Sometimes I Lie by Alice Feeney

What the fuck did I just read?

Genres: Thriller, Suspense
Published: 23rd March, 2017
Series: N/A
Rating: 2

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 paralysed 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?

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There are two possibilities. I have either lost half my brain cells and turned stupid overnight (statistically speaking highly unlikely) or this bloody thing just made no sense whatsoever. It wouldn’t be the first time an author throws in just one too many plot twist for no other reason to be extra, but it doesn’t make it better.

From the first page I was hooked. I was ready to dish out five hearts because it was just that good. Then the last few chapters happened. I was dumbfounded. Confused. Mind boggled. I even spent some time on the Goodreads Q&A forum trying to untangle just what the shit happened at the end. No luck.

It was a mess, guys, I’m telling you.

The story started out with Amber in a sort of coma that just sounded all sorts of weird. She was aware of people around her, could hear them talk, but didn’t have a way to communicate, so surely something else is wrong with her, right? She had no memory of how she ended up in this unfortunate situation, but soon she started getting worried that her husband was somehow responsible for it. So, there you have it. Amber is afraid of her husband, Paul, who is in turn doesn’t trust his wife’s sister, while Amber herself is no innocent wallflower either as we soon learn.

The plot unfolded through three timelines. Presently in the hospital, from a few weeks before her misfortune and via diary entries from 1992. The whole thing was really cleverly pieced together and there was a shocking revelation around every corner, and the diary entries were chilling enough to creep me out. Add to it the fantastic narrator, and just thinking about it gives me the shivers.

Without killing it for you, you need to be aware that if you like a neat and satisfying ending, or just in fact one that makes sense, this book is not for you. Not only its ending is not neatly tied up, but there are just some things that I would even consider a plot hole. Like how a certain thing holds a meaning to a certain person, but nobody else would know what to make of it and yet it is used for a shocking conclusion. Conclusion for what though is not clear. Or how someone just makes an offhand references to something that was not mentioned before and neither is elaborated on later on so you are just left there hanging. Mind you some people actually enjoyed this, so really it is up to you.

You have been warned.

My name is Norrie. There are three things you should know about me:
1. I’m not in a coma, but bloody close to it.
2. I really liked Alice Feeney’s book.
3. Sometimes I lie.