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My book club debated if we should ban first-person narratives
Last week, my group spent 45 minutes arguing that 'It Ends With Us' would've been better in third person, and it made me wonder why we automatically assume a narrator's version is the truth. Has anyone else's club ever questioned the whole reliability of first-person POV?
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parker_foster535d ago
I remember reading this thing about how first person actually makes our brains work differently. Some study showed that when you read "I walked into the room," your brain lights up like you're actually doing the walking. But here's the thing that got me - the same study said that makes you more likely to trust the narrator automatically, even if they're clearly unreliable. My book club had a whole fight about "Gone Girl" because half of us bought Amy's diary entries as truth until the rug pull. It's like the format itself is doing a little trick on you before the real plot even starts. That's why I kinda like when authors play with it and make you work for the real story.
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maryadams5d ago
Did your friend ever read that book where the narrator straight up admits they're lying? I know someone who started this thriller and the whole first chapter was this guy telling his side of a breakup, then chapter two switches to his ex's journal and you find out he left out the part where he stole her dog. She had to put the book down for a week because she felt so tricked. Now she reads every first person book like she's a detective looking for clues about what the narrator is hiding. It makes her reading slower but she says she catches stuff other people miss. I think that's a good way to look at it because no real person tells a story totally straight.
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