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Summary and Reviews of Sometimes I Lie by Alice Feeney

Sometimes I Lie by Alice Feeney

Sometimes I Lie

by Alice Feeney
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  • First Published:
  • Mar 13, 2018, 272 pages
  • Paperback:
  • Oct 2018, 288 pages
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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 ...
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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 Members Only (709 words)

(Reviewed by First Impressions 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

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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), ...

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Read-Alikes

Read-Alikes Full readalike results are for members only

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Who Said...

Sometimes I think we're alone. Sometimes I think we're not. In either case, the thought is staggering.

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