Lisa Jewell has this specific way of making you feel like your own living room isn't safe. I finished None of This Is True at three in the morning because honestly, closing the book felt like leaving a stranger alone in my house. It’s not just a thriller. It’s a weird, psychological hall of mirrors that plays with the idea of the "unreliable narrator" so aggressively that by the end, you don't even trust the paper the story is printed on.
The premise is deceptively simple. Two women, Alix Summer and Josie Fair, meet at a pub while celebrating their forty-fifth birthdays. They are "birthday twins." But while Alix is a polished, successful podcaster with a seemingly perfect life, Josie is... different. She's unassuming. She’s drab. She’s hiding a level of darkness that makes the standard domestic thriller look like a bedtime story.
The Alix and Josie Dynamic: Why None of This Is True Works
The heart of the book is the podcast Alix decides to make about Josie. It’s called Hi! I’m Your Birthday Twin! (which is a title that feels appropriately cringey and very "true crime"). Alix thinks she’s found a quirky human-interest story. She thinks she’s in control. She isn't.
What Jewell does so well here is capture the power imbalance. Alix has the fame, the money, and the microphone. Josie has the secrets. As Josie starts leaking details of her life into Alix’s recorder, the boundaries between the two women don't just blur—they dissolve. Josie basically infiltrates Alix’s life under the guise of being a subject. It's a slow-motion car crash. You see Alix making mistakes, letting this stranger into her home, and you want to scream at her to lock the door.
Most thrillers rely on a "big twist" at the 80% mark. None of This Is True is different because it feels like a series of small, sickening realisations. You start questioning Josie’s marriage to Walter, a much older man. You start questioning Alix’s marriage to Nathan, who has a bit of a drinking problem and a tendency to disappear. Nothing is stable.
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The Podcast Within a Book
The structure is clever. Jewell intersperses the narrative with transcripts from the podcast and snippets from a Netflix documentary that apparently gets made later about the events. This gives the reader a "future" perspective while the "present" events are still unfolding. It creates this incredible tension because you know something catastrophic happens, but you don't know exactly what or to whom.
It also satirizes our obsession with true crime. We consume people's trauma as entertainment. Alix is guilty of this. She sees Josie as "content" rather than a person. It’s a biting critique of the industry, similar to how Yellowface by R.F. Kuang handled the publishing world, but with more blood and damp Cardiff basements.
Is Josie Fair Actually a Villain?
This is the question that keeps people arguing on Goodreads and Reddit. Josie is unsettling. She follows Alix. She shows up unannounced. She tells stories about her daughters that make your skin crawl. But is she a predator or a victim of her circumstances?
- She married Walter when she was barely an adult and he was... not.
- Her relationship with her children is strained, to put it mildly.
- She seems desperate for a "new life," and Alix represents the ultimate version of that.
The nuance is in the title itself. None of This Is True. If the narrator is Josie, can we believe her? If the narrator is Alix, who is biased by her need for a good story, can we believe her? Even the "objective" documentary clips feel edited. Jewell is poking fun at the idea of "objective truth" in the digital age. We see what the editor wants us to see.
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Honestly, Walter is one of the most disgusting characters written in modern fiction. He doesn't have to do much to be terrifying; his mere presence and the history of how he met Josie is enough to make you want to take a shower. The book explores grooming without being overly "teachy" about it. It just shows you the long-term, rotting effects of a relationship built on a power gap.
Why the Ending Is So Polarizing
I won't spoil the literal last page, but it’s the kind of ending that makes people throw the book across the room. Some readers hate it. They want closure. They want a "police report" style ending where everyone is accounted for and the bad guy is in jail.
Jewell doesn't give you that.
She leaves you with a lingering doubt. It’s the literary equivalent of thinking you saw a face in the window, turning on the light, and seeing nothing—but still knowing something was there. The ambiguity is the point. If she gave a neat ending, the title None of This Is True would be a lie. The title is a promise that you will never truly know the full story.
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Real-World Themes in the Fiction
While the plot is a heightened thriller, it touches on some very real psychological phenomena:
- Enmeshment: How Josie tries to literally become Alix.
- The "Good Victim" Myth: We want victims to be likable. Josie isn't likable, so we struggle to know how to feel about her trauma.
- Middle-Age Invisibility: Both women are 45. Alix fights it with a career and a public persona; Josie uses it as a cloak to move through the world unnoticed.
The writing style is punchy. Jewell has moved away from her earlier "domestic noir" roots into something much grittier. There's a scene involving a denim jacket that is so mundane yet so horrific because of what it implies about identity theft. It's those small details that stick.
Actionable Takeaways for Readers
If you’re going to pick up None of This Is True, or if you’ve just finished it and your brain is fried, here is how to get the most out of the experience:
- Listen to the audiobook: This is one of the rare cases where the audio version might be better than the print. It features a full cast, and the podcast segments actually sound like a real podcast. It adds a layer of "found footage" realism that is incredibly effective.
- Pay attention to the dates: The timeline shifts. Keep track of when the "present day" Alix is talking versus when the "future" documentary clips are playing.
- Look for the mirrors: The book is obsessed with reflections. Note how many times characters look at themselves or each other through glass. It’s a constant theme of skewed perception.
- Research the "Birthday Twin" phenomenon: While it's a plot device here, the psychological pull of finding someone "just like you" is a real thing that scammers use.
- Check out the Netflix adaptation: As of 2026, the buzz around the screen version has brought even more eyes to the book. Compare how the visual medium handles the "unreliable" aspect versus your own mental image while reading.
Don't expect a happy ending. Expect to feel a bit sick. Expect to double-check that your front door is locked. That’s the Lisa Jewell guarantee. The book is a masterclass in tension because it doesn't rely on jump scares; it relies on the creeping realization that the person sitting next to you might be living a completely different reality than the one they're telling you about.
If you want a story that stays in your head for weeks, this is it. Just remember: don't believe everything you read. Especially not when the title warns you right from the start.