A book with an unreliable narrator

[Kirsten]

Don't know ... haven't read it yet...

[Erika]

Has anybody read Everything You Want Me to Be by Mindy Mejia? I'm wondering if this book might fit the category? I'm about halfway through it and it just keeps getting weirder. The main character changes her "roles" according to who she is interacting with and is a proclaimed liar....If anyone has read it...thoughts, please

[Nadine in NY]

Erika wrote: "Has anybody read Everything You Want Me to Be by Mindy Mejia? I'm wondering if this book might fit the category? I'm about halfway through it and it just keeps getting weirder. The main character c..."


I'm reading it right now! I'm almost halfway through, and so far no one seems particularly unreliable, but maybe there is a Big Reveal just around the corner or something. I will report back when I've finished.

[Erika]

I didn't think so either but there's just something about that girl lol where else do you think it would fit on the list if it doesn't pan out here?

[Nadine in NY]

There's the "published in 2017" category! I'm just reading it to read it - if it works for unreliable narrator, that'll be a bonus.

[Erika]

i changed my thoughts on everything you want me to be being for this category.

[Amy-Jo]

I've read 'Dear Amy' for this prompt and I loved it.

[Nadine in NY]

I just finished Everything You Want Me to Be last night, and yeah, I don't think it had an unreliable narrator, just unreliable witnesses giving testimony to the Sheriff (but none of them were narrators). So this category is still wide open for me. I'm about to get back to reading The Killer Inside Me and hoping that will qualify. If not, I know Fight Club will work and that's TBR for me.

[Nadine in NY]

I finished The Killer Inside Me and it does NOT qualify for "unreliable narrator" - he's deceptive to people around him, but his inner voice that the reader is privy to is quite reliable. That's my second strike out! This category is difficult!

Has anyone read Jesus' Son? Do you think that qualifies? He's not really concealing anything or trying to be deceptive, but he's in such a drugged out haze at times that it's hard to tell what's true.

I've been meaning to read Fight Club for a while now, so I think I'll just read that one for this category.

[Emanuel]

I readO apelo da selva

[Rachel]

I'm reading Before I Go to Sleep, and it's very interesting so far.

[Marta]

Nadine wrote: "Marta that sounds really interesting, and I'm also undecided on what to read for this category. But I really did not like The Handmaids Tale so I am not enthusiastic about another Atwood book. Was ..."
Nadine, her books are quite different from each other. However the writing style tends to be similar. The Blind Assassin has a bit less bite, being a family saga, but that means the writing is even more the focus.

I personally adore her writing, I think it is genius. She could write about paint peeling and it would be witty, dark, sensual and probably predicting the end of the world.

But I can see that her style is not everyone's cup of tea. You have to like dark, intellectual, and having to fill in the blanks. I think her writing in The Handmaid's Tale is the most approachable, so if you did not like it, you probably won't like her other books, either.

[Marta]

Rachel wrote: "I'm reading Before I Go to Sleep, and it's very interesting so far."
I read that one for book club. I liked it. It is about as unreliable a narrator as you get - she forgets everything that happened, every night when she goes to sleep. Great thriller!

[Marta]

I just remembered that Flowers for Algernon is a great one for this, too. A wonderful book, but keep the tissues handy.

[Liz]

I'm reading Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut for this prompt, though it would fit several of the others too.

[Betty]

Has anyone here read The House of Secrets by Brad Meltzer? The protagonist in the book has partial amnesia and traumatic brain injury which had affected her emotions. The word 'narrator' is bothering me, I think, because she doesn't really narrate... I've been struggling to find a book for this prompt but I saw this book at work today and it sounds good.

[Amanda]

I finished Fight Club last night. I loved it. I've always enjoyed the movie, and the book seemed to follow it pretty well (or really, the movie follows the book pretty well). It was a quick read too!

[Debbie]

I just started Truly Madly Guilty by Liane Moriarty. In the first chapter, it's clear the narrator doesn't remember entire hours of the night in question, and she doesn't remember the beginning of the night (before her black out) the way her best friend does. Seems like a good candidate for unreliable narrator, if you haven't read it already.

[Erika]

For this one I picked Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough. I'm not going to say why for anyone who wants to and hasn't read it but people who have read it will understand.

[Monnie]

To me, Dark Places or Gone Girl would work here. So would The Girl on the Train.

[Is]

Liar by Justine Larbelestier works for this too. It is amazing and a pretty quick read. I highly recommend it and I'm a librarian! so it works for another prompt.

I'm torn between reading The Buried Giant and We Were Liars.

[Melissa]

Thanks for the recommendation of Liar! That totally sounds up my reading alley, and I needed a librarian recommendation!

[Chris]

Defending Jacob is an excellent choice for this one. Unfortunately I read it a couple of years ago.

[Cheri]

I just finished reading Moonglow, Michael Chabon's latest book. I really liked it -- and it definitely has an unreliable narrator. It's a novel that pretends it's a memoir.

[Rachel]

Chris wrote: "Defending Jacob is an excellent choice for this one. Unfortunately I read it a couple of years ago."

Totally agree! It's an amazing book. I also read it a couple of years ago, and it still sticks with me. I'm not sure how unreliable the narrator is though. He's telling the story from his own perspective for sure and probably doesn't have all the information, but it's not like he has amnesia or anything like that to make the information he does give unreliable...

[Nadine in NY]

I am reading The Stars Are Legion by Kameron Hurley right now, and it would work for this category. The main character has amnesia after a battle.

This is a VERY weird book, quite unlike any other science fiction I've read. It took about 100 pages for me to finally decide I liked it; before then, I was just so disoriented, I didn't know what to think of it. To start with, the main character has amnesia (and she has had amnesia "hundreds of times" before), so you have no idea what is happening, what has happened before, who she can trust, or what the people around her might be planning. And then on top of that, it's set in a very odd world, somewhere in outer space, where people live inside creatures that are sort of planets and sort of spaceships. There are different, uh, nationalities, they are fighting with each other, and I don't even know for sure if they are the same species or not. And it just gets weirder from there.

From page 22:

“Won’t I fall off?” I ask, pointing at the sleek tube of the open vehicle. Neither the vehicle nor the bulb containing my supposed suit looks particularly safe. I have an idea of what an airless vacuum of space is, which is odd. I can understand things like food and furniture and heat, but not who I am, or where we are, or why I dream of cannibal women cutting themselves open.

If you like science fiction, especially the space opera type, and you're looking for something new and different, consider this one. I'm only halfway done, so I haven't decided yet how I feel about this.

[Sarah]

Erika wrote: "For this one I picked Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough. I'm not going to say why for anyone who wants to and hasn't read it but people who have read it will understand."

I love Sarah Pinborough's fairy tale re-tellings (I read them for the 2015 challenge) so I might have to give this one a go. Thanks for the recommendation

[Vicki]

Would Lincoln in the Bardo work for this category? Many of the 166 narrators are unaware of their state and the historical eyewitness accounts (real & fictional) are conflicting.

[Christy]

I was all set with The Girl on the Train for this one, but now I'm reading Wittgenstein's Mistress by David Markson, which has a spectacularly unreliable narrator, so I think I'm going to have to revisit. :-)

[Elizabeth]

It might have been mentioned already, but what about The Art Forger? I just finished reading it and Claire, the narrator, seems unreliable to me, but I'd like other opinions.

[Jessie]

Would Diary of an Oxygen Thief work for this prompt?

[Sara Grace]

I'm reading His Bloody Project right now and the book jacket describes the character as an unreliable narrator!

[Anja]

Reading My cousin Rachel by Du Maurier for this one,don't like both main characters so far,I find them both very unreliable.

[Kristin]

Some people said 'Girl on the Train'. I just read it though, so does anyone know of her new book 'Into the Water' will count too?

[Nadine in NY]

Kristin wrote: "Some people said 'Girl on the Train'. I just read it though, so does anyone know of her new book 'Into the Water' will count too?"

I don't think it does. I'm about to read it next, so in a week or two I'll be able to say for sure.

[Tania]

I didn't realize it until I finished, but I used East of Desolation by Jack Higgins for this prompt

[Cornerofmadness]

I read B.U.G. for this though I didn't know it at the time Charlie was an unreliable narrator (because honestly this might have been a challenge I skipped as I hate unreliable narrators).

[Debbie]

I read Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians for this because I thought I saw that it counted... now I can't find it and I am unsure. I hope I don't have to read something else for this and if I do I hope I can count Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians for some other prompt. Can someone help me please. Do you think this book counts for this prompt?? If not what prompt could I count it for?? Thanks for the help. One positive though, I loved it. As a library aide, I found it wonderful.

[Debbie]

Never mind... I just found it...
# 232 on the Books with Unreliable Narrators List

[Rachel]

Would The Woman in Cabin 10 count? I saw it on a list for books with unreliable narrators, but it was only shelved that way a few times, so I'm not sure.

[Nadine in NY]

Rachel wrote: "Would The Woman in Cabin 10 count? I saw it on a list for books with unreliable narrators, but it was only shelved that way a few times, so I'm not sure."

She was reliable, she relayed the facts in front of her, she just didn't have all the facts. Other people on the boat doubted her and thought she was unreliable, but I don't think she was an unreliable narrator. But I think some other people have used this book for this category, so I seem to have different definitions than what other people use for these categories.

[Emanuel]

I read A Casa da Rússia

[Lindsey]

My question is would All the Ugly and Wonderful Things work? I'm so confused on this one.

[Nadine in NY]

No, the narrators in AtUaWT are reliable. It definitely does not work for this category. It could fit "a difficult topic" though.

[Lindsey]

Read we were liars for this and woah! I didn't think I'd like it, but I loved it.

[Jenn]

Juanita wrote: "Picking up on the conversation from the general 2017 discussion thread, how do we pick this book? Does knowing that the narrator is unreliable going into the book, spoil the book for you?

I like ..."

I'm reading A Million Little Pieces based on your comment :-)

[Elizabeth]

I have a general idea of what constitutes an unreliable narrator, but I am having some difficulty. I'm guessing The Curious incident of the Dog in the Night Time could be one since the main character has a unique perspective and way of looking at the world.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Another one could be All the Ugly and Wonderful Things despite having multiple narrators because one of them is the main character and does also have a unique way of viewing her situation.
All the Ugly and Wonderful Things

[Beanz]

Cheri wrote: "I just finished reading Moonglow, Michael Chabon's latest book. I really liked it -- and it definitely has an unreliable narrator. It's a novel that pretends it's a memoir."

That book is currently on my TBR list!

[Angelique]

I read Kushiel's Dart for this, because one of the reviews said it had a unreliable narrator

[Juliebean]

I had to give myself a loose definition of this book. I may find a better match later on but for now, I have finished and I'm using Attachments by Rainbow Rowell. It's a bit of a cheat, I'll admit, but the narrator is reading emails of a coworker. So he's doing something basically wrong and sneaky.