8 Best Books With Unreliable Narrators

An unreliable narrator, who deliberately or by virtue of his mental instability distorts accounts of the story, can elevate stories like nothing else. As a narrator, one expects an objective and truthful account of events, but when the narrator himself/herself is unreliable, what can you believe? Here is a list of 8 best books with unreliable narrators.

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

This is the story of a deranged couple, where the wife goes missing on their fifth anniversary. Consequently, each of the narrators ends up telling their side of the story in bits and pieces, except they contradict each other. Neither is trustworthy of being truthful, and the pressure of media, parents and smalltown gossip make the truth more elusive.

Jazz by Toni Morrison

In this haunting story, a middle aged man, who works as a door-to-door salesman for cosmetics shoots his teenage lover. On the day of the funeral, his wife attacks the corpse. What ensues is a wild tale of obsession and grief, made even more complicated by the reader’s absolute disbelief in the narrator. This book is a perfect psychological autopsy.

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

This story takes place in the dark academic setting of Hailsham, an elite college which churns out well behaved students that fit perfectly into the world. But go deeper, and you’ll realize that the college operates on sinister levels – its students are not allowed contact with the exterior world. We look at this weird setting through our unreliable narrator Kathy.

The People In The Trees by Hanya Yanagihara

This book follows a young doctor who investigates a tribal community in the Micronesian islands for their particular demography. These people have long lifespans but also propensity to senility. When the doctor wins the Nobel prize for proving his thesis about the origin of this, things quickly spiral out of control and his unreliable traits come out.

Room by Emma Donoghue

This psychological thriller is a poignant tale of a mother’s love for her son. Ma gives Jack a relatively good life within the confines of the room she is kidnapped in. But she knows that he must see the world to be able to live in it. So she devises an escape plan. Together, the tenacious mother and brave son navigate the journey to freedom.

Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov

This book is in the form of metafiction. Basically, the renowned author of a long poem dies, and his dysfunctional neighbour Kinbote steps in as the editor of the book. So the result is a book within a book, with commentary from Kinbote, who is a notoriously unreliable narrator. He twists and turns events we will never know because the author is dead.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon

In this Man Booker winning book, Haddon crafts the story of Christopher, a child prodigy when it comes to maths, patterns and diagrams. However, he cannot relate to humans or feel emotions as they do. But when his neighbour’s dog Wellington disappears, he sets out on a trail to retrieve him. The possibly alexithymia diagnosed narrator is unreliable.

17 and Gone by Nova Ren Suma

The protagonist of this story is a 17 year old girl who has hallucinations of other 17 year old girls who have disappeared without a trace. Lauren’s deep dive into this mystery then results in a bunch of absurd events that end up with her in the hospital, facing a ginormous truth. The unreliable narrator of this book does wonders with her sense of ‘lostness’.

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