Jewell
Rating: ★★☆☆☆
Dates Read: 1/4/24 - 1/5/25
CW/TW: pedophilia, child sexual assault, grooming (older man, younger woman), substance abuse, and domestic violence.
SPOILERS BELOW. I could not review this book accurately without spoiling it.
Intrigued, Alix begins uncovering Josie's strange and complex life, unaware of the dark secrets she hides. Despite growing unease, Alix is drawn into Josie's world, only to discover the horrifying legacy left behind when Josie abruptly disappears. Now, Alix faces threats of her own as her life becomes the chilling subject of her own true crime podcast.
Okay, Lisa Jewell is usually an auto-read author for me, but this was incredibly disappointing. This was 100% one of my most anticipated releases for 2023, and I have had this on hold since October. I wish I had enjoyed this.
None of This Is True is incredibly fast-paced, dark, and suspenseful. The chapters are short, and Jewell draws you in from the very beginning. I honestly thought this would be a five-star read for me, at first. Once I got to the end, everything started to spiral.
SPOILERS BELOW THIS POINT.
I cannot fathom how anyone is supposed to sympathize with Walter just because he was murdered. Whether Josie has serious issues or not, when they met, Walter was in his forties and she was 13. I don't care if he was a "good father", I don't care that he was with her mother first, and frankly, I don't care what Josie did or didn't do. She was a child, and he was a grown man. There is an entire scene where Alix is talking to Walter, and he flat out admits that he was in his late twenties when he married his first wife, who was 10 years younger than him. He is a predator, that fact does not change just because Josie has issues. Josie's mother is an issue all on her own. The only thing that's true about this story, regardless of who did what, is that her mother resented her. She essentially acts like Josie "stole" her married boyfriend. Josie, her child, who was 13-16 years old.
I also don't understand how we're supposed to feel bad for thinking negatively of Nathan after he's murdered. Did he deserve to die? Of course not, but acknowledging the harm his actions caused doesn't take away the tragedy of his passing. Is he a saint because he had trauma and never cheated on his wife during his benders, the benders he would abandon his family for night after night? No. Maybe I feel stronger about this part than most, because I have family members who have struggled with addictions and alcohol abuse, but still. Yes, he had been through a lot, and yes, alcoholism is a mental illness and he deserved help. It doesn't take away from the trauma and hardship alcoholism inflicts on someone's family. It's heartbreaking, and it sucks, and I can't excuse his behavior just because he died.
There was a significant opportunity through Alix's podcast to raise awareness and offer support to survivors of sexual assault. Instead, Alix platforms a woman's mother who shockingly blames her daughter for being manipulated and exploited. This harmful and victim-blaming perspective is old and disappointing, especially from a character who is a self-proclaimed feminist like Alix.
The actual ending of the story itself was entirely too ambiguous, and I feel like it created too many plot holes. This would be borderline one-star territory if it wasn't for the audiobook production. I absolutely loved the different narrators, the background noises, the Netflix show aspect, it was excellent. This may have been a four, even five-star book for me, but unfortunately the plot and the pacing aren't enough for me to look past an absolute fumble at covering sensitive topics.
None of this is true, but one thing's for sure, everyone sucks here.
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