I’m an Alice Feeney fan and this is one of her most twisty (and confusing) books. Let’s talk about the characters, the twists and the ending of Sometimes I Lie in this Spoiler Discussion for Sometimes I Lie by Alice Feeney!
Spoiler Discussion for Sometimes I Lie by Alice Feeney
Table of Contents
- Characters in Sometimes I Lie by Alice Feeney
- Plot Summary for Sometimes I Lie
- Questions About Sometimes I Lie:
- Who is the Villain? Amber, Claire or both?
- Is Claire Real?
- Who Crashed the Car?
- Who Wrote the Diaries?
Characters in Sometimes I Lie by Alice Feeney
- Amber Reynolds: woman in a coma after an accident
- Claire: Amber’s (adopted) sister
- Paul: Amber’s husband
- Jo – co-worker of Amber’s at the radio station
- Matthew: another co-worker of Amber’s
- Madeline Frost – radio personality whose show Amber works on
- Edward: ex-boyfriend of Amber
- Katie and James: twins of David and Claire
- David: Claire’s husband
Three Timelines in Sometimes I Lie:
- In the present (right after Christmas, 2016) Amber Reynolds is in the hospital, in a coma.
- The week before the present
- The early 1990s, in which the narrator’s childhood is described in diary entries.
Amber Reynolds is lying in the hospital in a coma. She frequently gives the reader lists of three statements, of which at least one seems to a lie. The first of these: I’m in a coma. My husband doesn’t love me anymore. Sometimes I lie.
Is Amber an unreliable narrator? Can we trust anything she says? Or is she lying about being a liar? Let’s try to figure it out!
At first Amber seems sympathetic. In the present, she’s in a coma after a car accident. In the past, she feels like her marriage has lost its spark. The woman she works for, radio personality Madeline Frost, is a bit of a bully and wants Amber fired. Amber’s sister Claire seems annoyingly perfect.
Amber also seems to have had a tough childhood. A journal describes the narrator’s envy of her school friend, Taylor, who had an ideal life. In contrast, the narrator’s childhood seems more troubled, being bullied at school and having few friends.
Amber also has an ex-boyfriend, Edward, whom she ghosted. She runs into him, which rattles her.
Plot Summary for Sometimes I Lie
This book is not very linear, so I will try to summarize the best I can. Join our discussion!
Main Events in the week before the accident
Amber thinks her husband Paul might be having an affair, as she finds a gift bag with lingerie in it. She notices that Paul seems very chummy with her sister Claire and wonders if the affair is with her.
Also, Amber starts a campaign to discredit her boss Madeline, so that Amber won’t get fired. This includes writing her threatening letters.
After running into her ex-boyfriend Edward, Amber agrees to have dinner with him. Amber wakes up in Edward’s apartment, suspicious that he has drugged and sexually assaulted her.
Amber learns that Edward’s medical career was derailed by accusations made about his behavior, accusations supposedly made by Claire, who pretended she was Amber.
Amber learns she is pregnant.
On Christmas Day during an argument with Claire, Amber starts bleeding and Claire offers to drive her to the hospital. This seems to be when they have the accident that sends Amber to the hospital. Claire, not wanting to get in trouble for the accident, leaves Amber at the site and flees.
Paul mentions that he found some of Amber’s diaries at his parents’ house and suggests they read them. Amber says that the diaries aren’t hers: they are Claire’s. Well, then! Is this true?
Main Events while Amber is in the hospital
Amber suggests that her parents died in a bus crash in Italy, yet they show up at the hospital. Are they really there, or is she imagining it?
We learn that Amber was also pregnant at the time of the accident and lost the baby.
Amber also believes that Edward, using his access as a hospital porter, sneaks into her room and sexually assaults her again.
Paul seems to know about this as he installed cameras in her hospital room. The doctors are discussing turning off her life support and Paul wants to prove that she is moving independently.
Amber wakes up.
Main Events in the 1990s Journal
The narrator (the one Amber claims is Claire) has only one friend, Taylor (which is Amber’s last name.) They were born on the same day in the same hospital.
The narrator frequently gets into trouble at school.
On visiting Taylor, the narrator finds a bracelet with their birthday engraved on it. She steals the bracelet. Then her mother calls Taylor’s parents to complain about the expensive bracelet that they gave her daughter, and learns that she actually stole the bracelet.
The narrator and her mom argue, which turns into a physical fight. The mother falls (or is pushed) down the stairs, causing her to lose the baby she is pregnant with.
The narrator sets a fire that kills both her parents and she is adopted by Taylor’s parents.
Main Events after Amber leaves the hospital
Paul, who was a struggling writer, tells Amber that his latest novel has been bought by a publisher for a large sum of money.
Amber offers to make Claire and David a Valentine’s Day dinner but drugs their food with “the bag of drugs from the hospital.” Amber creeps back to their house to check on them, finding David dead and Claire immobilized. Amber sets their house on fire, framing her ex-boss Madeline for the murders.
Amber and Paul are adopting Claire and David’s twins.
On holiday with Paul and the twins, Amber comes into the hotel room to find Paul on the phone. Then someone delivers a gift to the room: the bracelet with her birthday engraved on it.
Spoiler Discussion for Sometimes I Lie by Alice Feeney
Boy, do I have a lot of questions and I want to know what you think. Feeney packs her books with tiny clues and I’m sure I missed some. Please talk to me in comments!
Who is the villain: Amber or Claire, or are they both?
Amber tells us that she lies and everything we know is filtered through her point of view. So one possibility is that she is the liar, and possibly that some of her lies are things that never happened.
Amber admits to sabotaging Madeline, and to murdering Claire and David and framing Claire for that.
BUT Amber claims that Claire said she framed Edward, and she thinks Claire murdered Edward.
It seems like Amber invented “Jo,” an imaginary co-worker who is described as “wearing jeans and a top, like she’s stuck in the 90s” and “someone who likes to write everything down,” like someone who keeps a diary? Is anyone else getting Daisy Darker vibes?
Theory One: Claire does not exist
Okay, I’m going to start with the most controversial theory about this book. Is there a case that Claire, like Jo, could be imaginary, or (in a related theory I’ll discuss below) an alter ego (as in Dissociative Identity Disorder) of Amber?
- The diary narrator (who Amber says is Claire) claims she and Amber have the same birthday. They are “two peas in a pod” who even look alike, though Claire bleaches her hair blond.
- Amber says she remembers her parents bringing Claire home from the hospital. Maybe Amber had a sister named Claire who died in the fire that killed her parents and she imagines Claire as still alive.
- Like Jo, Amber says that Claire “still dresses as though we were young.” Amber also says that Claire doesn’t use email or social media.
Theory 2: Amber Thinks She is Claire OR Claire is Amber’s Alter Ego
I think there is a legit case to be made for the idea that Amber has some sort of mental illness, and possibly dissociative identity disorder (multiple personalities).
Perhaps Amber (either on purpose or by accident) started a fire that killed her parents and sister, Claire. Then she imagines Claire is still alive.
One of Amber’s alter egos might be Taylor, the perfect child version of herself with the perfect family. Claire is the perfect adult version of Amber: thinner, prettier, and has the children Amber says she wants.
Counterevidence of this:
In a comment on another post, someone argued:
“Madeline Frost being investigated is huge. if Amber was Claire, there would not even be an investigation, which proves Claire was real. But another thing that proves it is Nana. Amber made it her mission to get revenge on Madeline for Claire. if Claire and amber were the same person, why would amber even care?
Clue: Amber’s greatest fear is being replaced
- She pushes (or feels responsible for pushing) her pregnant mother down the stairs.
- When Madeline wants to replace her, she flips out and takes Madeline down. (Using letters, just like Claire supposedly wrote about Edward.)
- She’s obsessed with the idea that Paul is cheating on her. Paul then tells her he sold his book and will have to go to the U.S. for several months (presumably without her.)
It’s also possible that she suffered dissociative disorder as a result of trauma
In childhood: the bullying, her mother’s accident, and the (possible) deaths of her parents and sister. It’s still unclear if anyone’s parents actually died. She could have imagined them visiting in the hospital.
In adulthood: something to do with Edward could have caused her trauma. I’m also not sure if Edward (or at least the version of Edward in this story) is real either. When she first runs into him in the cafe, she says he “hasn’t aged.” I’m wondering if he did assault her back then, and that running into him again triggered some sort of psychotic break in which she remembers all her past trauma (the bullying at school, her assault by Edward, her parents’ deaths.)
Then Who Crashed the Car?
Maybe Amber did that herself, with her imaginary friend (or alter ego) Claire with her. The girl in the pink dressing gown was presumably Amber as a child, as her parents bought her that gown.
And Who Wrote the Diaries?
Could Amber have written them as her alter ego, Claire?
Any other imaginary characters?
I think Paul does exist.
Does Madeline? She is apparently on trial for murder, unless Amber is imagining that.
If Claire doesn’t exist, then I don’t think think David or the twins do. They are supposed to be two years old and in the last chapter, they are supposedly playing out on the beach with no one watching them. Amber is asleep and Paul is in the room on the phone.
Theory Two: Claire is evil and Amber is just trying to contain her
This is the theory I think most people believe. That Claire is a psychopathic “bad seed” who latched onto Amber Taylor “Taylor” when they were kids and never let her go.
- Claire’s goal is to Single White Female Amber’s life.
- She ruined Amber’s relationship with Edward by making false accusation toward him.
- Claire convinced Amber that they needed to punish Madeline for stealing Nana’s house.
When Claire found out that Paul read her diaries, and that Amber was pregnant and didn’t tell her, she crashed the car. But why not kill Paul?
After recovering from the accident, Amber tried to free herself from Claire by killing Claire and David (in the same manner that Claire killed her own parents) and framing Madeline for their murders.
She and Paul adopt the twins and Amber thinks she’s finally free and given Paul the family he wants. But Claire (somehow) survived the fire and then dropped the bracelet off at Amber’s hotel room to taunt her. When one of the twins says “Mummy,” its because they saw Claire lurking around the hotel.
And who was Paul on the phone with in the hotel? Was it Claire?
Things I can’t explain with either theory
Are Amber’s parents dead or alive? She says they died in Italy, but then she also thought they showed up at the hospital? Is that a hallucination/effects of the accident?
Does Madeline not recognize Amber when she comes to work for her? It’s possible that Madeline hasn’t seen Amber in a long time.
Theory Three: Sometimes I Lie is Paul’s book, inspired by Amber’s diary
Is this theory too crazy? Maybe, but hear me out.
Paul was struggling as an author. Amber suggests he did find the diaries and possibly read them. Maybe he adapted them into a book. Right before Christmas, he tells Amber he sold his book at auction for a lot of money.
There’s no statute of limitations on murder in the UK. When she found out that Paul read the diaries and had written a book, Amber had to tie up all her loose ends and cover her tracks by murdering Madeline and Claire before the book came out, then burning the diaries. If Claire (and Madeline) even exist!
I want to know ALL your theories and what you think of mine. Please talk to me in the comments!
This book made me angry and irritated. Too much going on and hard to follow
I’m sorry you didn’t enjoy it! There was a lot there..
Im a bit confused in the story when I thought it suggested that Ambers mother fell and had a miscarriage and her dad saying they removed something in her belly so she wouldn’t have another sibling. Wouldn’t that mean Claire never was born? Idk if I missed something or got lost along the way but I do think Claire is imaginative and the “perfect daughter” they wished they had or that amber thinks they wished they had.
I must have missed that. But I am glad for more evidence that Claire could be imaginary!
“Amber” never had a biological sister … “Amber” is actually Claire, who kills her own parents & becomes part of Taylor’s (the real Amber) family, so the same aged friends become “sisters” at that point. There is never any reference in the 1990s diaries to a biological sister. At least, that is how I interpreted it.
They explain that Clair is adopted.
So I read this book twice. The second time, I read it by time grouping, THEN first, NOW second, then AFTER and finally BEFORE. The confusion I felt in the first reading were completely eliminated when reading the book in a proper time progression.
Amber Taylor is one person who went by Taylor as a girl and changed her name to Amber when she got married. Claire is her poor friend who wrote the diaries and lit parents house on fire. Amber eventually kills David and Claire to “free” herself from Claire’s hold on her. Madeline is Claire’s Godmother and she convinces Amber to take revenge on her (Claire had total control over Amber and is crazy) and yes Amber has OCD. I am finally at peace with the book. It haunted me until I read it in the way as described above. That was what caused the confusion in characters.
Hi Jill! That is kind of genius and makes me want to try it.
So you are convinced that Claire does really exist, but that Claire is not Amber’s sister. When Amber said she remembered her parents bringing Claire home from the hospital, that was not when Claire was born? Was she injured in the fire? I may have to put this on my re-read list for the winter…
Hey! Yes, I believe the reference to them bringing Claire home from the hospital was about the house fire. Undoubtedly, they would’ve had to take her to get checked out, and when she was booked, they decided to become her guardian. Throughout the journals, Claire keeps referencing that sometimes she lies; I suspect that the title comes from Claire lying and not Amber. Claire manipulated Taylor/Amber’s parents by acting extremely scared of her parents. Refer to the chapter where Claire was suspended from school for protecting Taylor/Amber to back this idea. This manipulation landed her a spot in her dream home.
For anyone confused about Amber/Taylor’s name, in one of the first diaries, Claire said she met a friend who went by her surname, which she thought was funny… so I believe they both exist.
When Amber is in a coma, she has a hatred for Claire, and in the part where Claire wishes her parents were there, Amber says something like, “She wishes that for herself and not for me.” I think it’s because Claire is trying to steal her life and has always been trying to steal it. She finally caught on to it and is angry that Claire has claimed her parents for herself when, in reality, they weren’t ever really hers.
Claire is obsessive and compulsive, and Amber Taylor is OCD.
Thanks for all this, Jordyn!
I swear this book is my Roman Empire. I have a mystery book brain and gaslighting books are a struggle for me. I think I may have to read it one more time! I think it’s my favorite of her books but the most slippery. I’m sort of sad that the sequel never materialized.
I am just working through Alice Feeney ‘s books and I am confused with ‘ ‘Sometimes I Lie.’ Ive seen theories that Amber and Claire are one person and the book is about mental illness. Otherwise it’s about a woman, who, when she was at school, became friends with a needy troubled girl called Claire. Claire wanted to be part of Amber Taylor’s family and to that end, she killed her own parents so she could be part of Taylor’s family. Which theory is right and is it Amber or Claire who sometimes lies.
Just finished the book and glad to see this recent discussion 🙂 I enjoyed it, but my gut instinct is that Claire is real, otherwise it feels like there are too many interactions that Amber would be imagining. It’s easy to understand Paul not realizing that Jo was imaginary, but I can’t see Claire being imaginary unless Paul is too, which is taking it too far. Amber would have mentioned Claire and David and the twins often, so how could they be fake? Wouldn’t Paul realize she’s crazy? Who would Madeline be on trial for killing? Whose house did they have Christmas dinner at? It’s just too far fetched for me, if Claire is imaginary then I think the entire story took place inside Amber’s head lol.
Two things are bothering me though. First is who the heck dropped off the bracelet?? Uggh I think that’s my least favorite part of the book, it just doesn’t make sense to me. Second is that Amber’s last letter to Madeline was signed “Claire” to finalize the frame up. But unless this happened after the coma, she’d have no reason to be framing Claire at that point. The way it was described made it seem like it happened before the coma but maybe I’m misremembering it. If I’m right, then I think it’s more likely just an oversight by the author than a clue, but who knows? Not a rhetorical question, does anyone know?? Lol it was my first book by the author but I think I’ll check out some more, at least it’s intriguing!
Hi Sam and thanks so much for weighing in. You have a point about my admittedly wacky Claire theory. I mean, I do feel like it’s within the realm of possibility that the whole thing takes place inside Amber’s head, like that whole season of Dallas…
The bracelet is something I never figured out.
But welcome to the very perplexing books of Alice Feeney. You can read them in order or check out my post on all of them and what I thought. I have spoiler discussions for all except the second.
I think Madeline dropped off the bracelet to haunt her for framing her for the murders
I am still so confused about many aspects of this book and have went through many of these scenarios with none seeming to fit without them having plot holes!!!
Amber having signed the letter from Claire before the coma though… To me when I got to that part I had thought that was us being told that actually Amber had been planning that all along (and it wasn’t triggered by the diaries being found etc) and it made me think her and Claire had shared some traits actually when up until then it had been painted the other way!
I just finished the book and agree it was confusing, especially when the unreliable narrator of the childhood diaries turned out to to be psychopath Amber/Claire not depressed Amber/Taylor, although a big clue there was that in the past (1990s) childhood narration, Amber was always an only child and her younger “sister” Claire was never mentioned at all.
It was still difficult to reconcile the two young same aged “peas in a pod” female friends of the past to the different aged “sisters” of the present. When we find out VERY late in the book that Claire told Taylor’s parents – who essentially adopted her (after more manipulation from Claire) after she burned her late nana’s house to the ground with her parents inside – that the fire that killed her own biological parents was set by Taylor, that must have been when Taylor’s “normal” biological parents “turned” on her, essentially shunning her and choosing to believe and favor Claire over their own daughter (before they died in the Italy crash) which seems extremely far fetched considering Taylor’s mom had been portrayed as such a kind and loving mother who knew how dysfunctional Claire’s family was.
Equally perplexing was how, by the end of the book, Amber/Taylor has now been associated directly with not one but two mysterious house burnings that killed her own family members, and yet everyone is just going to believe that Madeline committed the arson/murders when the twins were conveniently at the Reynolds’ house, the way that Amber/Taylor framed it, even pre meditating it before the accident/coma? And the authorities have no problem letting Amber and Paul adopt Claire’s kids and leave the country during Madeline’s trial?
Wouldn’t Amber have to testify or be detained pending further evidence? And is Paul so oblivious to everything going on with his own wife? Lastly, we are made to believe that Claire will do ANYthing to protect Taylor/Amber, so for her to crash Paul’s car deliberately & violently leaving the scene on christmas night abandoning her pregnant “sister” presumably dead seems out of character for her.
One more point of confusion amid many … Paul didn’t seem very upset about the whole creepy rapey Edward situation, even after presumably witnessing Edward sexually assaulting and attempting to murder his wife in the hospital on the camera he set up. We are led to believe that Claire (?) murdered Edward in his tanning bed (?) but what happened to the rest of his dead body beyond the charred bits of flesh the authorities found?
Lisa!
Thanks so much for this very extensive comment which I broke into paragraphs to make it easier to read. I need to go over it a few more times and then go back and compare it to what I thought.
It’s a very confusing book but I still did enjoy it! Really appreciate you sharing your take because it was a LOT to take in.
She acknowledges on page 104-105 that her parents are dead and that them visiting her is a dream. “The dead are not so far away when you really need them…”
Thanks, Laurel!
I’m on Team Theory 2!
Also, I think Claire didn’t end up dying and she left the bracelet. The tv screen said “Madeline Frost’s Murder Trial Begins,” but maybe only David died? I don’t see how Madeline would have the bracelet in order to leave it on the tray, unless I missed something? But I guess Edward could have had the bracelet because didn’t he see it at the hospital one time? I still hope it’s from Claire because that’s the version that creeps me out the most!
Thanks for this post and all the comments for helping me understand! Glad I’m not the only one confused!
Oooh interesting. That would explain the bracelet. Claire does seem too wily to be taken by surprise.
It’s such a frustrating book! Thanks so much for taking the time to share your opinion!
I think the appearance of the bracelet is a lie. It messed up everything else the story.
I think that Amber’s OCD (and being odd in general) is what made her a target for bullying. Claire was jealous of her family life.
I think that after Claire came to live with the Taylors, she manipulated the parents into ultimately caring more for her than Amber. Amber’s mental illness probably took a toll on them and Claire just acted so perfect. I don’t really understand them leaving their house to Claire and not Amber but maybe they didn’t think she could take care of herself and they thought they could count on Claire to look after her. (Both Claire and Amber are manipulative killers in the end.)
But, I have no idea about the bracelet…which makes me question everything I just said. Lol
That makes sense. Thought I agree with you that the parents’ behavior was a little odd. I can’t imagine favoring some random girl over my own child.
And the bracelet! I felt I could barely figure out the book and then that bracelet….
Yes! The mum’s random change of behavior I couldn’t understand and did think really contradictory! I’m sure Amber said a few times she doesn’t like drinking because her parents did. Also thought it was weird that both sets of parents dead (know Claire’s the through fire) but was there ever an explanation regarding Ambers parents. Really confused 🤔
This is one of the most confusing books I have ever read but I still liked it!
Fon the subject of house being left to Clair. Toward the end, Amber says “The house we grew up in”
Ummm didn’t it burn down?
It was Claire’s House which burned down. Both grew up in Amber’s house. Amber’s parents left their house for CLaire and Madeline was living in Claire’s house which burned down and refurbished later.
Thanks so much!
What I didn’t understand is if amber framed Madeline and killed or attempted to kill claire wouldn’t amber know claire is alive? Are we to believe Amber’s somewhere in a coma?