Sometimes I Lie By Alice Feeney

If you enjoy psychological thrillers like Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train, you will be swept up in the pulsating, twisty tale Sometimes I Lie by Alice Feeney. This debut by Alice Feeney held me totally engrossed from the first page till the last. It contains complex twists and turns and I was truly confused at times and had to go back and re-read some earlier parts of the book to grasp what was unfolding.

Sometimes I lie by Alice Feeney

Sometimes I lie by Alice Feeney

The first page of the novel is just this short passage:

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 Reynolds is in a hospital seemingly in a coma. Her eyes are closed and she is unable to speak or move. But she can hear the people around her but they are unaware of it. The narrative switches from the “Now” in the hospital room, to a “Then” leading up to what happened, and to childhood diaries from decades ago.

What caused her coma is only revealed towards the end of the book. Her mind is fuzzy about how she ended up in the hospital. Her confession “Sometimes I Lie” makes the reader suspicious as to whether to believe her or not. It’s a story so complicated that even after the truth is exposed, it will take a while to get it straight in your head.

Amber struggles to piece together what happened to her and whether it has anything to do with Paul, her husband (whom the police suspect), or Claire, the younger sister whom she fears is having an affair with Paul, or Edward, her ex-boyfriend who has been stalking her.

As memories flood back to Amber, they hit like a hailstorm in the last quarter of the book. Head-spinning twists involving blackmail, forgery, rape, murder, poisoning and arson leave me speechless, wondering exactly what happened—and how much of Amber’s account is true or just fabrications. If you manage to figure out all the twists and turns, you are truly an astute reader.

The appearance of the bracelet right on the last page of the book leads the reader to a plethora of interpretations, which is deliciously devious! I suspect it may be a clue that there will be a sequel.

This is a thriller that I enjoy immensely!