Top Ten Tuesday is currently hosted by artsyreadergirl and has weekly topics for bloggers to respond to and share. Click the link for more info and to read more submitted posts!
This prompt was one I suggested – Books that Include/Feature [insert your favourite theme or plot device here]! Exciting!
Obviously, I suggested this because I wanted to talk about Unreliable Narrators! I’ve just realised that half of these books I put on my list last week for 10 Character Quotes are also on this list… actually, every one of those characters I listed last week counts as an unreliable narrator for one reason or another, so refer to that for even more!
1. Bunny by Mona Awad
You know I love it! The fun of Bunny is trying to work out what you think is actually happening? How much is real, and how much is a product of Samantha’s fragile psyche?
2. Penance by Eliza Clark
I saw a reviewer on Goodreads describe this as “the final boss of unreliable narrators” and it’s so accurate! This novel cleverly plays with the idea of unreliable narrators to critique the True Crime industry. Everything about the narrative in this book is unreliable – the friends and family, memory, and the reporter’s agenda.
3. We Spread by Iain Reid
This wonderful weird fiction takes place from the point of view of an elderly woman in a care home. Are there sinister happenings at Six Cedars, or it is all a symptom of Penny’s dementia? This was a POV I haven’t read before, and written was very effective with a fast, disorienting pace.
4. All’s Well by Mona Awad
Miranda’s point of view is at first coloured by the depression and frustration caused by her chronic pain, and then by euphoria and mania when she gains the power to transfer it. It’s a wild ride! I loved trying to picture what everyone else in the room with her was experiencing.
5. Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
In a similar vein to Penance, Alias Grace takes on True Crime – all be it True Crime from 1843! Grace Marks was never a reliable narrator for the murder she was convicted of thirty years ago, but also mix in the biased point of view of the male psychologist hired to assess her mental state with a view to petitioning her release. How much of Grace’s story is true? Is she deliberately lying, or has time and the stories in the media coloured her memory?
6. Atonement by Ian McEwan
This heart-breaking book chronicles the far-reaching effects of the misguided testimony of an unreliable and inexperienced child. I read this in my twenties, so I’m overdue for a re-read.
7. Money by Martin Amis
I read this at university and it blew my mind, this was a whole different kind of unreliable narrator. John Self is a disgusting hedonist of the lowest order, but I could barely put this book down. He doesn’t lie to the reader with any deliberate agenda he just doesn’t know what the truth is because he’s so fucked up and confused all the time. This one isn’t for those with a sensitive disposition!
8. Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe
Another one from university and the first book I remember reading and really thinking about the unreliability of the narrator, it’s also the earliest English novel to use this technique. This one has layers because the account we’re reading is an autobiography Moll has paid for, and so she’s not even the one writing it. We immediately learn that “Moll Flanders” is not even her real name, and that she was a career criminal. In her own story she lies to various marks, and to get herself out of trouble, so what would stop her from lying to the reader? Roxanna also by Defoe is another cunning female narrator!
9. Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
It’s Eleanor’s trauma and depression that make her an unreliable narrator, but as she slowly begins to heal her memory clears and she is able to acknowledge the truth of her past. The twists are well sign posted but I was invested in waiting for Eleanor to get there with me.
10. A Certain Hunger by Celeste G. Summers
Is this a masterpiece? No, but I absolutely loved being in the superior and twisted POV of Dorothy Daniels and her extensive vocabulary. She’s a proud psychopath who through writing this prison memoir really wants you to know how brilliantly clever and sexy she was in murdering (and eating) her victims. This one is ridiculous, it made me laugh a lot. It might lack substance but my word the writing is a hilarious send-up of pompous food critics! Definitely a guilty pleasure!
I can’t wait to see what everyone else has picked for their Favourite Thing!
![Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir 4/5 stars [The Locked Tomb #1]. I didn’t think this would be for me, and yet... against all the odds (tone, style, characters) ... I LOVED IT?! A surprisingly challenging novel that I already plan to re-read in print.](https://thewallflowerdigest.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/gideon-1-600x600.png)
Gotta love an unreliable narrator! Great list. I really want to read A Certain Hunger. Even more so after reading your mini review. Here’s my list: https://damppebbles.com/2025/03/11/toptentuesday-11th-march-2025/
I loved Bunny! What a crazy read! I should read more Mona Awad. I have been meaning to read Alias, Grace for years. I need to actually get to it.
I definitely recommend All’s Well! Rogue is ok but it didn’t resonate with me in the same way.
I love this topic and have read a bunch of these! Bunny is one I really want to get to.
Bunny is wild, I’m always interested to see what people make of it!
Alias Grace was excellent.
I only finished that a few weeks ago. It took a while to get into but by the end I loved it!
Moll Flanders was the bane of my existence in high school. Honestly, I think I despised everything about it.
Pam @ Read! Bake! Create!
https://readbakecreate.com/mature-citizens-of-the-world-books-featuring-mature-characters/
I read it in my third year of Uni as part of a Crime in 18th Century Lit. Module so I was primed for it! I even wrote my Dissertation on it (and Roxana!). Reading it in school would probably have been tougher!
This was a great topic and I’ve enjoyed seeing what everyone has chosen this week.
A recent read with an unreliable narrator was None Of This Is True by Lisa Jewell. I thought it was brilliant!
I thought that one was alright, but I felt like the title gave away all the fun for me. The audiobook was an amazing production though!
I preferred Watching You by Lisa Jewell for unreliable the POVs, I thought that played with the readers expectations in a clever way.
I did listen to the audio version and yes it was brilliant. I haven’t read Watching You. Will check that one out.
I’ve only read Eleanor Oliphant from your list but I have Alias Grace and I really need to get to it one day!
This is a great list! It’s got a mix of books on my TBR, books I’ve read, and books I haven’t even heard of before. Eleanor Oliphant turned out to be one of my favorite reads, and I saw Alias Grace as a show before realizing it was originally a book.
An unreliable narrator is such a favorite plot device of mine, but only when it’s done well. I keep seeing Atonement on lists this week, and had to add it to my TBR because now I have FOMO 🤣
I never watched the Alias Grave show but I didn’t know it was a book either when that came out!
I think I need to reread Atonement it’s been such a long time. The unreliable narrator element is interesting in that one, because it has the narrator realising later in her life that she was wrong.
I like the unreliable narrator plot device as long as it’s done well. When it’s not, I just feel cheated! LOL. I haven’t read any of these books yet, although a couple of them are on my TBR list.
Happy TTT (on a Wednesday)!
Susan
http://www.blogginboutbooks.com
The only one I’ve read from here is Atonement, I read it relatively recently, and I was blown away, especially because it’s so outside of my comfort zone, but I’m so glad I read it. Great topic 🙂
My TTT this week
https://darkshelfofwonders.com/top-10-books-that-feature-a-glittering-ball/