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The Make-Believe

'Extraordinary. Like nothing I have ever read before' Dolly Alderton

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The Make-Believe

By: Hannah Murray
Narrated by: Hannah Murray
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Brought to you by Penguin.

From the actor known for Skins and Games of Thrones, a deeply intimate, shockingly honest memoir about acting, fame, mental illness and the struggle to leave a cult-like organisation whose belief in magic shattered Hannah’s reality.

In 2017, Hannah Murray was a successful actor whose career had taken her to Hollywood and given her the opportunity to act with A list stars and Oscar-winning directors. But as the daily costs of acting grew, from the degradations of auditions to repeating violent scenes over and over, Hannah found herself searching for something to make her feel better. One day, a reiki healer promises her a new kind of treatment, a kind of magic, and all of a sudden Hannah’s life is changed.

Back in London, she becomes increasingly involved with the organisation behind the magic, an organisation whose charismatic leader, promises of secret knowledge, and increasingly complex rituals, are seductive, cult-like – and ultimately destructive, as Hannah finds herself on a week-long course from her friends and family - and her sanity falls apart. Detained in hospital, she struggles to understand the difference between what’s real, and what’s imagined. The result is a propulsive, shockingly honest, and extraordinarily intimate portrayal of a mind taken over the edge.

From the outer edges of fame, through Hollywood film sets and London parties, Hannah’s life has slowly moved from that of a successful starlet to that of a young woman seduced by the magical thinking of an organisation that promises health and happiness beyond her wildest dreams, but her reality becomes far more disturbing than she could ever have imagined.

Shocking, intimate and compulsive, The Make-Believe is an ultimately uplifting and inspiring story of empathy, resilience and the power of belief.

'Extraordinary, propulsive, immersive ... like nothing I have ever read before' DOLLY ALDERTON
'A memoir of real literary power ... fascinating and uniquely compelling' NAOISE DOLAN
'Intensely open-hearted and lyrical ... a stunning achievement' SOPHIE MACKINTOSH

© Hannah Murray 2026 (P) Penguin Audio 2026

 Entertainment & Celebrities Entertainment & Performing Arts Film & TV Religious Studies Celebrity Magic Feel-Good
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Critic reviews

An extraordinary memoir - propulsive, immersive; like nothing I have ever read before. I read it in one day and thought about it for weeks afterwards. (Dolly Alderton, author of EVERYTHING I KNOW ABOUT LOVE)
The Make-Believe is a page-turning and generous book that is intensely concerned with what it means to be human. Hannah Murray is a masterful storyteller. (Rebecca Watson, author of I WILL CRASH)
I was deeply moved and compelled by this vital, brave, memoir. Murray’s account of her experience is intensely open-hearted and lyrical, depicting just how porous the boundaries and realities of our lives can become. A stunning achievement. (Sophie Mackintosh, author of CURSED BREAD)
A mind-blowing memoir, exquisitely told.
A memoir of real literary power that wields a writer's full toolkit, with finger-biting dramatic irony, vivid sensory evocation and pithy statements of uncomfortable truth. The premise is fascinating, but her execution is what makes this story uniquely compelling. (Naoise Dolan, author of THE HAPPY COUPLE)
This book is brilliantly and beautifully written, fast-flowing, deeply felt and observed. Hannah Murray is a writer of tremendous skill and fearlessness. (Daisy Johnson, author of EVERYTHING UNDER and SISTERS)
Reading The Make-Believe, I shivered as I recognized the terror and seduction entwined in Hannah Murray’s story. This memoir is harrowing, yes—but it is also exquisitely written, tracing the fracture of a mind and the fierce, fragile work of reclaiming it. The cult memoir world needed this book. (Daniella Mestynaek Young, author of UNCULTURED)
In The Make-Believe, Hannah Murray traces the subtle architecture of belief: how need becomes trust, and trust becomes surrender. What makes this memoir so remarkable is what Murray resists—she does not cast herself as a victim or offer easy lessons. Instead, she reveals, moment by moment, how a person in search of healing can gradually lose herself. The power lies in the restraint, in the questions left unanswered. This is a book about the cost of wanting to be saved. (Ruth Wariner, New York Times bestselling author of THE SOUND OF GRAVEL)
An utterly exceptional memoir ... A lyrical, powerful examination of what it means to be "well". (Elizabeth Day)
All stars
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I got this finished in two days, couldn't put it down. Wild story and so well written. so vulnerable, well done Hannah

Absolutely fantastic. shocking. gripping.

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A carefully structured slow descent into what some would call madness and some would call magic.

Compelling and difficult

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This is an unflinching look under the hood of the collision of conspirituality, exploitation and mental illness.

It's an difficult listen at time (no disrespect to Hannah intended!) because, as anyone who's known anyone with psychosis/delusions of grandeur will know, the sheer narcissism of delusion can be frustrating to hear and at times it reads like a fever dream of self involvement. But that is the nature of the illness.

Fascinating. Left me mind-blown and deeply angry at the people that continued to feed this woman's illness. I hope she's well now.

Brutal Listening but very interesting

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I was always a fan of Hannah's acting skills, both on screen and Audible voice acting, but this brilliant novel demonstrates so perfectly (and often with an emotional sledgehammer) that we never truly know the complex humans behind the characters they're so skilled at portraying & it was interesting to realise why she felt drawn to certain roles and how inhabiting those characters affected her positively and negatively.
It's not just a peek behind the curtain of her life, but her very being.
Some actors we root for to be successful in their career, but after pretty much binge-listening to her emotional story, like an intriguing highly entertaining, sometimes harrowing with surprising laugh out loud quips, book I just couldn't put down, I'll be rooting for her to be happy and successful in life too. She's retired from acting, but I look forward to future novels she writes and with a little luck, she'll be the one to narrate them too 🤞 What a story to share with us and thank you for being brave enough to share it, Hannah 🦄 🦁 🪄

An emotional roller coaster

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