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When Josie Fair and Alix Summers happen to cross paths at their local pub while celebrating their forty-fifth birthdays, they discover they are birthday twins. Josie is drawn to Alix’s life after she realizes she’s a famous podcaster and she thinks her own life would make an interesting podcast. She convinces Alix to start making the podcast, which is centered around Josie’s troubled past, but dark secrets come to light leaving Alix’s life in dangerous territory.

Josie’s life is full of dysfunction and half the time you are wondering if what she’s saying is really true. Josie starts to insert herself into Alix’s life and at times it feels very awkward. The novel explores toxic relationships, including Alix’s own seemingly perfect marriage, Josie’s controlling husband, trust, obsession, and the story builds as Alix continues to dive into Josie’s life and the thin line she’s woven between reality and fiction.

This book confirms my love for psychological thrillers. I listened to the audiobook which had an entire cast of narrators as well as sound design that made it sound like a true podcast. The narrators were Kristin Atherton, Ayesha Antoine, Louise Brealey, Alix Dunmore, Elliot Fitzpatrick, Thomas Judd, Dominic Thorburn, Nicola Walker, Jenny Walser, as well as the author, Lisa Jewell. I gave the book 4.25 stars out of 5.

I really liked the podcast aspect of the book. That’s what drew me to it in the first place. I felt sympathetic towards Josie at first, but then it crept into disgust and I loved how Jewell made it such a subtle transition. You start out feeling jealous of Alix’s life, but quickly towards the middle you are siding with Alix, wondering how Josie talked her way into getting what she wants. Josie paints her life one way, but you very quickly start to question her story.

Having the audiobook sound like a podcast and having interviews thrown in with so many different characters helped foreshadow what was coming. There was only one time I predicted something and it actually ended up being true, but besides that one time, I was always guessing what was coming next. The sound design was an extra fun bonus. I really enjoyed this one!