Scan barcode
A review by jennastopreading
None of This Is True by Lisa Jewell
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Writing a "negative review" is not something I typically do, but I feel like I need to explain my 2 star rating on this seemingly beloved novel (4.17 stars with 275k ratings at the time of this writing). But I picked this book at the beginning of January with high hopes that I would start off the year with a bang of a thriller/mystery, and because of the mostly positive feedback on this one, I was sure it would be a knock out of the park for me. But oh, how wrong I was...
For starters, I was insanely bored for the first roughly 270 pages of this book. In hindsight, I should've DNF'd around the 50 page mark, but I think I had FOMO - and it felt too soon to DNF a book I got for Christmas. I was hoping there was a method to the madness, some reason for the slow buildup, so I trusted the process and waited for the "big twist" promised.
What a break of my trust 🫠Because I pretty much guessed every aspect of the twist. I found none of it to be surprising, I found none of exciting, I just thought it was...meh. My jaw didn't drop, my mind didn't twist, I was just thinking, "Thank goodness this is over."
I saw another reviewer write that Jewell spent 300 pages trying to convince us of one narrative, 50 pages convincing us of another narrative, and then another 20-30 of convincing us that the second narrative was not true, and honestly, that's about right. It felt like whiplash but at the end, I still felt like..meh. I was not excited about anything except that I was finished reading it.
I do believe I would've enjoyed it more on audio, but what's said and done is said and done. On to the next!
For starters, I was insanely bored for the first roughly 270 pages of this book. In hindsight, I should've DNF'd around the 50 page mark, but I think I had FOMO - and it felt too soon to DNF a book I got for Christmas. I was hoping there was a method to the madness, some reason for the slow buildup, so I trusted the process and waited for the "big twist" promised.
What a break of my trust 🫠Because I pretty much guessed every aspect of the twist. I found none of it to be surprising, I found none of exciting, I just thought it was...meh. My jaw didn't drop, my mind didn't twist, I was just thinking, "Thank goodness this is over."
I saw another reviewer write that Jewell spent 300 pages trying to convince us of one narrative, 50 pages convincing us of another narrative, and then another 20-30 of convincing us that the second narrative was not true, and honestly, that's about right. It felt like whiplash but at the end, I still felt like..meh. I was not excited about anything except that I was finished reading it.
I do believe I would've enjoyed it more on audio, but what's said and done is said and done. On to the next!