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. … 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?
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Amber Reynolds is unable to recall where she is or how she got to the hospital, but she knows she is thirty-five years old and married to Paul. As Amber lays in her hospital bed Paul waits eagerly for her to open her eyes. Amber lives within her own mind recounting past memories of her childhood while also listening to conversations taking place by her bedside.
One memory fights its way to the surface, but she doesn’t want to believe it. As she lays in the hospital bed she hears everything around her. Yet her body lies still beneath the stiff sheets.
Alice alternates the story between Amber’s paralyzed state, the week before her accident, and a series of childhood dairies from twenty years ago. In her paralyzed state Amber puts the pieces together regarding the night of the accident. While the world revolves around her she collects pieces of herself and the life she wants back. As she lies there Amber has an out of body experience where her past life collided with her present.
Amber’s helplessness offers a scary feeling. Alice leaves Amber’s character vulnerable in a hospital bed where she can only rely on her sense of listening. Alice kept Amber’s character present in her story voicing her thoughts of a woman trapped inside her own body. It was captivating to read. Honing in on Amber’s listening skills is an art form Alice accomplished well in her writing style.
As time escapes Amber, Alice creates another world where Amber travels back into her past memories. The past memories are more complex with hidden twists and turns. It was these twists that confused me leading to more questions. I’m not sure I understood the ending. I felt like I needed to talk to a support group to help sort out my thoughts.
This story has a paranormal vibe to it. As Amber’s body sleeps in bed her mind stays alert and awake taking her to places her body can’t venture to.
The entire time I’m reading about Amber’s character I’m conjuring all types of possibilities. It’s fun yet frustrating. The pieces start to reveal themselves a little at a time with Amber wanting to knit the pieces of her life back together but she doesn’t know how. It’s a tragic story with a HEA.
Personally one of the best books I’ve ever read
Loved it!! Best suspense novel I’ve read in a while!! I couldn’t wait to start reading it again each night!
This book kept me guessing until the end and even after finishing it it stayed on my mind. Amber is in a coma but can hear what is going on around her, but can’t communicate at all. The story goes back an forth between the hospital and what happened earlier in Amber’s life as she tries to remember what happened to her. But also she lets us know that sometimes she lies, so the reader doesn’t know what is real and what is a lie. An intriguing idea for me as I tried to figure out the puzzle. I’m looking forward to more great thrillers from this author.
I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher through Goodreads. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
Couldn’t put it down, had to find out what’ happened.
I didn’t care for this book. I guess mostly the back and forth of it. I never truly figured out either of the main characters and the ending left a bad taste in my mouth.
Took some interesting turns. Definitely wasn’t predictable. And although I didn’t like the three timelines at first, it all fell together in a pleasing way.
A page-turner in the truest sense…held me captive to the very end and beyond!
Five stars!! Holy crap!
I will admit that I have had this book on my bedside table and passed it over a few times because, I, in my arrogance, couldn’t imagine how the author could execute well given the subject matter. How do you lie if you’re in a coma? It made me tired to think about how she was going to pull it off so I procrastinated.
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BUT DAMN!! This book is slap yourself in the face good. Fantastic surprises, characters you love/hate and marvel over, and best of all, great twists and a brilliant ending.
The twists and changes in time and place were a bit too disorienting. I usually try to like the main character but I didn’t like her way before the ending.
Lots of twists and turns kept me reading till the end.
Another audiobook recommendation from me. The plot is seriously twisted in brilliant ways, and the narrator does an outstanding job with the different voices. It’s an audiobook that grabs your attention and doesn’t let go.
Slow start, then what a mind scrambler! The story begins with a woman in a coma, who is conscious of her surroundings but unable to move or open her eyes. The narration then switches between three timeframes. The narration is tricky, especially between Amber/Taylor and Claire. It had me questioning whether the narrator might be drifting into insanity or might be schizophrenic or delusional. Whether or not that was the intention, the narrator was a psychopath. I love an engaging psychological story. I also like a satisfying finish. This book did not have the typical “wrapped up” ending. It leaves clues that kept me reliving and re-interpreting the plot. If you love psychological puzzles that keep you thinking, this book is a must-read. It’s twisted, disjointed, puzzling and frustrating. It’s thought-provoking, original, and psychologically challenging. The ending will keep you wondering… but the journey there is a page-turner!
Very well written, creepy story that keeps you wondering who is who and what is what, but is so good you can’t put it down!!
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Stephen Fredborg’s reviewOct 04, 2019 · edit
it was amazing
bookshelves: psychological-thrillers
6 out of 5 Stars!
This one of the very best books that I’ve ever read. Period.
It might be the best psychological suspense novel I’ve ever had the pleasure to discover.
And I’ve read a LOT of thrillers!
The exceptional, mind-numbing plot is wickedly twisted. It is brilliant.
With relentless, head-spinning twists I really, truly never saw coming, it’s a masterpiece of misdirection and misconception.
Just when I thought I figured out where the story was going….I didn’t.
It had me second, third and fourth-guessing myself.
It is so compelling that even if I wanted to stop (I didn’t), I had to keep reading because I HAD TO KNOW!
This tale has deep psychological import.
These people have problems. They are screwed-up. Understatement!
The ending will hang with me a long time.
I’m still shaking my head.
I loved every word of it.
I will read it again.
The crazy fun part of this book is trying to determine fact or fiction. Just as soon as I thought I knew what was what….BLAM….another unexpected twist. Each twist made me think back to past events with a constant look on my face. Very good book.
“A lot of people think I have a dream job, but nightmares are dreams too.”
Wow, wow, wow! ‘Sometimes I lie’ is an intense, dark thriller that just takes you down a rabbit hole of confusion, despair, secrets, and amazing twists! Just when you think you figured this book out, it hits again.
The book is told from the perspective of Amber who is in a coma and cannot respond. She is trying to figure out what happened to her and the secrets her loved ones are keeping, especially her husband and sister. The book then flashes back to the week before Amber was in a coma as well as Diary entries from childhood.
The book is packed with all sorts of amazing, jaw-dropping twists and turns. The one took me a while to wrap my head around….because it fooled me entirely! I love that this book is good, but just keeps getting better and better as you learn that nothing is what you thought it was.
This book, overall, is about family loyalty, the bond of sisters, and how secrets can tear us apart. I thought the first person perspective from someone in a coma was eerie in its own right. The book definitely gets darker as you read, so be prepared. I also thought that the main character had a strong, clear voice and development.
This book really blew my mind. I will be looking for more books from Alice Feeney, for sure.
I wanted a page-turner, and I found one!
When I began reading “Sometimes I Lie” I must admit, I was a tad cynical. It felt like a suspense that I’d read before, and I expected that it would contain cliches and perhaps ‘twists’ that more often made me roll my eyes…
But this was outstanding! The plot is absolutely amazing and the central characters deeply empathetic. It’s partly narrated by a woman in a coma, and partially by a diary, with plenty of flashbacks that are carefully linked. The construction and balancing of the narrative is done amazingly well.
I don’t want to add more because I am so wary of spoilers. I was along for the wild ride and I recommend you read it, too. This novel is especially for those times you need to escape – and for those of you who love to hold your breath.
Well written but a little farfetched. The plot toward the end was a little difficult to follow. Despite that, I finished Sometimes I Lie and enjoyed it.
In the description of this book, Amber is in a coma, her husband doesn’t love her and sometimes she lies. Amber believes that her husband has something to do with her being in the hospital. I started out reading this book and I really didn’t like it. I didn’t like Amber, I didn’t like her sister Claire. I hated their parents. The only two people I liked were Matthew, her producer and Jo, her best friend. Neither of these characters had big parts. Then about half way through, this book turned around. I still didn’t like the characters, but more was happening and it held my interest.
This book is written in 3 different timelines. The first is the childhood diary, written between 1991 – 1992. This gives enough of the background, as the story goes on, to understand the writers childhood, her fears, her anger and her hurt. The 2nd timeline is December 2016 – 1 week before the accident. As this unfolds, we can see what the events were leading up to the accident. Then the 3rd and final timeline starts the day Amber realizes she is in a coma. She can hear things, she can feel things but she cannot communicate. She has dreams, she has memories, she has fears.
A few readers have questioned if they has missed the “twist”. There seem to be a few twists in this storyline. NO SPOILERS – the biggest one for me happens when the diaries are discovered by Paul, (Amber’s husband). I had to re-read that section a few times to grasp what was really happening. The very end seemed to be left open. A bit of a cliffhanger perhaps.
I found myself wondering, “where are the lies?”. I also wondered why she appeared to have OCD, that didn’t seem to be addressed. There were parts of the story that seemed unfinished or I had forgotten about them until I got close to the end, THEN they were all answered. Overall – 4*s since I found myself hating the characters, I had a hard time getting into the story. But I am glad that I stuck with it.