-
See Our Best Book
Club Books of 2026!
Summary | Excerpt | Reading Guide | Reviews | Beyond the book | Read-Alikes | Genres & Themes | Author Bio
Book Reviewed by: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 ...
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
(709 words)
(Reviewed by First Impressions Reviewers).
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. Ali Land, author of Good Me, Bad Me
Exceptional in plotting…Expect perfectly embedded twists and sharply drawn characters. A brilliant thriller. B. A. Paris, New York Times bestselling author of Behind Closed Doors
A gripping debut with a brilliant twist, I LOVED it! 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. 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.
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), ...
If you liked Sometimes I Lie, try these:
by Denise Mina
Published 2020
The captivating, utterly unforgettable new thriller for fans of Killing Eve and The Woman in the Window: A true-crime podcast sets a housewife's present life on a collision course with her secret past.
by Greer Hendricks, Sarah Pekkanen
Published 2018
A novel of suspense that explores the complexities of marriage and the dangerous truths we ignore in the name of love.
The Sister's Curse
by Nicola Solvinic
The Lost Story of Eva Fuentes
by Chanel Cleeton
The Vanishing Place
by Zoë Rankin
 (1).gif)
The secret of freedom lies in educating people, whereas the secret of tyranny is in keeping them ignorant
Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!
Can you name the title?
Test your book knowledge with our daily trivia challenge!
