Jewell recently spoke with Shondaland about the premise for the new novel, her approach to writing, and her advice to aspiring novelists.

The classic trade mark writing of Lisa Jewell where you go deeper and deeper into the charachters' lives. Concocting your own theories, and Bam! The book is coming to an end with it's characters getting what they deserve.All things said, Jewell did a great job with this and the audio production was top notch. I recommend this to anyone who likes a solid suspenseful psychological thriller/mystery! Soon Josie enmeshes herself fully into Alix’s life. Even suggesting Alix, a famous podcaster, create a podcast all about Josie’s life. I admit that stalkers and uninvited houseguests are some of my worst anxiety triggers in thrillers, so this book kept me up all night! As tensions escalated, I had to keep reading until I had all the answers, which was way past my bedtime (I advise to start this book when you have lots of free time). Erin recovers and moves in with her sister. Josie is still on the run. She sends Alix a letter claiming that Nathan’s death was a accident.

As the story progresses, it's like a veil being pulled from your eyes, but I still couldn't believe what I was reading. It was so twisted! This reading group guide for None of This Is True includes an introduction, discussion questions, ideas for enhancing your book club, and a Q&A with author Lisa Jewell. The suggested questions are intended to help your reading group find new and interesting angles and topics for your discussion. We hope that these ideas will enrich your conversation and increase your enjoyment of the book .

Great theory, but Lisa Jewell’s interview, linked above, suggests that her intention was to convey that Roxy killed Brooke. Who Killed Walter in None of This is True? Alix has a podcast on women who have overcome hardships in their lives. Josie engineers a meeting with Alix outside her children’s school and asks if they can meet. A slippery slope of truth! Who do I believe? Who will you believe? Everyone is flawed and makes questionable, even detestable decisions. The characters were mostly abhorrent and toxic.

I read this in day which I am deliberately not doing any more, because this was such a captivating read and a great book overall. Celebrating her forty-fifth birthday at her local pub, popular podcaster Alix Summer crosses paths with an unassuming woman called Josie Fair. Josie, it turns out, is also celebrating her forty-fifth birthday. They are, in fact, birthday twins. NONE OF THIS IS TRUE is probably one of Jewell’s darkest books and one where she takes the unreliable narrator theme to an extreme (as hinted in the title). As a very seasoned and talented storyteller, she ratcheted up the tension slowly but steadily until it was impossible to put the book down. There were quite a few hair-raising moments (and a few EEEEWWWW ones, too), and I felt like helplessly watching a train speed towards the abyss. Considering this unbearable tension, I felt that the ending lost a bit of steam and felt strangely anti-climatic to me, though overall this did not detract from the unique premise of the story. I loved the podcast and Netflix-series style of the novel, which gave it a very contemporary feel and allowed for short, punchy chapters and different POVs without losing its flow. In my opinion, Josie’s pattern is to become fixated on people (like Walter, Alix, maybe Brooke) and then get jealous of people who get in the way of her “relationships.”

SE: That idea of secrets is a huge theme in this book and has been in your other books as well. Is that something you intentionally write about, or does it just find its way into your work? It’s from here on out that Alix’s relationship with Josie spirals out of control and the thriller madness begins. But this time, the story Jewell tells isn’t quite as straightforward as some of her others. Even at the very end, the truth of the events in the novel is blurred, leaving the reader with unanswered questions and no sense of closure, and also left murky is the line between pedophile and victim. Plus she had all those weird conversations with Alix about how much better off she’d be if he was dead. So I’m not sure I buy her story that it was an accident. What was Josie’s Endgame? SE: This book has multiple layers of storytelling. There’s the narrative, but then there’s also the podcast that Josie and Alix do, and interspersed throughout the book are scenes from a Netflix show based on the podcast. Why did you decide to write the story in that way? Alix and Josie bump into each other for the first time in the bathroom of a local pub, coincidentally on the day they were both turning 45. They were 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. Alix has now passed the point of no return, and because of this-her recordings, interspersed throughout the narrative, have just become part of a TRUE CRIME podcast and SHE is now its subject. Lisa Jewell has been around the scene for a while now: this is her ELEVENTH thriller after making the transition from romance novels. Even Jewell herself has said her thrillers follow a general trend: now and then timelines, unlikable characters, at LEAST one teenage POV...and there's often a big 'didn't know they were related' reveal. This formula has suited her well, and I've never doubted her ability to write a compelling narrative. Whether I agreed with the way it played out or not, despite occasional uneven pacing, I'm a Jewell fan through and through and also feel like I have a good sense of what to expect when I grab one of her books. Josie then pitches herself as a twist on Alix’s usual podcast topic: she is a woman about to make big changes in her life.

I was on board with Josie killing Brooke but based on your comments I now think it might have been both Walter and Josie together. Josie is adamant to involve in Alix’s life, creating coincidences to bump into her around her children’s schoolyard. When Josie starts to tell her about her traumatic life, Alix thinks she already found the distraction she needed. Using Josie’s story who wants to make imminent changes in her life may attract her audiences’ attention.