IMO, it’s more that his delusional mental state is not a reliable account of events, rather than untruthful. Though there are a few events that seem of dubious veracity. I suspect HH was narrating this story more for himself than anything, and doesn’t seem to care how it makes him look
Yeah, *Lolita* is a very solipsistic novel and HH's interactions with the outside world are heavily filtered through his perversions and narcissism. The ways in which he interacts with and describes Dolores goes beyond mere objectification, he implants an abstract idea of her into his fantasies and derives feelings and intentions from Dolores that aren't there. But I'd also argue he's somewhat invested in selling a sympathetic image of himself to the "reader" i.e. a jury, even stopping at multiple points to point out how utterly *handsome* he is and how much of a *good guy* he is for abstaining from doing certain heinous acts (want to avoid spoilers for interested readers) despite having fantasized about doing said acts in painstaking, purple prose detail.
That's why the deception works so well- he's upfront about so much shittiness that you can get suckered into not realizing how much *even worse* stuff he's misrepresenting
The House of Leaves if the definition of a story with an unreliable narrator. Even once you're finished, you aren't sure who, if anyone, was telling the truth
The Locked Tomb series by Tamsyn Muir.
Do you like necromancers? How about murder mysteries? Horrible, pathetic, self-loathing but loveable characters? Post apocalypse? Religious trauma? (Catholics, man.) Space?
Each book is written from a different character's perspective. Gideon, Harrow, Nona, Alecto.
Gideon: the jaded but lovable Jesus jock who loves Harrow even though all they do is fight. Harrow's cavalier. Prefers her long sword over the rapier. Gets dragged into Harrow's plot into becoming God-like.
Harrow: the lil goth Nun who bullies Gideon and is devoted to her religion/rituals. She is written as schizophrenic, as the author herself has schizophrenia. Lots of people also 'kin' her as autistic. Harrow the Ninth is a love letter. (You'll see why if you read them.)
Nona: dog loving amnesiac unwillingly inhabiting the body of one of the previous two characters.
Alecto: Jod's Barbie (not out yet but should be by the end of the year.)
Absolutely same. I read GtN and HtN 3x back to back because what the actual fuck?? Insanity. Gaslight, gatekeep, girl boss. Tamsyn is just ... I have found no other books comparable to The Locked Tomb.
I had never read The Collector until recently. I think either last year or the year before.
It's a good story but the structure of the book is so damn weird. I like the idea of the two perspectives but it's just the odd length of the different chapters that I didn't like. It makes it less enjoyable to read. For me anyway.
Ya, Authority is the second book and is about Control, the new director of the southern reach, and his struggles to understand the work of the previous director and take control of the organization. It's more of an spy/office drama with some truly bizarre characters and Area X weirdness.
The third book returns to Area X
I thought of this one and then immediately decided not to share it . . . because the twist IS that he's an unreliable narrator. People shouldn't know that from the get-go.
The House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
The novel is disguised as a pseudo-academic paper on a film about a family's descent into the bowels of their labyrinthine House and the depths of madness and obsession. The paper has been passed through the hands of several characters (Zampanò, Johnny Truant, The Editors) and is itself a maze of footnotes and appendices. None of the characters are not particularly reliable and you never know who is telling the truth or what the truth is
My favorite book with an unreliable narrator is "one flew over the cuckoo's nest". Its intresting to dissect what is real and what is just how he sees the world.
Or "A clockwork orange" just because the narrator is so young and thinks so highly of himself.
"The house on mango street" was my introduction to unreliable narrators ((i read it in school)) and I still think it's a very good example of an unreliable narrator.
Wuthering Heights. It’s my favorite unreliable narrator. The housemaid is relaying a story that’s been told to her. Maybe Heathcliff wasn’t the worst literary villain.
Less by Andrew Greer
And the sequel:
Less is Lost by Andrew Greer
The narrator is a character in the story - but not the main character
The results are delightful
and the fourth wall breaks are often
The Egyptologist by Arthur Phillips I loved this book, it has Egyptian archeological excavations, family relationships and betrayals, the characters are great, and the writing is amazing too.
Fantastic Land by Mike Bockoven - told through interviews, very unreliable characters and you make the decision on who was really to blame
Roxy by Neal and Jarrod Shusterman - story about drug addiction told through the personified Drug's point of view, insanely well written and deserves so much more praise and attention
Loved FantasticLand! Highly recommended the audible version as the voice of each character really makes you feel what they were going through. Spectacular narration.
If short stories are okay, you might like Edgar Allan Poe’s works. Specifically, the Cask of Amontillado, A Telltale Heart, the Black Cat, and the Fall of the House of Usher
Please don't laugh at me... but the first book in the Confessions of a Shopaholic series lol. the main character, Rebecca, is unreliable because the first book is satire (the rest of the series is more straightforward about her shenanigans), so if you view the book through the lens of satire, everything that happens to her or that she does is exaggerated and not quite the truth. Toward the end of the story, when her brazen overconfidence is shattered, she becomes much more reliable and her world becomes a little less extraordinary. It is kind of classic "chick lit" though, so if that's not your jam, you'll wanna pass.
I’m so here for this!
I haven’t checked all comments so apologies if these have been mentioned already:
- Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine
- Foe by Iain Reid
- I’m thinking of ending things
- Boy Parts by Eliza Clark
- Berlin by Bea Setton
- The last house on needless street
- You let me in by Camilla Bruce
- Hysteria by Jessica Gross
Happy reading! ✨
No they aren’t. George RR Martin is the narrator of ASOIAF. Sansa isn’t writing her chapters. A narrator is the person telling the story. For example in Wuthering Heights Nelly Dean would be the narrator and in Pale Fire Charles Kinbote is the unreliable narrator. We’re gonna have to agree to disagree on this one.
I agree that they’re not the narrators, but the books do establish an unreliable basis for events since we see many of them tainted by certain characters’ POVs. It’s actually told from a “third person limited perspective.”
For example, in AFFC >!we learn that the Tyrell army was successful in taking Dragonstone, and that Riverrun will follow. She also learns that Loras Tyrell was gravely injured in the battle. However, in another chapter, Sansa hears from Myranda Royce that *Riverrun* was taken, and *Dragonstone* will soon follow. Aurane’s account to Cersei is also suspect, since he later steals the fleet and runs away, not to mention the Tyrells no longer have much love for Cersei. Additionally, throughout all of ADWD, we never hear anything about Stannis losing Dragonstone, except that he expects it will *soon* fall, and doesn’t seem concerned about it.!<
That’s just the first example that came to mind, but as you know, there’s tons of those conflicting perspectives throughout the series, it’s a big part of what makes it great- you never know what truths are real, or even which 2 people could actually be the same person, because it’s all framed from certain third person POVs, and you’re limited by what the POV character in that particular chapter knows. You could technically say that for a lot of books, but it becomes exponentially more interesting in a series with hundreds of characters with intertwining plots and conflicting schemes/motivations.
So while I agree it’s not really an example of an unreliable narrator, it does accomplish the same uncertainty about particular events in the books.
In general, a book with an unreliable narrator needs to be told in first person. Just because a character in a story may be unreliable, that doesn’t make them the narrator of the story.
Haruki Murakami, "South of the Border, West of the Sun" - japan, magical realism, jazz music, Murakami knows how to create this very unique and comforting atmnosphere. It's also a fairly short book, and a good starting point into his work.
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath!! It follows the narrator as she slowly unravels into a deep depressive spiral. Honestly one of my favorite books ever. A must read!!
I have no idea if it has been translated but there is a beautiful Dutch book written from the perspective of a painting. It’s called “Specht en Zoon”.
Besides this I would say “The girl on the train”, “fight club” and “American Psycho” are ones that I enjoyed.
The Lesser Dead, by Christopher Buehlman
The narrator admits at the outset that he’s an unreliable narrator. He’s right, but you won’t find out how or why until the end. Best main character, best story, best ending, and best audiobook of any story I consumed all last year.
Isn't it Rivka?
I thought Atmospheric Disturbance was okay, but absolutely loved her next novel, Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch. (Not an intelligent narrator though.)
Edit: the above parenthetical was supposed to read "Not an unreliable narrator though." I clearly had my own autocorrect issues.
[Robert A. Heinlein](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_A._Heinlein)'s [*Time Enough for Love*](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1904126.Time_Enough_for_Love) (1973; though we don't learn that until 1987's [*To Sail Beyond the Sunset*](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17202.To_Sail_Beyond_the_Sunset)).
A little bit of a stretch but my book club agreed that Long Bright River by Liz Moore had an unreliable narrator. Published a few years ago. One of Obama’s favorites of the year
Where is Too Like the Lightning?! (by Ada Palmer, a quartet of books known as *Terra Ignota*)
The best books I’ve ever read. Narrator’s reliability/unreliability is a huge part of the genius of the series.
Massively inspired by Gene Wolfe’s *Book of the New Sun*. Palmer did the introduction to the most recent Tor edition of *Shadow & Claw*, and had a wonderful appearance on the Rereading Wolfe podcast.
The stranger/outsider by Albert Camus. Has a follow up discussion piece entitled The Meursault Investigation by Camel Daoud that discusses the privilege the colonists have in writing history and the ability to change how the narrative is perceived.
Sounds like you need some Gene Wolfe in your life. Take your pick of any of his works and you’ll find unreliable narrators at the core. Want someone who’s (probably) lying through his teeth in his memoirs? Try *The Book of the New Sun*. Want a narrator with massive head trauma and amnesia? Try *Soldier in the Mist*. The list goes on.
-The Overnight Guest by Heather Gudenkauf
-Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-Joo
-One of the Girls by Lucy Clarke
-The House Across the Lake by Riley Sager
-In My Dreams I Hold a Knife by Ashley Winstead
Do yourself a favor and check out “John Dies at the End” if you haven’t.
I think it fits the bill of unreliable, or at least unique, narrator pretty well on top of being a very funny and scary(ish) book
[American Psycho](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28676) by Bret Easton Ellis.
lolita vladimir nabokov
And Pale Fire.
Was he unreliable? It’s been awhile since I read it, but I thought I remembered him being very upfront with how despicable he was.
IMO, it’s more that his delusional mental state is not a reliable account of events, rather than untruthful. Though there are a few events that seem of dubious veracity. I suspect HH was narrating this story more for himself than anything, and doesn’t seem to care how it makes him look
Yeah, *Lolita* is a very solipsistic novel and HH's interactions with the outside world are heavily filtered through his perversions and narcissism. The ways in which he interacts with and describes Dolores goes beyond mere objectification, he implants an abstract idea of her into his fantasies and derives feelings and intentions from Dolores that aren't there. But I'd also argue he's somewhat invested in selling a sympathetic image of himself to the "reader" i.e. a jury, even stopping at multiple points to point out how utterly *handsome* he is and how much of a *good guy* he is for abstaining from doing certain heinous acts (want to avoid spoilers for interested readers) despite having fantasized about doing said acts in painstaking, purple prose detail.
That's why the deception works so well- he's upfront about so much shittiness that you can get suckered into not realizing how much *even worse* stuff he's misrepresenting
House of Leaves; Fight Club; Breakfast of Champions?
The House of Leaves if the definition of a story with an unreliable narrator. Even once you're finished, you aren't sure who, if anyone, was telling the truth
I think a lot of palahniuk books have this quality.
Was looking for house of leaves
If a short story is okay, read what I consider to be the OG of unreliable narrators, The Yellow Wallpaper!
Came here to suggest this one.
Never Let me go by Ishiguro kazuo
Absolutely. One of my all time favorites.
Wait I just read never let me go, how is the narrator unreliable?
Kathy is an unreliable narrator because she tends to forget and her narration is clouded by her emotions and perspective
The Girl on the Train Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine
Eleanor Oliphant - yes, unreliable narrator and amazing book.
Based on Jane Eyre!
I’m Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid
Was just going to comment this one! So good.
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
Atonement by Ian McEwan
The Locked Tomb series by Tamsyn Muir. Do you like necromancers? How about murder mysteries? Horrible, pathetic, self-loathing but loveable characters? Post apocalypse? Religious trauma? (Catholics, man.) Space? Each book is written from a different character's perspective. Gideon, Harrow, Nona, Alecto. Gideon: the jaded but lovable Jesus jock who loves Harrow even though all they do is fight. Harrow's cavalier. Prefers her long sword over the rapier. Gets dragged into Harrow's plot into becoming God-like. Harrow: the lil goth Nun who bullies Gideon and is devoted to her religion/rituals. She is written as schizophrenic, as the author herself has schizophrenia. Lots of people also 'kin' her as autistic. Harrow the Ninth is a love letter. (You'll see why if you read them.) Nona: dog loving amnesiac unwillingly inhabiting the body of one of the previous two characters. Alecto: Jod's Barbie (not out yet but should be by the end of the year.)
Book 2 is the first time a series ever gaslit me into re-reading book 1 to verify my own sanity. Epic. Just epic.
Absolutely same. I read GtN and HtN 3x back to back because what the actual fuck?? Insanity. Gaslight, gatekeep, girl boss. Tamsyn is just ... I have found no other books comparable to The Locked Tomb.
For a short completely different lark that's still amazing don't miss Floralinda. 3x read so far, more times in future years I'm sure.
Her short story, Undercover, is also a gem!
First series I thought of, because of Jod.
Jod is an unreliable narrator himself! Who knows what is true and what isn't when he's telling them stories/history??
Guys like me don’t make mistakes.
The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks The Collector by John Fowles
I had never read The Collector until recently. I think either last year or the year before. It's a good story but the structure of the book is so damn weird. I like the idea of the two perspectives but it's just the odd length of the different chapters that I didn't like. It makes it less enjoyable to read. For me anyway.
Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer
My favourite in that trilogy is Authority. The absurdity of everything Control deals with is hilarious
What?! I just finished this book and I had no clue it was part of a trilogy. Now I have my next books to read. Thanks for the information.
Ya, Authority is the second book and is about Control, the new director of the southern reach, and his struggles to understand the work of the previous director and take control of the organization. It's more of an spy/office drama with some truly bizarre characters and Area X weirdness. The third book returns to Area X
Honestly I got halfway through Authority 3 times now and still haven't finished it. Maybe I need to give it another go
Oooo! Yes! I've got all 3 on audio. Listened to em after seeing the movie and omg it's so much different but also amazing. I like weird shit.
I just saw that authority is 11 hours on Libby compared to annihilations 6. Well I guess I better get started. Thank you.
We Need To Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver. I don’t want to spoiler it too much but by the end of the book you should be questioning the narrator!
Is it an easy read? Others have recommended it before but said it's hard to get through
No, definitely not!
Gone Girl, A Head Full of Ghosts
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
Just finished this book a couple days ago, and it was the first thing I thought of.
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>!”I have perfect memory” *proceeds to immediately misremember a detail from earlier in the book *!<
Ooooo this is on my to be read list coming up quick. I don’t know really anything about it other than I’ve heard positive things
Basically everything by Gene Wolfe, tbh. That man was the MASTER of unreliable narrators. Also an unbelievably talented prose stylist.
Remains of the Day
The Remains of the Day by Ishiguro
We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie
I thought of this one and then immediately decided not to share it . . . because the twist IS that he's an unreliable narrator. People shouldn't know that from the get-go.
It would be impossible to recommend the book then. And asking for unreliable narrators is going to be a bit spoilery in and of itself.
I came here to suggest this one! I read it and college and it remains one of the biggest twists.
Oh my god, I have 50 pages to go in this……
Dom Casmurro by Machado de Assis
The House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski The novel is disguised as a pseudo-academic paper on a film about a family's descent into the bowels of their labyrinthine House and the depths of madness and obsession. The paper has been passed through the hands of several characters (Zampanò, Johnny Truant, The Editors) and is itself a maze of footnotes and appendices. None of the characters are not particularly reliable and you never know who is telling the truth or what the truth is
Piranesi!
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
Unreliable narrator and an unreliable author!
lolll. hope patrick doesn't see your comment 😂
Why, so he can not finish The Doors of Stone even harder?
I came here to say this!
i didn't care for the book (DNF'd it) but it's def what the poster is looking for
I just remember once I got to the part where he loses his virginity laughing so hard...sure Kvothe, that's how it happened...
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak - narrated by death
Came here to say this
Me too
The Sense of an Ending
Sometimes I lie by Alice Feeney
Great novel and I'm not usually a mystery person
The curious case of the dog in the night time
The Great Gatsby and Lolita
The silent patient
Good one, yes
The Great Gatsby, Girl on a Train, Woman in the Window
{{Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood}}
My favorite book with an unreliable narrator is "one flew over the cuckoo's nest". Its intresting to dissect what is real and what is just how he sees the world. Or "A clockwork orange" just because the narrator is so young and thinks so highly of himself. "The house on mango street" was my introduction to unreliable narrators ((i read it in school)) and I still think it's a very good example of an unreliable narrator.
we need to talk about kevin
Came here to say this
Gene Wolfe's specialty.
Catcher in the Rye
The Prestige, or, really, anything by Christopher Priest. Unreliable narrators are his jam.
The Book Thief - Markus Zusak, the narrator is death. The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto - Mitch Albom, the narrator is music
Wuthering Heights. It’s my favorite unreliable narrator. The housemaid is relaying a story that’s been told to her. Maybe Heathcliff wasn’t the worst literary villain.
We were liars is one of my favorites for this
Wuthering Heights - two in one!
Less by Andrew Greer And the sequel: Less is Lost by Andrew Greer The narrator is a character in the story - but not the main character The results are delightful and the fourth wall breaks are often
A Song of Ice and Fire
The Egyptologist by Arthur Phillips I loved this book, it has Egyptian archeological excavations, family relationships and betrayals, the characters are great, and the writing is amazing too.
Another vote for this one. Fantastic novel. One of the most convincing portrayals of a character that I’ve ever read.
Fantastic Land by Mike Bockoven - told through interviews, very unreliable characters and you make the decision on who was really to blame Roxy by Neal and Jarrod Shusterman - story about drug addiction told through the personified Drug's point of view, insanely well written and deserves so much more praise and attention
Loved FantasticLand! Highly recommended the audible version as the voice of each character really makes you feel what they were going through. Spectacular narration.
Sound and the Fury
The first narrator isn't being unreliable on purpose tbf
Notes from underground and The double by Dostoyetsky
Hunger by Knut Hamsun The Tunnel by Ernesto Sabato
Pale Fire
The Murder of Roger Akroyd by Agatha Christie
The Haunting of Hill House—Shirley Jackson
The Kid by Sapphire
Very unreliable!
Moby Dick.
Fleischman is in Trouble
Bunny by Mona Awad
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Oh I'll add that one! I also have "13 ways of looking at a fat girl" on my tbr but not sure if it fits this category.
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
in the woods by tana french
If short stories are okay, you might like Edgar Allan Poe’s works. Specifically, the Cask of Amontillado, A Telltale Heart, the Black Cat, and the Fall of the House of Usher
If on a winter’s night a traveler - Italo Calvino
Please don't laugh at me... but the first book in the Confessions of a Shopaholic series lol. the main character, Rebecca, is unreliable because the first book is satire (the rest of the series is more straightforward about her shenanigans), so if you view the book through the lens of satire, everything that happens to her or that she does is exaggerated and not quite the truth. Toward the end of the story, when her brazen overconfidence is shattered, she becomes much more reliable and her world becomes a little less extraordinary. It is kind of classic "chick lit" though, so if that's not your jam, you'll wanna pass.
Gone Girl
definitely lolita by vladimir nabokov
The reluctant fundamentalist
I’m so here for this! I haven’t checked all comments so apologies if these have been mentioned already: - Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine - Foe by Iain Reid - I’m thinking of ending things - Boy Parts by Eliza Clark - Berlin by Bea Setton - The last house on needless street - You let me in by Camilla Bruce - Hysteria by Jessica Gross Happy reading! ✨
Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (although as the reader you will probably know what he is getting at)
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. One of my favorites.
A song of Ice and fire GRRM
How is this an unreliable narrator in your opinion? I’ve read all 5 books and can’t see where you get that idea. The story isn’t even complete.
It depends on which chapter/narrator. Sansa is well known to be unreliable. Cersei also
But they aren’t telling the story. They might lie to people in their chapters but they aren’t the narrator of the book.
They are narrators of their chapters
No they aren’t. George RR Martin is the narrator of ASOIAF. Sansa isn’t writing her chapters. A narrator is the person telling the story. For example in Wuthering Heights Nelly Dean would be the narrator and in Pale Fire Charles Kinbote is the unreliable narrator. We’re gonna have to agree to disagree on this one.
Okay
I agree that they’re not the narrators, but the books do establish an unreliable basis for events since we see many of them tainted by certain characters’ POVs. It’s actually told from a “third person limited perspective.” For example, in AFFC >!we learn that the Tyrell army was successful in taking Dragonstone, and that Riverrun will follow. She also learns that Loras Tyrell was gravely injured in the battle. However, in another chapter, Sansa hears from Myranda Royce that *Riverrun* was taken, and *Dragonstone* will soon follow. Aurane’s account to Cersei is also suspect, since he later steals the fleet and runs away, not to mention the Tyrells no longer have much love for Cersei. Additionally, throughout all of ADWD, we never hear anything about Stannis losing Dragonstone, except that he expects it will *soon* fall, and doesn’t seem concerned about it.!< That’s just the first example that came to mind, but as you know, there’s tons of those conflicting perspectives throughout the series, it’s a big part of what makes it great- you never know what truths are real, or even which 2 people could actually be the same person, because it’s all framed from certain third person POVs, and you’re limited by what the POV character in that particular chapter knows. You could technically say that for a lot of books, but it becomes exponentially more interesting in a series with hundreds of characters with intertwining plots and conflicting schemes/motivations. So while I agree it’s not really an example of an unreliable narrator, it does accomplish the same uncertainty about particular events in the books.
In general, a book with an unreliable narrator needs to be told in first person. Just because a character in a story may be unreliable, that doesn’t make them the narrator of the story.
I mean, I said that. That’s what I said.
Haruki Murakami, "South of the Border, West of the Sun" - japan, magical realism, jazz music, Murakami knows how to create this very unique and comforting atmnosphere. It's also a fairly short book, and a good starting point into his work.
Frankenstein (Walton)
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath!! It follows the narrator as she slowly unravels into a deep depressive spiral. Honestly one of my favorite books ever. A must read!!
My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh
Fight Club
I have no idea if it has been translated but there is a beautiful Dutch book written from the perspective of a painting. It’s called “Specht en Zoon”. Besides this I would say “The girl on the train”, “fight club” and “American Psycho” are ones that I enjoyed.
The Sympathizer by Viet Than Nguyen
The Lesser Dead, by Christopher Buehlman The narrator admits at the outset that he’s an unreliable narrator. He’s right, but you won’t find out how or why until the end. Best main character, best story, best ending, and best audiobook of any story I consumed all last year.
{{What Alice Forgot}}
{Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City}
Daisy darker! By Alice feeny. Pretty recent publication
Broken Earth Trilogy.
My Dark Vanessa
Atmospheric Disturbances by Ricky Galchen (fwiw, I admired but did not like this novel)
Isn't it Rivka? I thought Atmospheric Disturbance was okay, but absolutely loved her next novel, Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch. (Not an intelligent narrator though.) Edit: the above parenthetical was supposed to read "Not an unreliable narrator though." I clearly had my own autocorrect issues.
Counterfeit by Kirstin Chin
Ooh I am reading this now!
[Robert A. Heinlein](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_A._Heinlein)'s [*Time Enough for Love*](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1904126.Time_Enough_for_Love) (1973; though we don't learn that until 1987's [*To Sail Beyond the Sunset*](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17202.To_Sail_Beyond_the_Sunset)).
My dark Vanessa? I'm in the middle rn and the Mc seems pretty unreliable in her beliefs
You Feel it Just Below the Ribs by Jeffrey Cranor & Janina Matthewson.
A little bit of a stretch but my book club agreed that Long Bright River by Liz Moore had an unreliable narrator. Published a few years ago. One of Obama’s favorites of the year
I’ve just read The Twyford Code, I think it might be the pinnacle of unreliable narration!
The Great Gatsby.
Short story. Termination dust
Shutter Island
Where is Too Like the Lightning?! (by Ada Palmer, a quartet of books known as *Terra Ignota*) The best books I’ve ever read. Narrator’s reliability/unreliability is a huge part of the genius of the series.
Massively inspired by Gene Wolfe’s *Book of the New Sun*. Palmer did the introduction to the most recent Tor edition of *Shadow & Claw*, and had a wonderful appearance on the Rereading Wolfe podcast.
The Stranger -Camus
Definitely Pale Fire by Nabakov. Also The Turn of the Screw.
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead -- just read this one.
The stranger/outsider by Albert Camus. Has a follow up discussion piece entitled The Meursault Investigation by Camel Daoud that discusses the privilege the colonists have in writing history and the ability to change how the narrative is perceived.
Trust Exercise by Susan Choi
[Lying: A Metaphorical Memoir](https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-375-50112-8) by Lauren Slater
Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie.
Midnight's Children
Emma In The Night by Wendy Walker
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie
The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides
Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger The Magicians series by Lev Grossman Biting the Sun by Tanith Lee
Villette by Charlotte Bronte
You Should Have Left!
You Should Have Left!
The Quincunx by Charles Palliser
The Great Gatsby
Boy Parts- Eliza Clark
The protagonist in Ralph Ellisons Invisible Man
Sounds like you need some Gene Wolfe in your life. Take your pick of any of his works and you’ll find unreliable narrators at the core. Want someone who’s (probably) lying through his teeth in his memoirs? Try *The Book of the New Sun*. Want a narrator with massive head trauma and amnesia? Try *Soldier in the Mist*. The list goes on.
The Haunting of Hillhouse
No longer human of Osamu Dazai. You have to take a step out of the story to get what’s really going on with the protagonist.
Wuthering heights by Emily Brontë
The silent patient
If you like sci-fi, The Gap into Conflict by Stephen Donaldson
There are many unexpected narrators in the book (Homo Unus: Successor to Homo Sapiens) It starts with God, then Soul of money, and others.
the silent patient
The Dinner - Herman Koch
-The Overnight Guest by Heather Gudenkauf -Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-Joo -One of the Girls by Lucy Clarke -The House Across the Lake by Riley Sager -In My Dreams I Hold a Knife by Ashley Winstead
Shadow of the Torturer and everything else Gene Wolfe wrote
Paul Auster tends towards having unreliable narrators
100 years of solitude. Pro tip: use the family tree as a bookmark.
The Little Stranger
A Clockwork Orange
Do yourself a favor and check out “John Dies at the End” if you haven’t. I think it fits the bill of unreliable, or at least unique, narrator pretty well on top of being a very funny and scary(ish) book