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A review by flying_monkeys
None of This Is True by Lisa Jewell
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Hooked me from almost the first page, and the first half was fast-paced and had me asking all the questions, but then I got the ick. Why?
It started to read like we're meant to believe that because a 15-year-old girl may be a psychopath, she wasn't a victim of grooming/SA by the 42-year-old man she ends up marrying at 18. I kept on reading, my thought process being, maybe this is simply the viewpoint of the pedophile, but no, others started to say it. Their "testimony" supporting the notion that the crazy, narcissistic teenager was at fault. That it was all her doing.
For me, the book plummeted from a 4-star read at that point.
I will say, I actually enjoyed the ambiguous ending because, to me, the whole point of this story is the malleability of memory and truth, and while an unreliable narrator is, well, unreliable, they are telling us their truth from their (perhaps curated) memories. This makes them suspect and we can never trust anything they're telling us. Certainly some of what they're saying could be true, but how can we tell the truth from the lies? And how do we avoid invalidating their real experiences when buried under a mountain of selective truths?
It started to read like we're meant to believe that because a 15-year-old girl may be a psychopath, she wasn't a victim of grooming/SA by the 42-year-old man she ends up marrying at 18. I kept on reading, my thought process being, maybe this is simply the viewpoint of the pedophile, but no, others started to say it. Their "testimony" supporting the notion that the crazy, narcissistic teenager was at fault. That it was all her doing.
For me, the book plummeted from a 4-star read at that point.
I will say, I actually enjoyed the ambiguous ending because, to me, the whole point of this story is the malleability of memory and truth, and while an unreliable narrator is, well, unreliable, they are telling us their truth from their (perhaps curated) memories. This makes them suspect and we can never trust anything they're telling us. Certainly some of what they're saying could be true, but how can we tell the truth from the lies? And how do we avoid invalidating their real experiences when buried under a mountain of selective truths?
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse and Stalking
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Pedophilia, and Death of parent
Minor: Confinement