Join BookBrowse today and get access to free books, our twice monthly digital magazine, and more.

Reviews of Sometimes I Lie by Alice Feeney

Sometimes I Lie

by Alice Feeney

Sometimes I Lie by Alice Feeney X
Sometimes I Lie by Alice Feeney
  • Critics' Opinion:

    Readers' Opinion:

  • First Published:
    Mar 2018, 272 pages

    Paperback:
    Oct 2018, 288 pages

    Genres

  • Rate this book


Book Reviewed by:
BookBrowse First Impression Reviewers
Buy This Book

About this Book

Book Summary

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?

Indie Next Pick for March 2018
LibraryReads March 2018
LitHub: The Most Anticipated Crime, Mystery, and Thriller Titles of 2018

Now

Boxing Day, December 2016

I've always delighted in the free fall between sleep and wakefulness. Those precious few semiconscious seconds before you open your eyes, when you catch yourself believing that your dreams might just be your reality. A moment of intense pleasure or pain, before your senses reboot and inform you who and where and what you are. For now, for just a second longer, I'm enjoying the self-medicated delusion that permits me to imagine that I could be anyone, I could be anywhere, I could be loved.

I sense the light behind my eyelids and my attention is drawn to the platinum band on my finger. It feels heavier than it used to, as though it is weighing me down. A sheet is pulled over my body. It smells unfamiliar and I consider the possibility that I'm in a hotel. Any memory of what I dreamt evaporates. I try to hold on, try to be someone and stay somewhere I am not, but I can't. I am only ever me and I am here, where I already know I do not wish ...

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!
  1. "Sometimes I lie." Amber lies to so many people throughout the novel—her husband, her sister, her colleagues, even herself. Do you think she always knew when she was lying? Don't we all tell lies from time to time? Is it just human nature to tweak the truth?
  2. "It took a lot of love to hate her the way I do." Amber spent over 20 years believing that Claire was keeping her safe, but does she love her? In Claire's mind, the way she isolates and controls Amber is love - she genuinely thinks she's being protective. But is it love or fear that destroys their relationship in the end?
  3. Who is the real villain of this story? Madeline? Edward? Claire? Or Amber?
  4. "I stand in front of the large range oven ...
Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Reviews

BookBrowse Review

BookBrowse

If you enjoy suspense and intrigue, this is the book for you! (Leslie W). Sometimes I Lie will creep under your skin and not let go. A must-read book of the year! (Laurie W). I will definitely suggest this for my book club as I think it will generate a lengthy discussion (Wanda T)...continued

Full Review (709 words)

This review is available to non-members for a limited time. For full access, become a member today.

(Reviewed by BookBrowse First Impression Reviewers).

Media Reviews

Entertainment Weekly
[An] insanely twisty thriller.

Kirkus Reviews
Though the novel eventually begins to sag under the weight of all its plot elements, fans of the psychological thriller will enjoy this ambitious debut.

Publishers Weekly
Feeney packs the final 60-odd pages with a series of head-spinning and, in some cases, head-scratching plot twists; the overall effect is to leave readers wondering exactly what happened—and how much of Amber’s account they can believe. Feeney is definitely a writer to watch.

Author Blurb AJ Finn, author of The Woman in the Window
Boldly plotted, tightly knotted--a provocative true-or-false thriller that deepens and darkens to its ink-black finale. Marvelous.

Author Blurb Ali Land, author of Good Me, Bad Me
Exceptional in plotting…Expect perfectly embedded twists and sharply drawn characters. A brilliant thriller.

Author Blurb B. A. Paris, New York Times bestselling author of Behind Closed Doors
A gripping debut with a brilliant twist, I LOVED it!

Author Blurb Nicholas Searle, author of international bestseller The Good Liar
Tightly plotted, superbly written, this is a thriller that grabs you and holds you in its thrall...I was led--completely willingly--in various different directions and until the final few pages I was baffled yet engrossed. And then, suddenly, at the very end, everything became clear. A brilliantly assured debut and a real achievement.

Author Blurb Richard Skinner
I read this in one compulsive gulp in one day. It's SO fiendishly clever--an absolute masterclass in plotting and narrative design.

Reader Reviews

Lin Z

So unique!
I could not stop reading this book! Amber and Claire are twin sisters who have been keeping secrets for years Those secrets control the behavior of the other sister. Amber is in a coma in the beginning of the story after a car accident and thinks ...   Read More
mary challis

Can I give this book 10 STARS!!!
Awesome, captivating book - don't pass it by !! I don't know where to start or what to say except maybe.... it is mind blowing! compelling and exciting! It keeps you going until the end. You are gasping for breath, dizzy, and in so deep you feel ...   Read More
lani

Ride of a lifetime
Phew! What a glorious fireworks explosion of twists and turns right up to the very last page. What a brilliant psychological turn of the corkscrew leaving me to think I had the plot all figured out when I couldn’t have been More. Wrong. Feeney has ...   Read More
Vicki O. (Boston, MA)

An Amazing Debut
The book didn't grab me from page 1, but Amber, the main character, intrigued me and the superb writing style kept me going. I'm certainly glad I did. "Sometimes I Lie" turned out to be a masterful thriller with a brilliant narrative that goes back...   Read More

Write your own review!

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Beyond the Book

Coma

The central character in Sometimes I Lie by Alice Feeney is a woman in a coma.

A coma is defined as a prolonged state of unconsciousness during which a patient is completely unresponsive to stimuli such as light, sound or even pain. The person appears to be asleep but cannot be awakened.

The condition is generally caused by damage to the brain, but the injury may be the result of any number of things such as trauma, oxygen deprivation, infection, stroke, chemical imbalance in the body, or drug abuse. It may come on slowly or suddenly depending on its root cause, and recovery depends on how much harm was done to the brain before treatment could begin. Some comas, such as those induced by low blood sugar (aka a diabetic coma), ...

This "beyond the book" feature is available to non-members for a limited time. Join today for full access.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Read-Alikes

Read-Alikes Full readalike results are for members only

If you liked Sometimes I Lie, try these:

  • Conviction jacket

    Conviction

    by Denise Mina

    Published 2020

    About this book

    More by this author

    The captivating, utterly unforgettable new thriller for fans of Killing Eve and The Woman in the Window: A true-crime podcast sets a housewife's present life on a collision course with her secret past.

  • The Wife Between Us jacket

    The Wife Between Us

    by Greer Hendricks, Sarah Pekkanen

    Published 2018

    About this book

    More by this author

    A novel of suspense that explores the complexities of marriage and the dangerous truths we ignore in the name of love.

We have 7 read-alikes for Sometimes I Lie, but non-members are limited to two results. To see the complete list of this book's read-alikes, you need to be a member.
More books by Alice Feeney
Search read-alikes
How we choose read-alikes

Books with similar themes


Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Support BookBrowse

Join our inner reading circle, go ad-free and get way more!

Find out more


Top Picks

  • Book Jacket: Change
    Change
    by Edouard Louis
    Édouard Louis's 2014 debut novel, The End of Eddy—an instant literary success, published ...
  • Book Jacket: Big Time
    Big Time
    by Ben H. Winters
    Big Time, the latest offering from prolific novelist and screenwriter Ben H. Winters, is as ...
  • Book Jacket: Becoming Madam Secretary
    Becoming Madam Secretary
    by Stephanie Dray
    Our First Impressions reviewers enjoyed reading about Frances Perkins, Franklin Delano Roosevelt's ...
  • Book Jacket: The Last Bloodcarver
    The Last Bloodcarver
    by Vanessa Le
    The city-state of Theumas is a gleaming metropolis of advanced technology and innovation where the ...

BookBrowse Book Club

Book Jacket
Half a Cup of Sand and Sky
by Nadine Bjursten
A poignant portrayal of a woman's quest for love and belonging amid political turmoil.

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket

    The Stone Home
    by Crystal Hana Kim

    A moving family drama and coming-of-age story revealing a dark corner of South Korean history.

  • Book Jacket

    The House on Biscayne Bay
    by Chanel Cleeton

    As death stalks a gothic mansion in Miami, the lives of two women intertwine as the past and present collide.

Win This Book
Win The Funeral Cryer

The Funeral Cryer by Wenyan Lu

Debut novelist Wenyan Lu brings us this witty yet profound story about one woman's midlife reawakening in contemporary rural China.

Enter

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

M as A H

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.