When Josie Fair and Alix Summers both decide to celebrate their birthdays in the same pub, their chance encounter will change both their lives forever. Alix is a successful podcaster, interviewing inspiring women. Josie works quite happily in a sewing repair shop. She begins listening to Alix’s podcast after their meeting and decides that she should be the next guest, not as an already successful woman, but as someone on the brink of changing their life. As their interviews develop we learn more about Josie’s life - the husband she met in her teens (when he was in his forties), the troubles with her children when they were young, and the ongoing struggles with them. One of her daughters appears to be estranged, the other doesn’t leave her bedroom and will only eat baby food. Josie seems to want to be Alix, jealous of her beautiful home and success. Alix and her husband Nathan become increasingly uncomfortable with her presence in their home but she makes it difficult for them to be free of her. How far will she go to hold on to the illusion of closeness between them?
From the first time they meet the contrast between Josie and Alix is stark. Josie is celebrating her birthday with her husband, with whom she seems to have little to say. Alix is surrounded by friends and family and enjoys a livelier celebration. When we see Josie and her husband Walter at home they seem unhappy together. Silently occupying the same house but not really living their lives together. She expresses a desire to change her life, a feeling that life has just kind of happened to her but now it’s time for her to take control. Alix lives a life of comfort, with a husband who allows her to spend his money without question. It’s not perfect, however, Nathan has recently begun going on all night benders, returning late the next day, and she questions whether she should stay with him. Josie enjoys having a shared hardship, but also feels let down that Alix, a woman she admires so much, puts up with being treated badly.
The story that emerges from their podcast interviews is a dark one. We learn of how Walter effectively groomed Josie, of how he goes into their daughter’s bedroom each night. Josie suspects he is abusing her but does nothing about it. Repeatedly we see her in situations where she opts to be an observer rather than actively participating or protecting those in her care. The things she admit to Alix make her look bad as well as many members of her family, but when Alix meets Josie’s mother and others who have known Josie in the past she begins to get a sense that perhaps Josie isn’t entirely telling the truth. Throughout the novel are short interludes of interviews from a Netflix documentary made about Alix and Josie in which others confirm that Josie is not all that she seems and that although she may paint herself as the victim she isn’t perceived as such by others. Of course, the title of the book suggests we should be wary of believing everything we’re being told, but some of her claims are hard to believe someone would make up.
This is an interesting read which kept me up reading just another chapter. It’s dark and twisty and somewhat uncomfortable to read at times as a result. The way we are drip fed information and then given different perspectives by characters that Josie has conditioned us not to believe is an interesting technique. We don’t see much of Walter’s perspective, just through Josie’s eyes, and Nathan too we mostly see through a veil of other people’s opinions. Toward the end we begin to understand a little more of the truth, although at the book club discussion I learnt that some editions have a bonus chapter which makes you reassess how you think about the characters by the end. A book in which nothing is ever quite as it seems and everyone seems to have an agenda. A gripping read but not one that left a lasting impression.
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