The best thrillers with unreliable narrators (or are they?)
Author Araminta Hall asks who we can ever really trust, followed by our favourite thrillers with questionable storytellers.
There's nothing like a great unreliable narrator: the storyteller you just can't trust, who you suspect may not be giving you quite the full picture, who you hope you don't come across in real life. But, argues Araminta Hall, author of new thriller Unreliable Narrator, we're actually meeting them every day. . .
What makes an unreliable narrator is being born human. We’re all unreliable narrators and accepting that is halfway to understanding yourself and the people around you. Memory is a tricky thing. As scientists at the University of Nottingham have recently shown, where once it was thought that we remembered by either remembering facts about an event, or how we felt during that event, we now know that’s not true. Our brains are one big mess of feelings that bleed into events, places, even objects. So when you remember something that happened completely differently from someone else, neither of you are lying, you just genuinely had a different experience – not just at the time but also in the remembering.
There is, however, an important distinction between the unreliable narrator and the liar. The liar knows they’re not telling the truth and sets out to deceive, whilst the unreliable narrator wants to and believes they are telling the truth. And unreliable narrators are so much more fun to write. To do this you have to occupy their minds and work out not just their truths, but also all the things that have led them to believe in their view of the world. Because the unreliability in our minds comes from the unreliability of the world. You see a criminal chasing a victim, I see a police officer chasing a criminal. Both presumptions about the same scene are born from our personal experiences. And when you put this into a dramatic, psychologically complex story it can be the key that unlocks everything.
Our recommendations
Unreliable Narrator
by Araminta Hall
This razor-sharp, creepy thriller will leave you constantly questioning what is real, as a woman discovers her life has been depicted in the pages of a bestselling novel. Ten years ago, ambitious and driven Hope landed a job with bohemian author Ambrose Glencourt, which ended in a fatal disaster. Hope has worked hard to keep the secret of those events ever since. But now, Ambrose has written a novel based on the story which paints a rather different version of events from what Hope remembers. Which one of them is the reliable narrator?
Beautiful Ugly
by Alice Feeney
This instant Sunday Times bestseller is a gripping and deliciously dark new thriller about marriage, and revenge. When Grady Green finds his wife’s car by a cliff edge, the headlights are on, the driver door is open, her phone is still there . . . but she is nowhere to be seen. A year later, still in the depths of grief and on a trip to a remote island in search of a fresh start, he sees the impossible: a woman who looks exactly like his missing wife. Prepare for a tense, atmospheric read with a chilling twist.
American Psycho
by Bret Easton Ellis
Patrick Bateman appears to have everything – youth, wealth, status – but beneath the polished Wall Street façade lurks a psychopathic killer, turning the American Dream into a cold, consumerist nightmare of modern capitalism. Adapted into a major feature film starring Christian Bale in 2000 and multi-million-copy bestseller, Ellis’s notorious novel remains one of the most controversial, disturbing psychological thrillers ever written.
Dissection of a Murder
by Jo Murray
What book could be more packed with unreliable narrators that a courtroom drama? This debut from Jo Murray features a dead judge, a silent defendant and a court full of liars. It's Leila Reynold's first murder case and the stakes couldn't be higher: it involves the death of a very well known judge. Leila doesn't think she's ready for such a big case but the defendant, Jack Millman, is insistent. He wants her. He's also refusing to talk. Suddenly, Leila finds herself fighting not only to keep Jack out of prison, but also to keep her own secrets buried.
One of the Good Guys
by Araminta Hall
Cole, considered the 'perfect husband,' is left shocked when his wife, Mel, decides to leave him. Seeking isolation, he moves to the coast and befriends Lennie, an artist leading a similarly solitary existence in a precarious cliff-edge cottage. But their quiet lives are upended when two young women vanish nearby while on a protest walk on the coast. Now at the centre of a police investigation and media storm, it becomes clear that Cole and Lennie may not know each other as well as they thought. Full of suspense, mystery and twists, this feminist thriller tells the story of what happens when women have had enough.
Luckiest Girl Alive
by Jessica Knoll
It's a perfect life: Ani FaNelli has a glam job, a designer wardrobe and a wealthy, handsome fiancé. But her life is a lie, and behind the facade lies a grim past. When a documentary producer invites Ani to tell her side of the violent incident that marked her teenage years, Ani confidently also invites the production company to film her lavish wedding. But as she tells her story, Ani's veneer begins to crack, and her whole carefully crafted life is thrown into question. The Netflix adaption of the story stars Mila Kunis in the lead role.
The Imposter
by Anna Wharton
A compelling story of obsession, loneliness and lies. Newspaper archivist Chloe lives a quiet life until the day she reads about the long-forgotten cold case of Angie Kyle, a girl who went missing as a child. When an unexpected turn of events finds her living as a lodger in Angie's parents' house, Chloe soon learns that the case of the missing girl is not as simple as it first seemed and becomes obsessed with finding out the truth.
