Book Review - None of This is True by Lisa Jewell

Title: None of This is True
Author: Lisa Jewell
Genre: Thriller/ Mystery
Published: 2023
 
Description: 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 fac, birthday twins.
 
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.
 
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. Slowly she starts to realize that Josie has been hiding some very dark secrets, and before she knows it, Josie has inveigled her way into Alix’s life – and into her home.
 
But, as quickly as she arrived, Josie disappears. Only then does Alix discover that Josie has left a terrible and terrifying legacy in her wake, and that Alix has become the subject of her own true crime podcast, with her life and her family’s lives under mortal threat.
 
Who is Josie Fair? And what has she done?
 
Review: I have read two other Lisa Jewell books and I didn’t like either of them. “None of This is True” is Jewell’s latest psychological thriller that came out in 2023. And I decided to give her another shot, since this book is claimed to be one of her best (if not THE best).
 
Poscaast creator Alix Summer celebrates her 45^th birthday and meets her birthday twin Josie Fair by chance. After meeting each other a second time, Alix decides to make a podcast series around Josie. But Josie has a lot of secrets I her life and Alix keeps finding out new things.
 
I loved the premise and the fact that the book has a podcast element. The book is told from the perspectives of Josie and Alix, but we also get chapters where a Netflix series is presented, based on the podcast Alix has made about Josie. I thought that part was especially very original. The secrecy around the character of Josie was interesting as well. But somehow, I still the story never full grabbed me.
 
I feel like, after finishing this book, I still didn’t get the full story. There are many questions that I have that were left unanswered. I don’t mind having an ending or certain plot points being left up to interpretation. But for “None of This is True” I just needed all the answers. The story doesn’t feel finished. 
 
I did enjoy this book more than the other two I have read, but I’m still not a fan of Lisa Jewell. I’m not sure if I will try out any other books by her, because if this is considered her best, I’m not really that interested.
 
Rating: 3/ 5

Book Review - Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell

Title: Then She Was Gone
Series: -
Author: Lisa Jewell
 
Description: She was fifteen, her mother’s golden child. She had her whole life ahead of her. And then, in the blink of an eye, Ellie was gone.
 
It’s been ten years since Ellie disappeared, but Laurel has never given up hope of finding her daughter. And then one day a charming and charismatic stranger called Floyd walks into a café and sweeps Laurel off her feet. Before too long she’s staying the night as his house and being introduced to his nine year old daughter. Poppy is precocious and pretty, and meeting her completely takes Laurel’s breath away. Because Poppy is the spitting image of Ellie when she was that age. And now all those unanswered questions that have haunted Laurel come flooding back. What happened to Ellie? Where did she go? Who still had secrets to hide?
 
Review: “Then She Was Gone” is a story in which everything revolves around the missing Ellie, a family tragedy one would not wish on anyone.
 
Laurel and Paul Mack have an average family with three children and lead a happy life until their daughter Ellie disappears. After that, no day is ever the same and the marriage is suffering. It eventually ends in divorce.
 
The family members each deal with the loss of Ellie differently and each tries to pick up life in their own way. The storyline is overall very predictable and doesn’t feel original. There are many red flags for characters, that eventually turned out to be correct and many things that happened, I expected to happen. This book didn’t do much for me.
 
Lisa Jewell’s writing style is pleasant to read though. Short chapters from different character’s perspectives. But in general, I don’t think Jewell’s stories are for me. I somehow never really got into this book, it never grabbed or captivated me fully. And it was way too predictable for my liking.
 
Rating: 2, 5/ 5

Book Review - The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell

Title: The Family Upstairs
Series: The Family Upstairs # 1
Author: Lisa Jewell
 
Description: Soon after her twenty-fifth birthday, Libby Jones returns home from work to find the letter she’s been waiting for her entire life. She rips it open with one driving thought: I am finally going to know who I am.

She soon learns not only the identity of her birth parents, but also that she is the sole inheritor of their abandoned mansion on the banks of the Thames in London’s fashionable Chelsea neighborhood, worth millions. Everything in Libby’s life is about to change. But what she can’t possibly know is that others have been waiting for this day as well—and she is on a collision course to meet them.

Twenty-five years ago, police were called to 16 Cheyne Walk with reports of a baby crying. When they arrived, they found a healthy ten-month-old happily cooing in her crib in the bedroom. Downstairs in the kitchen lay three dead bodies, all dressed in black, next to a hastily scrawled note. And the four other children reported to live at Cheyne Walk were gone.
She soon learns not only the identity of her birth parents, but also that she is the sole inheritor of their abandoned mansion on the banks of the Thames in London’s fashionable Chelsea neighborhood, worth millions. Everything in Libby’s life is about to change. But what she can’t possibly know is that others have been waiting for this day as well—and she is on a collision course to meet them.
Twenty-five years ago, police were called to 16 Cheyne Walk with reports of a baby crying. When they arrived, they found a healthy ten-month-old happily cooing in her crib in the bedroom. Downstairs in the kitchen lay three dead bodies, all dressed in black, next to a hastily scrawled note. And the four other children reported to live at Cheyne Walk were gone.
 
Review: In a large house in London’s Chelsea, a baby lies awake in her crib. Fed and cared for, she waits happily for someone to pick her up. In the kitchen lie three bodies. They have been dead for several days. Who took care of the baby in the meantime? And where has this person gone?
 
Adopted Libby Jones receives a letter: she inherits a luxury mansion in Chelsea. It should have gone to her biological brother and sister, but they never claimed it. Libby, born Serenity Lamb, is the baby that was found 25 years ago. The mysterious deaths were claimed to be part of a suicide pact, but is that the whole truth? Libby wants to know what happened back then and with the help of an investigative journalist she is determined to uncover the truth.
 
The synopsis got me interested, it’s a popular book and author and I was curious if I would agree. And “The Family Upstairs” had many elements I like in a thriller: multiple timelines, different POV’s, a family mystery, someone looking into their past. Unfortunately, I can’t say that I enjoyed this book as much as most people did.
 
Don’t get me wrong: “The Family Upstairs” is a very creative thriller. You’re left in the dark for a very long time. But I wasn’t invested in the characters and found it dull at times. It is mysterious, but it’s not an exciting thriller. I felt no tension and I was not on the edge of my seat. And somehow, parts of the ending felt implausible and unrealistic.
 
I took me a while before I could truly say that I didn’t really enjoy this book, I always find this very difficult when it’s a book that a wide range of people love so much. And by no means is this a bad book, I just didn’t like it. There is a second book, which I’m not interested in. I do want to dive into more Lisa Jewell books, because I enjoyed her writing style.
 
I’m really sad about not liking this book, I really expected I would.
 
Rating: 2/ 5