Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

None of This Is True by Lisa Jewell

92 reviews

kashby's review against another edition

i liked the first two acts but when the theme went from being about how people who experience trauma sometimes gain the capability to harm others into how this girl is cray cray 😝 and forced an old man to date her i was kind of over it. the writing was really good but i just didn’t really fw the ending or how walter’s character was handled.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, and Alcohol

Moderate: Eating disorder, Gore, Infidelity, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Bullying, Drug abuse, Drug use, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Blood, Vomit, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, and Pandemic/Epidemic

smreads24's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse

Moderate: Alcoholism, Physical abuse, Torture, Kidnapping, Stalking, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

laurrreads's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Well, without giving too much away, I’d say the title is fitting 😳

None of This is True is split into four parts and this story was absolutely mind blowing. part one primarily focuses on the build up of plot. Lisa Jewell spends a lot of time setting up and places pieces of information throughout this part of the book to be later investigated and explained. Part three was the standout of the book for me, I read, or rather listened, to the whole thing in one sitting. 

in my opinion, this book, while being a phenomenal mystery and suspense, is also a story about women. it captures both the mundane and unusual pains of marriage, womanhood, and raising children as well as exploring many themes of trauma. i feel it is rare to

find a book of this genre that can make me feel so many things. typically when reading a mystery or suspense book such as None of This is True, uncovering the truth is the whole plot and the biggest range of emotions i typically feel taps out around shock. but this book not only kept me guessing and surprised but also had me feeling the main characters’ range of emotions right along side them. 

None of This is True kept me guessing until the very last chapter, and I was genuinely speechless after finishing this book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

josiemeyer's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

andieobrien99's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Woah! What a rollercoaster of a book!

It was creepy. It was intense. It was sad. It was good!

This was my first time reading one of Lisa’s books and honestly I have to read more! 

This gave me the chills reading it! 

The fact there’s people out in the world who are like that just gives me the heebee Jeebees

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

wickedgrumpy's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

When it comes to ambiguous open endings, I usually don't mind because I can imagine what I want to follow as an epilogue.  That requires having a good foundation though and this book lacked that in spades.  When the title is the book, you question everything.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

daffodilcherry's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

A psychological thriller following the link between two women, Alix and Josie, who meet when they realise they share their birthdays. Josie then asks Alix to make a podcast about her, unravelling her life. Interspersed in their tale are flashforwards to a true crime documentary made from their story. 

This story reads like a Netflix/BBC miniseries that gets crazy popular and that everyone's mum is obsessed with. The first 50% is amps up the tension between the two women, but ultimately it goes along very slowly. The second 50% is fast paced, desperate and dramatic. My one ultimate annoyance with this book is the title: None of This is True.

It ultimately spoils the fact that Josie is lying about the exact circumstances of her life.

if it had been named differently I think the revelations of the second half would have hit a lot stronger. However, the ending was so very satisfying (ending spoiler:)

especially the final twist of Josie's final chapter where she may not be as diabolical as we were lead to believe...

 

In terms of diversity, both Alix and Josie are white cis women, married to their husbands. Everyone appears to be ambiguously white and straight, except for, some of Nathan's friends and

Josie's daughter Roxy, who is a lesbian with her dark moments.

Erin is autistic with smooth food preferences and is the gamer queen of my heart. 

I very much enjoyed this as an audiobook, with two excellent main narrators and then a full cast making up the interviewees of the inserted documentary moments. My only gripe with it was that at times in the documentary aspects the interviewer's voice was very quiet, but otherwise it was good.

Wheelhouse: narrative parallels/foils, women protagonists over 45,

unreliable narrators,

spliced in revelations in the form of interviews.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Domestic abuse, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Kidnapping, Stalking, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Incest, Torture, Lesbophobia, and Gaslighting

The dog is uninjured and fine at the end. Josie's relationship with Walter:

allegedly started dating when she was 15 he was 42, describes grooming behaviour, alleges that he is physically, emotionally and fiscally abusive towards her.

spoiler for the twist of Josie and Walter:

this is then twisted when her children allege that she was manipulative and emotionally abusive towards the whole family, including Walter, and that she may have attacked him as he died.

Josie's relationship with her children:

Erin is autistic and while Josie is mostly supportive in terms of providing her with food she likes there is an underlying current of slight abelism when it comes to Josie's views on Erin. Josie ends up fighting Erin, restraining her in her house and abandoning her for dead while stealing her money. Roxy appears to have a more fraught relationship with Josie, with allegations of child abuse and that Josie allegedly sabotaged her relationship with Brook. There is a custom made child's chair with restraints which apparently Josie used on Roxy.

Josie's final plan:

she kidnaps Alix's husband and ends up killing him, apparently accidentally.

Roxy:

final final twist spoilers: Roxy might have been the one to have killed her then girlfriend Brook.

kerryamchugh's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

A wild twist on the unreliable narrator. Definitely recommend the audio, which is fully sound edited to sound like the podcast/documentary series at the center of this story, with a full cast. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Mental illness

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Kidnapping, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Pandemic/Epidemic

tfaison3's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

3.5

Relatively predictable but enjoyable. Narration was incredible. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Toxic relationship, Stalking, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

Moderate: Child abuse, Physical abuse, Violence, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

kecasey's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Pandemic/Epidemic