Reviews with content warning for Grief - Sometimes I Lie

Rating: 3/5 stars

Amber Reynolds is in a coma, but she can hear everything going on around her—she just can’t remember how she got there, or figure out how to wake up.

This one was…not for me. In fairness, a plot where the main character is in a coma for 30% of the chapters is naturally going to feel a bit slow, but none of the timelines were particularly entertaining to me. I also had a lot of issues with the plot itself, which I won’t discuss here because spoilers.

As for what I did like—there are some beautiful quotes and the writing is really sophisticated. I also really like a twisty psychological plot, so even though the details of this one weren’t for me, the idea behind it all was fun. And, as always, it was so fun to buddy read with some of my faves!

Recommended if you like: cerebral psychological thrillers; multiple timelines; domestic-ish thrillers

CW (mild spoilers!!!): Sexual assault/rape; infertility/miscarriage/pregnancy loss; cancer/grief/death of loved one/death of parents; OCD/mental illness.

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the_rat_king_sees_all's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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pplydm's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Sometimes I Lie is the debut novel of Alice Feeney. It wouldn't surprise me if it was heaped praise on many thriller book video blogs because there are definitely mind blowing plot twists in it. Sometimes I Lie was impressive in portraying obnoxious characters. Had me assessing if Claire and Amber's personalities occur in reality life or if so, how many turn out alike them? No doubt there were abundance of lies to be detected once a reader finishes the novel. The pacing was medium and two specific chapter even deeply shocked me. This may be disturbing, agonizing and mind-bending all in one read.

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.

Nana used to say that if you didn't let the tears out of you they can turn to poison.

Content Warnings

v171's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

Yuck.

The good: Paced how you'd expect a thriller book to be paced. The twists at the end were interesting.

The bad: I don't like the concept of an unreliable narrator being used as a plot device. It was burdensome to have to mentally track what was true and false throughout the entire story. I found all of the characters to be unlikable, but I think some were written in a way that I was supposed to sympathize with them. Shifting POV is fine when done well, but I found it to be disruptive in this book. However, the automatic 1 star for me was the multiple instances of rape and sexual assault. There are better, more creative ways to make me to hate a character than making them a rape a woman in a coma. I found it to be a lazy way to add shock factor to a story that didn't need i

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