Celebrating her 45th birthday, quiet and unassuming Josie Fair meets her birthday twin: glamorous podcaster Alix Summers. Not only was Alix born the same day as Josie was; she was also born at the same hospital, and the coincidence makes Josie wonder about fate, and how her life would’ve been if she’d been born into Alix’s. Slowly, she maneuvers her way into Alix’s life, convincing the podcaster to interview her for the show as a middle-aged woman on the cusp of turning her life around. Except that Josie’s motives are a lot more sinister than merely becoming the subject of a podcast, and soon, she creates far more trouble than Alix ever anticipated.
None of This is True is an interesting read. Despite the intriguing hook, it started off really slowly for me. The set-up of Josie manipulating her way into Alix’s life — to the point of randomly stealing Alix’s garbage and hand soap — wasn’t as compelling as I’d hoped. I think part of it is that Josie acted creepy from the very beginning, so it was hard to see how an otherwise intelligent and successful woman like Alix would’ve let herself get entangled with her as badly as she did. The book tried to explain it away as journalistic curiosity, but considering that Alix’s recording studio was in her own home, the fact that she let someone with as many red flags as Josie presented so close to her family and their personal lives was just odd to me.
And if Josie’s initial creepiness wasn’t enough to raise any red flags for Alix, surely her over-familiarity should have been. She later makes some really judgmental comments about Alix’s husband Nathan’s drinking. Even if Alix agreed with her statements, those were things only a really close friend had a right to say, so the fact that Alix pretty much just lets it go was frustrating, especially since Alix didn’t fully agree with Josie’s statements in the first place!
So for much of the first half, this was turning out to be a fairly disappointing read. Except that I I got to the halfway point shortly before bed and found that I kept wanting to read just one more chapter. And when I finished that chapter, I figured I may as well read just one more. And so on and so forth, until I finished the book late into the night.
The ending was a bit of a letdown, and the final big reveal was anticlimactic, but my goodness, Lisa Jewell can write. For all my underwhelmed responses to elements of the book, the fact remains that it kept me turning the pages. The story hooked me, and made me want to find out what happens next. And for that reason, I ultimately think this is a good book. Just suspend your disbelief a bit, and hold out for the much more compelling latter half.
+
Thank you to Simon and Schuster Canada for an e-galley of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Literary Treats 
What was the final big reveal? If it’s what I think you mean, it didn’t even feel like a reveal to be honest.
I finished this on Audible an hour ago and knew I should have listened to my gut from half an hour in, telling me that this was not going to be a good book. So much promise which was completely undelivered.
I returned the title (only done that once or twice before), and very unimpressed with the lazy writing.
Thank you for giving an honest opinion on the end.
Definitely agree there wasn’t much of a reveal at all. I think it helped that I read this in text form and could skim through parts.
Had to read for a book club – otherwise I would have put it down 100 pages in. Made me feel gross the entire read with nothing at the end to make it worth it.