None of This Is True (2023)

None of This is True is a 2023 thriller written by British author Lisa Jewell. The audiobook is narrated by a full cast, including Nicola Walker, Louise Brealey, Kristin Atherton, Ayesha Antoine, Alix Dunmore, Elliot Fitzpatrick, Lisa Jewell, Thomas Judd, Dominic Thorburn, and Jenny Walser.

The book follows the story of Alix Summer, a popular podcaster, and Josie Fair, a woman with a painful and shadowed history who wants her story told.

Premise

Josie Fair and Alix Summer share a birthday. They were also born in the same hospital on the same day, and now, at the age of forty-five, they share a curiosity about how their lives might have turned out differently.

Since she was a teenager, Josie has been controlled by a husband nearly thirty years her senior. After meeting Alix by chance on their shared birthday, she decides there are parts of her story that must be told. Alix, meanwhile, has hit a creative roadblock with her popular podcast and, amid frustrations with her husband's drinking, decides to take a chance on Josie's tale. The more Alix hears, however, the darker the story becomes, and the closer that darkness comes to her own doorstep.

The story is told through a combination of present-tense prose, interview transcripts, and scenes from a fictional Netflix documentary about the book's events.

Plot

Josie Fair and Alix Summer meet by chance at a local pub while both celebrating their forty-fifth birthday. Josie speaks to Alix in the bathroom, introducing herself as Alix's birthday twin, and learn they were both born at the same hospital as well. Josie has been married to Walter Fair, a man twenty-seven years her senior, for nearly all her life, and begins to yearn for something different while watching the social and popular Alix. Alix is a podcast host for a series called "All Woman" where she interviews women about their success stories, but has grown bored of the series and wants to try something new. A week later, Josie intercepts Alix at her children's school and convinces her to interview her for Alix's next project, saying she wants to make changes to the life she's been living for several years and wants Alix to document her progress.

The facts of Josie's life quickly become troubling to Alix, but she senses that her interviews with Josie might result in a career-defining story. Josie met her husband, Walter Fair, when she was just thirteen years old, began an affair with him at sixteen, then married him at nineteen. Erin, their elder daughter, is now in her twenties and stays at home playing video games, refusing to leave her room or eat anything except baby food. Their younger daughter, Roxy, had a violent record in school, ran away at sixteen, and has not been seen since. Josie quickly becomes obsessed with Alix and steals items of sentimental value during visits to her house.

Despite Alix's misgivings and Josie's growing attachment to her, Alix continues to interview her for the podcast and opens up about her own problems with her husband, Nathan Summer, who is outwardly loving and charismatic and a successful office estate agent but has become increasingly irresponsible and shows signs of alcoholism, regularly going on benders and staying in hotels rather than coming home. This makes Josie start to compare their lives and develop an obsessive hatred for Nathan and resent Alix for still loving him. Her story becomes even darker, with details about Walter grooming and having sex with Brooke Ripley, one of Roxy's high school friends, and sexually abusing his own daughter Erin. At the same time, Josie becomes more hostile and resentful to Walter and tries to convince Alix that her life would be better off without Nathan.

Alix asks if she can meet Walter, hoping he will agree to contribute to the podcast. Alix and Nathan invite Josie and Walter to dinner at their home, but Nathan gets drunk and does not appear and Josie insults him to Alix. While showing Walter her recording studio, he attempts to warn Alix about Josie's controlling and manipulative behaviour and tendency to misrepresent the truth, but Alix dismisses this as an attempt to deceive her. After she and Walter leave, Josie feels angry and humiliated, believing Alix could have been a better host and disgusted by Nathan's alcoholism. She argues with Walter, threatening to unveil his secrets to Alix. In the early morning of the same day, she appears back at Alix's house with blood on her clothes claiming Walter attacked her prompting her and Erin to flee.

Josie refuses to call the police or her mother for help, insisting she'd feel safest with Alix. Reluctantly, Alix lets Josie stay at her house to recover. As they continue the interviews, however, parts of Josie's stories begin to fall apart and Alix is unnerved by Josie's apparent contentment and lack of concern for Erin's wellbeing despite her lack of independence. Alix learns that Brooke disappeared around the time Roxy ran away. Josie's presence in Alix's house also frustrates Nathan, who Josie is openly hostile towards and blames for the incident, claiming his absence embarrassed Walter and made him take his anger out on her. Though Josie tries to stay longer, she agrees to leave after a week due to Alix's sisters coming to stay. Believing Alix deserves better than Nathan, Josie secretly withdraws large amounts of cash from Erin's bank account, which Erin earned as a gaming streamer, as part of a plan to convince Alix to leave him.