Genre: Mystery/Thriller
Release Date: August 8th, 2023
Pages: 384
Publisher: Atria Books
My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Publisher’s Synopsis:
“Celebrating her forty-fifth birthday at her local pub, popular podcaster Alix Summers 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.
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.
Josie’s life appears to be strange and complicated, and although Alix finds her unsettling, she can’t quite resist the temptation to keep making the podcast. Slowly she starts to realise that Josie has been hiding some very dark secrets, and before she knows it, Josie has inveigled her way into Alix’s life—and into her home.
But, as quickly as she arrived, Josie disappears. Only then does Alix discover that Josie has left a terrible and terrifying legacy in her wake, and that Alix has become the subject of her own true crime podcast, with her life and her family’s lives under mortal threat.
Who is Josie Fair? And what has she done?”
My Review:
First of all, omg wow I can’t believe I got an ARC of this!? I’m still so incredibly shocked and grateful for that opportunity so thank you!!!
My favorite thriller of the year! And my favorite Lisa Jewell book to date!
I’m literally obsessed with this story and I can’t wait to have book club discussions about it. I was hooked from the ominous prologue.
Alix Summer is an influential podcaster. She has a chance meeting with Josie Fair, a married mom of two, and they realize they were not only born on the same day but in the same hospital. Josie asks Alix if she’d be interested in sharing her story as a new type of podcast series.
Something about Josie makes Alix believe this could be the story of a lifetime. Josie wants to come clean about her tragic life, and Alix thinks this could be the thing that launches her career to stardom. These two form a strained and tenuous bond, as Josie becomes more obsessive of Alix’s seemingly glamorous life, and Alix struggles to take her mind off her own troubling marriage.
I loved that the narrative was broken up by screenplay excerpts from the podcast turned Netflix documentary. And I just kept thinking the entire time how freaking cool this would be as an actual Netflix mockumentary. I would love to see that happen.
Jewell is a master composer of thriller fiction. She has the perfect formula for suspense, dropping lines of intrigue throughout the story, little bits of foreboding tension. She hooks you from the start and keeps you absolutely enthralled for the entire journey until its dramatic crescendo.
It’s harrowing; it’s sickening; and I could not put this book down. There were times that were so gut-wrenching my heart was breaking for them. I binged this in two days and I never wanted it to end. It’s disturbing and unsettling, and I never imagined the directions that this book would end up taking.
The story is more than a little creepy and there were many moments I actually got goosebumps while reading. Things got wildly out of control and I was soaking up every minute of it. The disgust I was feeling over the things that were happening in that house was visceral.
The twists! The turns! And my favorite trope of all, I still don’t know who was telling the truth! This was batshit crazy at times and even after everything, we are still left wondering who to believe. I freaking love it so much.
There were characters that I hated, characters that I loved and wanted to succeed, and some characters that my opinions of changed dramatically (and more than once). I mean I was literally gripping the pages and hanging on every word. It’s all so freaking twisted.
I mean… wtf did I just read!?!? In the absolute best way possible. I want all of my books to give me an experience like this. Also, the title is perfect. If I had an exclusive list of 6 star reads, favorites of all time, this would definitely be on it. Honestly, this is the best book she has ever written. If you haven’t read this yet… what are you doing??? Move it to the very top of your tbr list and pick this one up immediately.
Disclaimers:
Huge thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for gifting me an early copy of this amazing story! I voluntarily read and reviewed this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Have you read this book? Planning to add it to your TBR?
Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
I love a good book discussion. 🙂
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