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?

Book Type:

Psychological Thriller

Review: Sometimes I Lie

A woman in a coma tries to make sense of what’s happened, as she lies trapped within herself, sure her husband is behind it. But then again, she tells us right off, sometimes, she lies.

Alice Feeney’s debut—SOMETIMES I LIE—is an ambitious, gripping psychological thriller with so many twists it will leave you reeling. The narrative is thoughtfully plotted with diaphanous threads that thicken and entwine as the novel progresses. Alternating between present and past tense, the story culminates in Amber (the woman in the coma) recalling exactly what happened with the truth far more complicated than expected. And the end—whoa.

It’s Boxing Day and Amber realizes she’s in coma, but she can’t move, can’t speak, as she drifts in and out of consciousness. Clues to what happened come from nurses and doctors, from her husband and sister, from an angry ex, and from fragmented memories she tries to coalesce.

“I can’t remember what happened to me, but I know, with unwavering certainty, that this man, my husband, had something to do with it.”

And so the journey starts, through what is happening now and in the past, through entries in a diary—events that shaped the lives of many. The fascinating thing is that even as we glean certain truths along the way, those same truths twist and turn into falsities. Nothing is certain, nothing is reliable in this tightly knotted, ever-shifting drama.

“I’m starting to question everything my mind presents to me now, trying to sift through what is real and what might be a dream.”

While a gradual-setup in thrillers can sometimes lag, this one didn’t because the journey itself, how it all unfolded, is insane and gripping itself. Super chilling too at times… I think I audibly gasped as surprises hit us hard and fast in the end.

Fans of unreliable narrator stories—the good ones—will love this book. Wickedly clever, surprising and addictive. Strap yourself in, and get ready for one heck of a ride.

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