While out to dinner for her 45th birthday with her quiet husband who is in his 80s, Josie Fair sees another woman celebrating her birthday surrounded by an attentive husband and lots of family and friends. The woman is also turning 45. 

Josie follows her to the bathroom and introduces herself by saying, “Hi! I’m your birthday twin!” They realize that they were born on the same day at the same hospital. But their lives have been very different. 

The woman is podcaster Alix Summer, and in her, Josie sees an opportunity to share her story of change. Josie wants a change. Her life feels stagnant. Routine. She’s bitter and resentful. 

Josie latches onto Alix and they begin recording. 

Within a few weeks, both families are shattered and two people are dead. 

Lisa Jewell is so good at domestic thrillers. This one kept me turning pages, eager to find out what was going to happen next. The reader knows pretty early on that something isn’t quite right with Josie, but there are so many different versions of events that it’s hard to know exactly what’s true. 

I also really liked the format of this book. Even though it’s about a podcast, the podcast itself isn’t the format. The format is the Netflix documentary series based on the podcast, so we “see” interviews with people and get to read some of the podcast transcript that’s used. 

I’ve been looking forward to reading this one for a while and it didn’t disappoint.