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Sometimes I Lie by Alice Feeney
Apr. 12th, 2017 11:30 pmThe Blurb On The Back:
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.
( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )
The Verdict:
Alice Feeney’s debut psychological thriller has a strong premise that grabbed my attention for the first third but then the plot jumps the shark so many times that it really spoilt my enjoyment, not least because while Amber is an admitted liar, some of the plot twists rely on her holding back critical information and the supposedly open ending makes no sense in the context of earlier events. This is a shame because there’s a lot to enjoy in the early part of the book – Amber’s relationship with Paul and especially Claire (which has a number of layers and is layered with danger and hidden meanings) is intriguing, as is Amber’s OCD tendencies and the way she keeps things about herself hidden and I did genuinely want to know what had happened to her on Christmas Day. However, the introduction of a stalker (who struggles to even be two-dimensional on the page, he’s that poorly characterised) exists only to add to the sense of Amber being a victim and is unpleasant to read and the diary extracts worked to slow the pace (while the twist was too easy to guess). In defence of Feeney, Amber admits to being a liar at the outset and I am not against unreliable narrators, but Amber doesn’t earn the twists and revelations that come out and that’s a big problem because it meant that I felt cheated and that’s not helped by the ridiculously overblown ending (both literally and metaphorically), which had me rolling my eyes. Ultimately, I’m not sure that I’d rush to read Feeney’s next book on the basis of this, but I wouldn’t automatically discount it either.
SOMETIMES I LIE was released in the United Kingdom on 23rd March 2017. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.
1. I’m in a coma.
2. My husband doesn’t love me anymore.
3. Sometimes I lie.
( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )
The Verdict:
Alice Feeney’s debut psychological thriller has a strong premise that grabbed my attention for the first third but then the plot jumps the shark so many times that it really spoilt my enjoyment, not least because while Amber is an admitted liar, some of the plot twists rely on her holding back critical information and the supposedly open ending makes no sense in the context of earlier events. This is a shame because there’s a lot to enjoy in the early part of the book – Amber’s relationship with Paul and especially Claire (which has a number of layers and is layered with danger and hidden meanings) is intriguing, as is Amber’s OCD tendencies and the way she keeps things about herself hidden and I did genuinely want to know what had happened to her on Christmas Day. However, the introduction of a stalker (who struggles to even be two-dimensional on the page, he’s that poorly characterised) exists only to add to the sense of Amber being a victim and is unpleasant to read and the diary extracts worked to slow the pace (while the twist was too easy to guess). In defence of Feeney, Amber admits to being a liar at the outset and I am not against unreliable narrators, but Amber doesn’t earn the twists and revelations that come out and that’s a big problem because it meant that I felt cheated and that’s not helped by the ridiculously overblown ending (both literally and metaphorically), which had me rolling my eyes. Ultimately, I’m not sure that I’d rush to read Feeney’s next book on the basis of this, but I wouldn’t automatically discount it either.
SOMETIMES I LIE was released in the United Kingdom on 23rd March 2017. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.
