Sometimes I Lie - Alice Feeney - 4 Stars

[Olivermagnus]

Sometimes I Lie is a claustrophobic, psychological thriller about the ways in which deep-buried secrets can come back to haunt us. It follows the life of Amber Reynolds, who begins the novel in a coma. As the narrative unravels, we travel back in time to that fateful night where everything changed.

The novel is broken into three perspectives: Amber’s thoughts while in her coma, what she remembers of the events leading up to the accident that put her in the hospital, and diary entries from 1992. Along the way you meet the various players in Amber’s life: her husband, sister, an ex-boyfriend, and work colleagues.

She cannot remember how she ended up in a coma, but she is sure her husband and her sister played a part in her condition. As the story alternates between Amber’s current state, a few days prior to what happened to get her into this state, and the diary entries, the mysteries of what happened to Amber are unraveled.

This was Alice Feeney's debut and is an excellent psychological thriller, especially if you like unreliable narrators. It does have some trigger warnings for mental illness, emotional, psychological and sexual abuse, and others. I can't say I loved it, but I was certainly intrigued by it.