Jai Val answers “I have read this book and re-read it...”

Amy asked this question about Sometimes I Lie:

I have read this book and re-read it twice, am i missing the big twist at the end? I don't understand the ending at all or seem to be picking up on this shocking twist everybody is talking about. Its driving me crazy! Can anybody shed some light?

Jai Val I found Paul to be rather untrustworthy throughout the novel… as well as Amber/Taylor. At times I thought Paul & Edward were either the same person (s…moreI found Paul to be rather untrustworthy throughout the novel… as well as Amber/Taylor. At times I thought Paul & Edward were either the same person (split personality or a twisted game between him and Amber/Taylor) or Edward was entirely made up like Jo was. Edward seemed sudden and extreme and surreal (more of a caricature of an abusive stalker than an actual return-ex of hers). I lean towards her imagining him coming into (or back into) her life as a means of her coping with the idea of her husband and Claire having an affair. She lied about her fictitious friend Jo being a real coworker at a job and position (never a cohost always a PA) that she also lied about (to us as readers and perhaps also Paul?). If she went out for drinks and conversed with Imaginary Jo in public settings… couldn’t she have also done this with “Edward”? She was likely dramatizing her life. She admitted to fabricating part of her “Then” storyline (Jo & her position) which makes her incredibly unreliable for anything & everything. I think she wrote the diaries… and is a liar. I also have a hard time believing Madeleine was Claire’s Aunt… why would she or anyone live in an inherited house that was supposedly set fire to by Claire to kill those parents? Those parents being Amber/Taylor’s in my mind… I think Claire was real and we were deceived into thinking she was controlling rather than protective of Amber/Taylor. I do think her and Paul were likely having an affair… and as for the bracelet, I do not think there is an evil Claire still alive stalking her. Or that Edward was ever real. I am most suspicious of Amber (losing time in her timelines… long shower when Paul said short… countless revealed lies/alternate realities/murders…). Maybe she imagined the bracelet? Or thought the shiny champagne wrapping was the bracelet? Paul was acting super sketchy in the final scene too which is throwing me off the most (or else she was acting paranoid and dramatizing everything). I am still pondering Paul’s role in this novel… (less)

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