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June 2024 Group Read (spoiler thread): None of This is True, by Lisa Jewell
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Nancy, Co-Moderator
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Jun 01, 2024 01:09PM
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Finished this a week ago and then discussed it at another book group. Utterly brilliant, so many twists, completely gripping and an ambiguous ending that just blows you away.
I’m almost done. I’ve read some of her other books; this one is by far the best.
I know this book gets high ratings, but I was more ambivalent about it. Several things bothered me about this story:First, Josie asks Alix to document her 'growth' as she changes her life. But it's never clear what Josie proposes to change. Is she going to leave her husband Walter? Is she going to reconnect with her estranged daughter. Josie just seems to complain and not to propose a better way.
Second, Josie is so weird, I would think Alix would have a couple of sessions taping her for the podcast and call it quits.
Third, things keep disappearing from Alix's house after Josie visits. Wouldn't Alix catch on.
This is one of the those books where the female protagonist (Alix) just seems too dim to me.
3 stars (but I'm not even writing a review)
Agreed Barbara. This was definitely the weakest book I’ve read by Jewell. I couldn’t wrap my head around how oblivious Alix was. Especially as there were all sorts of incidents that should have triggered alarm bells for Alix.2.75 ⭐️
I'm speechless. I can't stop thinking about this book, about Alix and Josie and their families, and I don't know what I can write that will convey just how mind-bendingly good this book is.I was completely sucked into None of This is True. Reading it was like being on one of those fairground rides that toss you first one way, then another and back again. What was true? Who was I to believe? Was Josie the manipulator or the manipulated? And that ending - it's delicious and cast a pall of uncertainty over everything I thought I knew. It also leaves the door open for Josie to come back . . . and that's a chilling thought.
I was absorbed, entertained and thrilled. Ms Jewell deserves all five stars and more.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Sandysbookaday wrote: "I'm speechless. I can't stop thinking about this book, about Alix and Josie and their families, and I don't know what I can write that will convey just how mind-bendingly good this book is.I was ..."
Glad you enjoyed the book Sandy. 🙂
@Barbara - I agree with all of your points, but somehow I enjoyed this one a little more than a 3, closer to 4. I read it a couple of months ago and discussed it with my IRL book club. Boy, did we have questions. The most significant one that I recall that you haven't already flagged is, what was up with the smell Josie claimed was so intense and why she never once entered her daughter's bedroom? Does it exist? If, yes, explain what the source is. If it doesn't exist, does Josie kid herself into believing this or is it just a complete fabrication for Alix to explain Josie's 100% lack of any feeling for her daughter?
Even at the end of the book, the whole, Walter hanging out with daughter playing video games explanation addresses the suggestion of sexual abuse as the reason he's there every evening, but Jewell just lets the whole overpowering odor thing go by the wayside.
Carol wrote: "@Barbara - I agree with all of your points, but somehow I enjoyed this one a little more than a 3, closer to 4. I read it a couple of months ago and discussed it with my IRL book club. The most significant one that I recall that you haven't already flagged is, what was up with the smell Josie claimed was so intense and why she never once entered her daughter's bedroom?..."
I was thinking the smell was rotten food, maybe from the 'sludge' left outside the door for meals.
Barbara wrote: "Sandysbookaday wrote: "I'm speechless. I can't stop thinking about this book, about Alix and Josie and their families, and I don't know what I can write that will convey just how mind-bendingly goo..."Thanks Barbara, and sorry you didn't like it so much. 💕📚
I enjoyed the twists and turns, they kept me enthralled and up past my bedtime. I liked the book a lot, but then I don’t expect mysteries and thrillers to be literary award winners. I am looking to be entertained, and None of This is True did the trick! Plus the title turned out to be a strong tongue-in-cheek pointer by the author. When I finished, I realized how much of the so-called ‘based on a true story’ media the author included in this story often isn’t in real life, just like how the characters in the novel turned out to be fudging ‘truths’. Netflix (or Max, or whatever) documentaries, true crime podcasts, so-called ‘reality shows’ which have been revealed in real life to be scripted by producers, or the producers sit the “real housewifes” down for talks in which they ask them to perform more, etc. I think the author was weaving sneakily into the book an authorial commentary on the reality of reality dramas. I enjoyed the layers. It wasn’t lost on me either the triple layer of this being a fictional story about fictional characters who in turn were making up fictional stories about their life….😂
The intriguing plot and complex characters leave a lingering sense of doubt and distrust. It's a read that challenges our perceptions of truth and lies.
aPriL does feral sometimes wrote: "I enjoyed the twists and turns, they kept me enthralled and up past my bedtime. I liked the book a lot, but then I don't expect mysteries and thrillers to be literary award winners. I am looking to..."I agree, that's a very interesting point.
