Sometimes I Lie

Research the psychology of imaginary friends. Why does Amber rely on Jo? Why does Jo leave Amber in the hospital? Is it possible that Claire does not exist?

Paul is perhaps the most complex and least understood character in the novel. Why does he buy the diary? Why does he purchase the lingerie? Do you believe his story about the fall his mother takes? How does his profession help define his character? Compare Paul and Edward—what does they reveal about Amber’s emotional make-up?

Research medical knowledge on the mental, emotional, and psychological state of a comatose patient. Provide a close reading of those sections in which the novel treats the feelings of panic, anger, and helplessness in a comatose patient. In what way has Amber been in a coma her whole life?

Using Claire, Paul, and Amber, how does the novel define love? Is there any example of healthy love?

How do you read the closing paragraph? Where does that bracelet come from? Reviewers and readers alike have puzzled over the implications of the bracelet. Does it resolve the novel or upend any pretense to explanation?

Investigate the genre of diary writing with a particular focus on Anne Frank. How does Claire’s diary parallel that famous work? Using the entry from the night Amber’s parents are killed in the housefire, explore how the novel uses the genre of diary writing ironically.

Amber admits to being a liar, an admission that raises questions about that statement itself. Investigate her motivation for telling lies. She openly admits to being an unreliable narrator. Research the literary genre of unreliable narrators and what motivates them. Does Amber fit with any of them? Unless the entire premise of the novel is dismissed as the psychotic conjuring of a deeply disturbed young woman, where exactly can you be sure that Amber lies?

Who/what is the little girl in the pink pajamas? Is she part of Amber’s recovery, her way to remember what has happened to her? Is she a memory? Is she a dream? Is she a ghost of Amber’s dead child? Is she Amber herself the night her parents died? Is she a version of an imaginary friend? Is she a comfort or a terror for Amber? In what way is Amber, like the transparent resin from which she gets her name, in which prehistoric bugs got trapped and preserved for eons—trapped in a past she did not create?