Title: Sometimes I Lie
Author: Alice Feeney
Genre: Thriller
Rating: 3.25
Pub Date: March 23, 2017

T H R E E • W O R D S

Dizzying • Disturbing • Shocking

📖 S Y N O P S I S

My name is Amber Reynolds. There are three things you should know about me:
1. I'm in a coma.
2. My husband doesn't love me anymore.
3. Sometimes I lie.

Amber wakes up in a hospital. She can't move. She can't speak. She can't open her eyes. She can hear everyone around her, but they have no idea. Amber doesn't remember what happened, but she has a suspicion her husband had something to do with it.

💭 T H O U G H T S

Sometimes I Lie was another one of my 12 recommendations from 12 friends challenge for 2024. I didn't know anything about the plot ahead of time (other than that the person who recommended it to me absolutely loved it) and it was my first foray into Alice Feeney's repertoire, so I didn't really know what the expect.

Alternating between the present, the week prior to the accident, and a series of childhood diaries from years ago, the format really allows the reader inside Amber's mind. Alternately, it also has the ability to confuse the reader, which disrupts the flow. It also contains a cast of really unlikeable and unreliable characters. I honestly didn't know who or what to trust.

The plot if packed full of twists and turns, but for me there were a few too many twists making it seem unrealistic and as though the author was trying to pack as much as possible into one story. The ending left more questions than answers and while normally I enjoy this type of ending, with this one the ambiguous ending felt unjust.

Alice Feeney's debut, Sometimes I Lie, is a psychological thriller that is dark and disturbing. One that takes a lot of patience and attention to detail to fully grasp. While I am glad I read it, I can easily say it was not my favourite recommendation for this project. Simply put, it's a mediocre thriller that is highly forgettable.

📚 R E A D • I F • Y O U • L I K E
• unreliable narrators
• diary entries as part of the plot
• psychological thrillers

⚠️ CW: infertility, pregnancy, miscarriage, abortion, rape, sexual assault, sexual violence, stalking, emotional abuse, murder, death, death of parent, fire/fire injury, car accident, medical trauma, medical content, toxic relationship, toxic friendship, mental illness, alcoholism, gaslighting, cursing, abandonment

🔖 F A V O U R I T E • Q U O T E S

"Nana always said that books made better friends than people anyway. Books will take you anywhere if you let them, she used to say, and I think she was right."

"Sometimes I think it's best to say nothing at all, silence cannot be misquoted."

"People think that good and bad are opposites but they're wrong, they're just mirror images of one another in broken glass." 

Hm

Thrillers are not my thing, I'm sure good ones exist but I am not willing to dig through the slush pile to find them and this book belongs on that pile. The writing was fine, overusing short sentences not withstanding, although I felt the coma descriptions were too purple prose and could have been cut without much loss. The jumping between timelines was pretty annoying too. There was some graphic r*pe in here that felt thrown in for shock value and the fallout of which was never dealt with. This would not have happened to a man main character in the same position. This was misogyny in action and if you disagree you are incorrect because we cannot encounter a woman without being told whether or not the main character thinks she could stand to lose a few pounds. It doesn't make it not sexism just because a woman does it. We have a diary from a supposedly smart 11 year old who reads a lot but has never heard of a will or a bar tab. The attempt at OCD that started promisingly but sadly fell flat, I'm not an expert but the people I am aware of with OCD say it comes with intrusive thoughts we never see even though we are in Amber's head and is made worse in stressful situations which Amber's never really seems to be. At times I wanted to know what would happen next but the ending had no faith in itself so just threw everything at the wall to see which twist would stick and wound up being a hecking mess. Also the reading comprehension questions at the end were a choice. Don't worry you were heavy handed enough that I noticed your use of the colour red I do not need to complete an assignment on it ma'am.

The characters can’t be described as lovable but are certainly engaging. Some of the plot twits are predictable, but are still enjoyable and others are very unexpected.

I enjoyed following the trio of timelines and the short chapters. The plot is unlike anything I’ve read before and well worth the read.