Sometimes I Lie
Alice Feeney, 2017
Mystery, thriller & crime Contemporary fiction
A narrator who cannot be trusted picks apart memory, marriage and the stories we tell ourselves, in a thriller built on what is heard and what is said. A calm surface of domestic routine slowly gives way to unease, with a voice that keeps you guessing about what is remembered and what is performed.
Feels like serenity and unease. About society and ambition.
Who it’s for
You may like it if you enjoy domestic thrillers where memory and marriage are picked apart, and you don't mind a narrator whose account keeps shifting. The unreliable narration asks you to track what is said against what is remembered, so it can feel disorienting rather than relaxing.
Why read it
It gives you a tense, close look at memory and marriage, and at how much of a life is built from what people choose to say.
A page from the book
The person you meant to be, and the one you settled for.
We are all just ghosts of the people we hoped that we were and counterfeit replicas of the people we wanted to be. Alice Feeney.Before writing fiction, Alice Feeney worked as a BBC news producer for fifteen years.
Books that feel like this
More by Alice Feeney
Rock Paper Scissors
Alice Feeney, 2021
A marriage-saving weekend in the Scottish Highlands becomes a test of memory, trust and weather as a husband and wife discover how little they know each other.
Daisy Darker
Alice Feeney, 2022
A darkly funny family mystery about inheritance, old grudges, and a narrator who has already died more than once.
Where to get it
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Questions readers ask
- Is Sometimes I Lie for me?
- You may like it if you enjoy domestic thrillers where memory and marriage are picked apart, and you don't mind a narrator whose account keeps shifting. The unreliable narration asks you to track what is said against what is remembered, so it can feel disorienting rather than relaxing.
- What is Sometimes I Lie like?
- A calm surface of domestic routine slowly gives way to unease, with a voice that keeps you guessing about what is remembered and what is performed. Feels like serenity and unease. About society and ambition.
- What should I read after Sometimes I Lie?
- If you liked Sometimes I Lie, try The Divorce (Freida McFadden), The Turn of the Key (Ruth Ware) and The Last Thing He Told Me (Laura Dave).
A taste of the feed
A wedding ring is not a legal obligation. It is a finger.
Even if we’re not married anymore, it would be weird not to have it on my finger anymore. And frankly, it’s not his choice to make. It’s my finger.
The Divorce · Freida McFadden
The line works as a thesis for the epistolary thriller: the narrator’s voice is both evidence and defence.
People do go mad, you know, if you stop them from sleeping for long enough...
The Turn of the Key · Ruth Ware
How a tragedy hides inside an ordinary Tuesday.
This is the terrible thing about a tragedy. It isn’t with you every minute. You forget it, and then you remember it again.
The Last Thing He Told Me · Laura Dave
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