A twisted tale of deception

Reading this book was uncomfortable, like a car crash waiting to happen, it was hard to read and even harder to put down.

Focusing on the eerie fears that revolve around unpredictability and obsession, Lisa Jewell effortlessly takes us down a twisty path riddled with suspense, eeriness and the thrill of never quite knowing what to expect.

None of This is True revolves around two women, born on the same day but who seem to be living perfectly opposing lives. Josie Fair is quiet, mundane and invisible while Alix Summer is ambitious, accomplished and famous.

And one fine day, Alix Summer, a successful podcaster with a seemingly Instagrammable family, in pursuit of an interesting subject to interview, opened her door to the wrong person.

It's all downhill from there.

The book explores concepts that are not foreign to psychological thrillers, but Lisa Jewell uses these all-too-familiar tools to make the reader squirm, keeping them in that state of discomfort throughout the entire novel. You quite simply cannot breathe, until the book is over, because you are holding it either while you attempt to solve the mystery or out of sheer distress.

The eeriness that the book touches on is the kind that makes you want to lock your doors and draw your curtains. The discomfort and the fear that it fixates on is privacy and what an attack on it might feel like. Every word tends to spew a kind of eeriness that makes you want to peel your own skin off to protect yourself.

While the title does give away the importance of deception in this plot, the guesswork in detecting the lie only further elevates the experience of reading it. We are misled at every point in the book, constantly trying to figure out who's telling the truth. And the problem with trying to detect a lie is that it's that much harder when the liar believes it to be true, throwing us into a whirlwind of confusion.

As for the characters, I was immediately invested in both their lives. Neither of the women seemed to have a life one could call average, yet they have very real obstacles that can feel very relatable and grounded in a reality that could be true for any one of us.

My parting thought for this read, however, is only about one of these women, who impacted me far more than the other. Josei Fair, the sole existence of whom would oftentimes feel like an attack on privacy.

None of This Is True is a dark, twisted psychological thriller that will have you on the edge of your seat from the first page to the last.

Syeda Erum Noor is devoted to learning about the craft of writing and is an avid reader who can talk endlessly about the magic of books. Reach her at @syedaerumnoorwrites.