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she takes the most universal observation and tosses it in very lightly at the end of a funny sentence—and it truly takes my breath away. The story unravels via alternating points of view and via a Netflix podcast/documentary entitled ‘ Hi!
This is slightly more character driven than some of Lisa Jewell’s other books, and that really comes out when Josie is recording episodes of the podcast. Josie is adamant to involve in Alix’s life, creating coincidences to bump into her around her children’s schoolyard. Your views on both of them undergo several U-turns via the plot revelations which makes for fascinating and at times, horrifying reading. For the rest, it boils down to the reader’s ability and/or willingness to ignore certain aspects of the story.A storyline which makes this difficult to endure in some parts, but they are real life issues so of course we should cover them. When Josie and Walter come for dinner at Alix and Nathan’s, it becomes clear that Josie hasn’t told Walter about the podcast.
The story behind Walter was left vague for me and didn’t conclude on the various aspects of his life and actions. She issues a quiet “Bye then” as she turns to leave and Alix beams at her and says, “Happy birthday, birthday twin!Gloriously dark, so clever and completely addictive - this is Lisa Jewell at the very top of her game. The novel starts off with a murder, and with seven people trapped on an isolated Greek island lashed by a "wild, unpredictable Greek wind. Only then does Alix discover that Josie has left a terrible and terrifying legacy in her wake, and that Alix has become the subject of her own true crime podcast, with her life and her family’s lives under mortal threat. The narrator, soon established as Elliot Chase, then zooms out to address the reader directly, introducing the players—most importantly movie star Lana Farrar. Then Zoe and Alix turn the conversation away from the Huge Coincidence and immediately Josie sees that it has passed, this strange moment of connection, that it was fleeting and weightless for Alix, but that for some reason it carries import and meaning to Josie, and she wants to grab hold of it and breathe life back into it, but she can’t.
Their unlikely meeting turns into a podcast in which shared confidences become the motive for murder. As Josie slowly integrates herself into Alix’s life, into her very home, she’ll discover that Josie isn’t exactly who she portrays herself to be.The smile fixes on Josie’s face as she watches Alix Summer and her big group of friends, her red-haired husband with his arm draped loosely across the back of her chair, large platters of meats and breads being brought to their table and placed in front of them as if conjured out of thin air, the sound of them, the noise of them, the way they fill every inch of the space with their voices and their arms and their hands and their words. Josie ponders her life and choices throughout the novel, at one point wondering how she might leave her family and live elsewhere. As Alix learns increasingly dark details about Josie’s life, she is disturbed but she doesn’t intervene, nor does she stop the podcast interviews. My recommendation is to just go into the reading of this book with an open mind and without any preconceived notions as to what you think is going on, because that will probably change many times throughout. This isn’t a pleasant read, and it can easily become too much, but the exploration of themes like obsession, manipulation and warped mindsets did appeal to me.
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