A chance meeting between two women who share the same birthday, Josie, a local housewife, and Alix, a successful podcaster, leads to a new project tracking Josie’s path as she, or at least claims to, forge a new life for herself. Unfortunately for Alix, Josie seems obsessed with her, showing up at her home and stealing small mementos. Alix puts up with it, though, as she feels she is getting great content that will become a winning podcast. Instead, she ends up with more than she bargained for when Josie, claiming spousal abuse, moves in for a week. As Alix starts to see Josie’s story fall apart, she worries she may have put her family in danger, but is it already too late?
A 2023 nominee for Best Mystery and Thriller in the Goodreads Choice Awards, None of This Is True is my first go-around with the works of Lisa Jewell. She tells a riveting story, switching perspectives between the two birthday twins and with the purported Netflix documentary of the podcast as it is being produced. If this is a good representation of Jewell’s work, I may need to dig into her extensive back catalog as time goes on.