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Original poster

None of this is true, Lisa jewell, spoilers.

13 replies

cheeseisthebest · 15/08/2023 08:14

Couldn't see a thread about this. Just read it in one day, couldn't put it down!
Anyone else read it? What did you think?

OP posts:
Original poster
cheeseisthebest · 15/08/2023 15:48

Bump!

OP posts:
Motorcycleemptyness · 16/08/2023 14:18

I read this yesterday too. I would say maybe 3/5 stars for me? It easy to read and quite compelling, but required a fair amount of suspended disbelief in parts? I also thought the alcoholic husband was incredibly annoying!

It could have done without the grooming plot line as well. I thought it was quite a weak part of the story.

Original poster
cheeseisthebest · 16/08/2023 16:57

Yeh it started so well and I was totally gripped, especially by the daughter who never left her room and ate baby food but that was never really explained was it?

OP posts:
TweeBee · 27/08/2023 15:51

I thought the daughter was going to be in some kind of semi-conscious state and need a 24 hour carer, or possibly dead, so I was a bit disappointed! I think she was frightened of her mum (IF her mum did kill Brooke!) and that's why she didn't come out.
The character of Walter was interesting. Maybe he wasn't sexually abusing his children or their friends but is a 40 something man really powerless to resist a teenage girl? I think certainly there's something murky there.
Another good read though!

bunhead1979 · 27/08/2023 16:10

I enjoyed it and raced through it as I do with all LJ books but agree with previous posters comments that the plot was a bit bonkers. Tying in all the current buzz- topics, gaming, autism, grooming, netflix, podcasting etc etc. it could have been cleverer.

TheYadaYada · 29/08/2023 23:34

I quite enjoyed it, but was glad to get to the end. I’ve never read a Lisa Jewel book before. Might give another one a go. But not on Audible as I did this one, I found it annoying with the different voices and even music.

Saverage · 31/08/2023 11:08

I just finished it. I found it gripping but kind of unsatisfying.

I didn't get why Erin's room smelled so much and Josie wouldn't go in there because 'of what else was in there' or something like that.

celestebellman · 01/09/2023 14:32

I just finished this and was also absolutely gripped/ couldn't put it down although I then found the end a bit deflating - I didn't like it was left a bit ambiguous at the end re what happened to Roxy, also what would happen to Josie (maybe left open for a sequel as she has done sequels previously).
The plot was, also, obviously quite far-fetched! I did like the reveal of Josie as an unreliable narrator of her own life.
I have read all Lisa Jewell's books and think she is amazing at bringing to life all different characters from a variety of backgrounds and complex family dynamics. Her plots have got gradually crazier though.
I think you were meant to wonder from the outset if Erin was dead, but that her room just smells as she never leaves it!

celestebellman · 01/09/2023 14:33

I mean at the end what happened to Brooke, not Roxy!

BethDuttonsTwin · 01/09/2023 14:37

Motorcycleemptyness · 16/08/2023 14:18

I read this yesterday too. I would say maybe 3/5 stars for me? It easy to read and quite compelling, but required a fair amount of suspended disbelief in parts? I also thought the alcoholic husband was incredibly annoying!

It could have done without the grooming plot line as well. I thought it was quite a weak part of the story.

Now I found the alcoholic husband one of the most realistic things about the book, as I had one just like him, who got progressively nastier and more selfish. In real life the alcoholic husband would quite likely have continued on that path so I didn’t feel particularly sympathetic about his ending.

TheYadaYada · 01/09/2023 15:01

I used to have a friend as a teen who’d take things of mine. I’d be at her house and find really random things of mine - one earring, my makeup, a letter addressed to me etc.
So Josie doing this resonated and reminded me of that weirdo!

But so many annoying things in this book. If Walter had a heart attack, why and how did she tie him up in the bath? Erin was a gamer who never left her room but ended up relatively ’normal’ - seemed a stretch.

Saverage · 02/09/2023 10:27

I googled other people's feelings about the ending, and some think it's ambiguous as to who killed Brooke and that it might have been Josie.

I don't think it is ambiguous, as at some point Josie says to Walter that she is going to the police about the girls, and he says they will be arrested. Or is that supposed to be part of her 'unreliable narrator' viewpoint as well?

It's stuff like this and all the misleading parts about the smell from
Erin's room and 'what else is in the room' that made me a bit hmmm about the book in general. It felt a bit like 'hey I can just throw anything in there and it's covered under 'none of this is true' so I don't have to tie up storylines.'

Still a big Lisa Jewell fan though and I did enjoy reading it.

blissno · 06/09/2023 20:31

Saverage · 02/09/2023 10:27

I googled other people's feelings about the ending, and some think it's ambiguous as to who killed Brooke and that it might have been Josie.

I don't think it is ambiguous, as at some point Josie says to Walter that she is going to the police about the girls, and he says they will be arrested. Or is that supposed to be part of her 'unreliable narrator' viewpoint as well?

It's stuff like this and all the misleading parts about the smell from
Erin's room and 'what else is in the room' that made me a bit hmmm about the book in general. It felt a bit like 'hey I can just throw anything in there and it's covered under 'none of this is true' so I don't have to tie up storylines.'

Still a big Lisa Jewell fan though and I did enjoy reading it.

Yes I felt like the "unreliable narrative" element was used to include some very wacky aspects of the plot line.

I didn't really like the kind-of redemption of Walter the paedo, and the mum was clearly horrible. I wasn't sure what we were meant to think about them at the end but it leans me to thinking that what Josie says is true? I mean she was still groomed all those years ago and and had a horrible mum. But then she still left her daughter for dead...confusing!

However I was fully gripped and I just love the way she writes characters, I can always fully picture their lives and their motivations and their families etc.

Would love a sequel to tie up some loose ends.

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