Spoiler Discussion for Sometimes I Lie

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?

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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

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Three Timelines in Sometimes I Lie:

1. In the present (right after Christmas, 2016) Amber Reynolds is in the hospital, in a coma.
2. The week before the present
3. The early 1990s, in which the narrator’s childhood is described in diary entries.

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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.

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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.

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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?

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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.

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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.

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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?

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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.

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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!

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I want to know ALL your theories and what you think of mine. Please talk to me in the comments!