Who's Telling This Story? by Mary Dutta

Everyone has their own version of events. Unreliable narrators make great use of that fact.

Such characters are nothing new in literature. Nelly Dean, the housekeeper who narrates Wuthering Heights, brings her own biases and judgments to the events she describes. It soon becomes clear how Holden Caulfield’s trauma shapes his story in The Catcher in the Rye. Gone Girl even offers two unreliable narrators, Nick and Amy Dunne, whose efforts to mislead yield a twisty tale that leaves readers guessing until the very end.

Unreliable characters are a reliable literary device. Unlikable characters, however, are more contentious. Standard writing advice says readers must root for our characters at least somewhat or they won’t be invested in our stories. So even if a protagonist is speaking or acting in off-putting or objectionable ways, it is the writer’s job to make them engaging or relatable enough that the reader can still connect on some level. The bad guy is never the bad guy in their own story, after all. They see themselves as the hero.

This is especially true for crime fiction. When I write from the point of view of the criminal, I don’t expect readers to approve of the theft, or murder, or other crimes they commit. But I do want readers to understand why that character might have felt justified in their actions, even if they don’t agree. I hope to create a believable person rather than a cardboard villain.

I’m currently revising a story whose first version I wasn’t happy with. I realized that the problem wasn’t the plot or the tone or the language. It was that the protagonist was unlikable. The ending twist revealed that he had been exaggerating some objectionable stances and actions to divert attention from his crimes, but by the time that revelation rolled round the reader had been forced to spend too much time in the point of view of someone entirely unsympathetic and unpleasant. It didn’t matter that he was only pretending to be so.

The only way to salvage the story was to sideline him. He’s still there, because he helps advance the plot, but he’s less important and less obnoxious. The main character now is someone different, someone who is up to no good but for good reason (at least to them). Unreliable? Maybe. Unlikable? Definitely not.

 

Are you a fan of unreliable narrators? How about unlikable ones?