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

This book is such an enjoyable read! There are so many twists and turns throughout the book that constantly left me guessing, and I was never bored. I'm not giving it the full 5 stars because it does become a little confusing towards the end and opens the possibility for plot holes, and there are still a lot of questions I didn't feel were answered and should have been. Regardless, I would recommend this book to any mystery lover who enjoys a bit of thrill and isn't afraid of dark topics. This is my kind of book.

content warnings: rape, abuse, murder, etc. there's a lot
it was entertaining until it got too graphic for me

This may not be a great literary achievement, but what it does it does well. 

The question of what happened to Amber to land her in a coma, is exciting and I liked that the narrator (Amber) doesn't know either. The three story lines, 'now' - Amber in a coma; 'Then' - the weeks leading up to the event that caused the coma; and 'before' - the diary of a 10 year girl about 25 years previously, complement each other well. The story is exciting and entertaining and you never know quite what is real and what is not. Ok, the solutions in the end is somewhat far fetched, but that is most often the case, so it doesn't bother me too much.