Unreliable Narrators: Do It For The Plot
This list was inspired by the reading prompt: Read a book with an unreliable narrator in the Playing Card Reading Challenge (3 of Spades). Get actively engaged in the story, experience the tension, the little “Aha!” moments. Unreliable narrators often allow us to delve deeper into the nuances of a complex and layered theme. Or, maybe you just like a good plot twist?!
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What is an unreliable narrator?
The narrator of a story can be called unreliable if their perception of events differs from objective reality. This can be because they don’t understand, don’t know, or deny that something happens, so they distort reality. Or perhaps they are willfully deceiving the reader.
Here are a few well known unreliable narrators, to get you started:
Chuck Palahniuk
A man becomes disillusioned with his mundane life and joins a secret fight club where he meets Tyler Durden, a charismatic and enigmatic figure who challenges him to question societal norms and embrace chaos.
Also fulfills: Read a debut novel.
Gillian Flynn
A wife goes missing on her anniversary, leaving her husband as the prime suspect in a twisted tale of deception and dark secrets.
Gail Honeyman
A socially awkward woman with a regimented lifestyle finds friendship and healing when she and an unhygienic IT colleague help an elderly man, soon to be a major motion picture.
Also fulfills: Read A Book About Friendship. Read a book about found family.
J. D. Salinger
“The Catcher in the Rye” follows Holden Caulfield as he leaves prep school and spends time in New York. The story evolved from earlier works published in “The New Yorker” and “Collier’s” magazine.
Also fulfills: (maybe) Read a classic you’ve never read.
Kazuo Ishiguro
A haunting dystopian tale exploring ethics and human relationships through a luminous story about science outpacing morality, while delving into themes of memory, love, and self-understanding.
Also Fulfills: Read a book by Nobel prize winner. Read a book about friendship.
Paula Hawkins
A commuter observes a seemingly perfect couple from the train daily until witnessing something shocking. Their involvement in a police investigation leads to dangerous entanglements. Now a major motion picture.
Yann Martel
A sixteen-year-old Indian boy survives 227 days at sea in a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger, testing his faith, survival skills, and understanding of life while stranded in the Pacific Ocean.
Also fulfills: Read A Book Set At Sea. Read a book with a number in the title.
Mark Z. Danielewski
Neither Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Will Navidson nor his companion Karen Green was prepared to face the consequences of the impossibility of their new home, until the day their two little children wandered off and their voices eerily began to return another story—of creature darkness, of an ever-growing abyss behind a closet door, and of that unholy growl which soon enough would tear through their walls and consume all their dreams.
Also fulfills: Read a book with footnotes/endnotes. Read a dual-timeline story.
Maybe: Read a book outside your comfort zone.
Karen M. McManus
Everyone has secrets, right? What really matters is how far you would go to protect them.
Shirley Jackson
A dark psychological tale about an isolated, potentially murderous family whose peculiar existence is disrupted when an unexpected visitor arrives at their home.
What other books have unreliable narrators? Do you like these kinds of stories? Let us know in the comments!
May your life be as full as your bookshelf and as long as your TBR list.
Happy Reading!
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