A few days later, Alix and Josie bump into each other again, this time outside Alix’s children’s school. Josie has been listening to Alix’s podcasts and thinks she might be an interesting subject for her series. She is, she tells Alix, on the cusp of great changes in her life. These characters though...they might have been her most unlikable group to date. Even protagonist Alix has her blinders on selectively throughout and doesn't exactly do her due diligence with, well, anything. Josie is obviously a woman of mystery, but as a reader, I had a hard time buying her stories and suspected that a LOT was wrong with this situation (beyond the obvious). Nevertheless, I was excited to get to the bottom of things and had a hard time stopping myself from extrapolating endlessly as the novel wore on, with theory after theory about all of the players involved. As they are chatting, Josie, who has listened to Alix's podcast, pitches an idea to her. Alix should do a podcast focusing on Josie's life. Imagine if Lisa Jewell had chosen a different narrative structure from this novel and only told it from one point of view. What would the reading experience be like if you only had Alix’s or Josie’s POV? What might you gain and what might you lose from only one woman’s perspective? A slippery slope of truth! Who do I believe? Who will you believe? Everyone is flawed and makes questionable, even detestable decisions. The characters were mostly abhorrent and toxic.

Link to an interview by Lisa Jewell that discusses her thoughts on the ending AND her offer in comments to answer questions!

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This story had me gripped throughout but I feel the ending let the book down a little. It was too contrived, and I failed to appreciate what drove this woman to do the things she did. I also enjoy more analysis when taking on difficult subjects and wanted a better ending for Roxy and Erin. The story behind Walter was left vague for me and didn’t conclude on the various aspects of his life and actions. Did he marry a much younger girl or was he guilty of ‘grooming’ her??. I settled on the former in the absence of any more detail. Even that was weird though.

Lisa Jewell is the queen of neighborhood, domestic thrillers and i love her writing so much. she’s truly an all time fave author and will always remain that way. i was actually DMing with her about this book because she was replying to my IG stories and i just haaaaad to ask her questions about the ending and that just made me love her even more. When Josie proposes she be a guest on Alix's podcast to tell the story of her life, Alix is curious about this strange woman. Josie lets Alix into her life and history through the podcast and Alix, in turn, gradually lets Josie into her life too. But the more Alix comes to know Josie and her past, the more she worries she's made a terrible mistake.

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In Erin’s Netflix interview, she says that Josie was jealous of Brooke’s relationship with Roxy. When Roxy ran away, Brooke told Josie that Roxy was running away from her and didn’t love her. Then, according to Erin, there were noises, of a struggle and violence. BUT (as it’s pointed out in comments) this story could have been fed to Erin (who is rather naive and impressionable) by Brooke. If Pat is telling the truth about being involved with Walter before Josie, then Walter did have a more age-appropriate relationship with Pat. As I was writing up the summary, I realized how many there were. Yes, some of the interview transcripts were after the fact, but Josie was stealing things on camera. She was sneaking around. Her own mother said she was a liar. Nathan didn’t like her. She was clearly trying to undermine Alix’s marriage and get Nathan out of the way.