Alix Summer meets Josie Fair in a gastropub on an otherwise ordinary day by mere coincidence, except that it is the day of their forty-fifth birthday. As their birthday guests can see, there is little commonality between Alix and Josie besides their shared birthdate.
Alix is a popular podcaster who conceptualizes, produces, and hosts a popular podcast featuring prominent women and how they overcame their challenges to rise to their positions of power. It is a fairly well-received podcast that counts many women as ardent followers.
One of those followers happens to be Josie. But she is more than a follower; she is literally hanging onto every word coming out of Alix’s podcast.
Before long, the readers learn the reasons behind Josie’s fascination with Alix’s podcast and what she thinks about her guests thus interviewed. Josie has lived all her life in a home far from an ideal household, first with her mother and then with her husband, whom she met as her mother’s friend. She was a teenager when she met her husband, Walter, who was in his early forties and already married with kids. That relationship propelled her life trajectory in a different direction, which didn’t involve proper education or a familial environment.
Josie and her husband live with her daughters, Erin and Roxy. Only Erin lives with her parents, whereas Roxy fled the oppressive home environment when she was in school. The family has no connection to or news about Roxy, and the remaining family members hardly have loving relations.
It’s no wonder that Josie idealizes Alix’s home and family life. Once she persuades Alix to launch another podcast based on her life to narrate and explain her truth, that wonderment turns into bitter jealousy and possessiveness. Readers witness her twisted fascination with Alix and her family.
Alix indeed enjoys a typical upper-middle suburban life, content within her family of four, which includes her husband Nathan and their two young children. Because of Nathan’s lucrative career, the family enjoys a privileged and sheltered life. But that privilege becomes ugly envy once Josie tries to ingratiate herself into that family picture as someone more worthy than Alix to enjoy such a lifestyle.
It’s fascinating to read how Josie’s mind-boggling and twisted tale engulfs Alix and her family. What starts as a casual exchange in a restaurant turns so dark and nasty within a span of a few months that it leads to life-altering consequences for the Summer family.
Talking more than this might give away the story, and it won’t be justice for the author’s fantastic penmanship. She created two contrasting worlds and brought together two individuals who looked poles apart but later discovered common ground. The only difference is that Rosie uses that common ground to bury Alix’s happy-go-lucky family life and almost succeeds. Credit goes to the author for narrating this weird but fascinating tale, so it feels like we are getting different perspectives, as though we are seeing it through a looking glass intercepted by the podcast fragments of Alix.
As always, this is a highly engaging and fast-paced read that is recommended to all Lisa Jewell fans, old and new. Go for it!!!