Reviews with content warning for Toxic friendship - Sometimes I Lie

Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

Sometimes I Lie by Alice Feeney

55 reviews

aselin's review

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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magellen's review

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dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

While the plot is twisty and really takes flight at about 75%, you spend most of the book bludgeoned by the phrase 'let herself go' or some adjacent negative assessment regarding every single woman in the book. Seriously it is exhausting, it rises in most chapters, whether it's a pov talking about herself, or her mother, or a coworker, just an endless loop of hate that doesn't add anything and makes the book feel particularly dated.

The book is a great example of unreliable narration but is likewise tedious in stretches where the mc walks forward and backwards through her thoughts with zero self trust and yes, toxic relationships do instill distrust in one's self, but it just feels like bloat in the narrative when it doesn't stop. Likewise it breaks your trust in all the narratives, breaks the momentum the book has built and becomes a muddle halfway thru. Intentionally done and layered as it is it mostly works but I feel like I only began enjoying the book in the last quarter and prior to that it was simply 'welcome to untreated paranoia'.

Matters did hit a hat on a hat level as the book progressed. An antagonist born of the antagonist born of the protagonist. Yes Edward is a successful red herring but god what a loose thread that could have not been in the book at all except for sexual violence. While I'm pleased for the mc cleaning up her psycho sister in the end (gotta think with your head and not your fists, well done taylor) the bracelet reemerging had me rolling my eyes. Just close it out, jesus christ.

Every character is unlikable, no one ever has an honest conversation and yes sure Sometimes I lie, but the inconsistency and internalized body judgement gets in the way of it being a truly satisfying read.

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ekmook's review

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dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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geraldinerowe's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

A cleverly-woven thriller where you're told from the beginning that you're dealing with an unreliable narrator. As with most stories of this type there's an element of having to suspend your disbelief over convenient coincidences and relying on characters to behave in a particular way, but nevertheless you'll be trying to guess what's really going on from the very first page. I'm not sure it entirely holds together if you analyse it closely, but you'll have to decide yourself if that really matters.

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cherrypiejay's review

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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oliverreeds's review

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challenging dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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savvyrosereads's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Rating: 3/5 stars

Amber Reynolds is in a coma, but she can hear everything going on around her—she just can’t remember how she got there, or figure out how to wake up.

This one was…not for me. In fairness, a plot where the main character is in a coma for 30% of the chapters is naturally going to feel a bit slow, but none of the timelines were particularly entertaining to me. I also had a lot of issues with the plot itself, which I won’t discuss here because spoilers.

As for what I did like—there are some beautiful quotes and the writing is really sophisticated. I also really like a twisty psychological plot, so even though the details of this one weren’t for me, the idea behind it all was fun. And, as always, it was so fun to buddy read with some of my faves!

Recommended if you like: cerebral psychological thrillers; multiple timelines; domestic-ish thrillers

CW (mild spoilers!!!): Sexual assault/rape; infertility/miscarriage/pregnancy loss; cancer/grief/death of loved one/death of parents; OCD/mental illness.

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