Thoughts on : Sometimes I Lie by Alice Feeney
Sometimes I Lie by Alice Feeney
Genre : Mystery
Series : Stand alone? (a sequel might be in the work?)
About the Book :
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. Alternating between her paralyzed present, the week before her accident, and a series of childhood diaries from twenty years ago, this brilliant psychological thriller asks: Is something really a lie if you believe it’s the truth?
My Thoughts :
If you know anything about my reading habits, then you know Sometimes I Lie is exactly the type of book I enjoy reading. I’m a sucker for potentially unreliable narrators and can’t resist a good thriller. I was also told this book had great twists, so I was eager to discover them!
Sometimes I Lie is definitely one of these books that keep you guessing, not only about who did it, but about what happened exactly. In order to piece things back together, the book shifts between present (Amber in a coma), past (the last few days before the accident) and long ago past (childhood journals). As Amber remembers more of what happened, the past chapters also get closer to the time of the event that put her in a coma, which creates all the tension necessary to keep you turning the pages.
I liked the book while I was reading it and it was a quick read. The mystery is intriguing, for sure. Clues are sparkled in but not too obvious. As a narrator Amber is quite engaging, and I thought the author did a good job of describing the feelings of being drugged and trapped while being in a coma.
This being said, the more I thought about the book after reading it, the less convinced I was. The twists are big, but not as unexpected as I would have hoped, and they left me feeling as though the author tried to do too much in one single story (it’s kinda hard to explain without spoiling!) The ending is left opened, more or less, which didn’t work for me either. It seems though that the author’s next book is titled Sometimes I Kill, which hints at it being a sequel to this one, maybe? In which case I think I would be less annoyed by the ending.
Important note : there’s a quite graphic rape scene in this book that I was totally unprepared for, and that I found particularly disturbing. Readers sensitive to the topic might want to avoid it.
Overall, Sometimes I Lie wasn’t a bad thriller, and I would definitely pick up another book by the author. While the story failed in parts to convince me, I think plenty of other readers would enjoy it. The twists are good and the plot is definitely on the darker side of things. If you enjoy unreliable and unlikable narrators, this is one mystery novel you might want to try!
I enjoy an unreliable narrator when they’re done well but do have trouble suspending disbelief. Still, I think I’d enjoy this one.
I think here the narration is done well enough to help with the suspension of disbelief. I would definitely encourage you to read it, as despite its flaws I mostly enjoyed it!