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Story trope

Unreliable Narrator

The person telling the story can't be trusted.

What is the unreliable narrator trope?

Gothic fiction loves a narrator who might be mad, lying or simply wrong. The reader becomes a detective, reading between the lines for what really happened.

Common variations

Madness or haunting?
Self-justifying villain
Narrator who forgets

What to watch out for

A twist that cheats rather than surprises

Classic examples

The Turn of the Screw by Henry James — free to read
The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe

Unreliable Narrator books

162 tagged

American Psycho
Bret Easton Ellis, Mariano Antolín Rato
1991★ 3.8
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
Agatha Christie
1926★ 4.2
FREE🎧
The Works of Edgar Allan Poe in Five Volumes
Edgar Allan Poe
1903
The Black Cat
Edgar Allan Poe
1914★ 4.1
My Sweet Audrina
V.C. Andrews
1982★ 3.6
Complete Stories and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe
1966★ 4.5
Tales of Mystery and Imagination [29 stories]
Edgar Allan Poe
1902
The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Tales [15 stories]
Edgar Allan Poe
1960★ 4.1
Great Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe [21 stories, 34 poems]
Edgar Allan Poe
1940
The Pit and the Pendulum and Other Stories (Black Cat / Pit and the Pendulum / Premature Burial / Tell-Tale Heart)
Edgar Allan Poe
1995★ 4.5
The Tell-Tale Heart and Other Writings
Edgar Allan Poe
1980★ 4.3
Five Classic Murder Mysteries (Boomerang Clue / Death Comes as the End / Moving Finger / Murder of Roger Ackroyd / Secret Adversary)
Agatha Christie
1985
The Works of Edgar Allan Poe [68 stories, 31 poems]
Edgar Allan Poe
1985
Ten Great Mysteries [10 stories, 5 poems]
Edgar Allan Poe, Conklin, Groff
1960
Horror Movie
Paul Tremblay
2024★ 4.0
Nouvelles histoires extraordinaires (Berenice / Black Cat / Cask of Amontillado / Colloquy of Monos and Una / Conversation of Eiros and Charmi / Devil in the Belfry / Fall of the House of Usher / Four Beasts in One / Hop-Frog / Imp of the Perverse / Island of the Fay / King Pest / Lionizing / Man of the Crowd / Masque of the Red Death / Oval Portrait / Pit and the Pendulum / Power of Words / Shadow / Silence / Some Words with a Mummy / Tell-Tale Heart / William Wilson)Edgar Allan Poe, Charles Baudelaire
Nouvelles histoires extraordinaires (Berenice / Black Cat / Cask of Amontillado / Colloquy of Monos and Una / Conversation of Eiros and Charmi / Devil in the Belfry / Fall of the House of Usher / Four Beasts in One / Hop-Frog / Imp of the Perverse / Island of the Fay / King Pest / Lionizing / Man of the Crowd / Masque of the Red Death / Oval Portrait / Pit and the Pendulum / Power of Words / Shadow / Silence / Some Words with a Mummy / Tell-Tale Heart / William Wilson)
Edgar Allan Poe, Charles Baudelaire
1857
Masterpieces of Murder (And Then There Were None / Death on the Nile / The Murder of Roger Ackroyd / Witness for the Prosecution)
Agatha Christie
1977
Tales of Mystery and Terror (Black Cat / Descent into the Maelstrom / Fall of the House of Usher / Hop-Frog / Masque of the Red Death / MS. Found in a Bottle / Oblong Box / Oval Portrait / Pit and the Pendulum / Some Words With a Mummy / Sphinx / Tell-Tale Heart / William Wilson)
Edgar Allan Poe
1967
Roger Caras' Treasury of Great Cat Stories
Roger A. Caras, Edgar Allan Poe
1987
Murder for Halloween
Michele B. Slung, Michelle Slung
1994
The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe [67 stories, 52 poems, 4 essays]
Edgar Allan Poe
1938
Complete Tales and Poems [71 stories, 64 poems, 1 essay]
Edgar Allan Poe
1992
In the Shadow of the Master
Edgar Allan Poe, Michael Connelly
2008
The United States in Literature -- The Glass Menagerie Edition
James Edwin Miller, Robert Hayden
1973★ 4.3
Ghostly
Audrey Niffenegger, Neil Gaiman
2015
Mystery Cats
Lilian Jackson Braun, Roy Vickers
1991
Tales of Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe
1944
Edgar Allan Poe's Tales of Mystery and Madness (Black Cat / Fall of the House of Usher / Hop-Frog / Masque of the Red Death)
Edgar Allan Poe, Gris Grimly
2004
Essential Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe [34 stories, 17 poems]
Edgar Allan Poe, Benjamin F Fisher
2004★ 4.8
The Complete Tales & Poems of Edgar Allan Poe [73 stories, 48 poems]
Edgar Allan Poe
1985
🎧
The Personal Poe Collection (Annabel Lee / Berenice / Black Cat / Cask of Amontillado / Hop-Frog / Masque of the Red Death / Pit and the Pendulum / Raven / System of Dr. Tarr and Prof. Fether / Tell-Tale Heart)
Edgar Allan Poe
2020
Selected Writings of Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe, David Galloway
1967
Best Short Stories -- Advanced Level
Raymond Harris, Katherine Mansfield
1980
Great Short Works of Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe, Gary Richard Thompson
1970
The Best Horror Stories
Robert Bloch, Ray Bradbury
1990
Purr-Fect Crime
Carol-Lynn Rössel Waugh, Martin H. Greenberg
1989
Dork
Sidin Vadukut
2010
More Stories to Remember -- Volume II
Thomas Bertram Costain, John Beecroft
1958
The Triumph of the Spider Monkey
Joyce Carol Oates
1976
The Sophisticated Cat
Joyce Carol Oates, Daniel Halpern
1992
Murders to Die For (Murder At the Vicarage / Murder in Mesopotamia / Murder Is Easy / Murder of Roger Ackroyd / Murder on the Links / Murder on the Orient Express / Sleeping Murder)
Agatha Christie
2005
The United States in Literature -- All My Sons Edition
James Edwin Miller, Robert Hayden
1973
Campfire Chillers
Edith M. Freeman, E.M. Freeman
1980
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd / The Mystery of the Blue Train / Dumb Witness / Death on the Nile
Agatha Christie
1983
Wolf's Complete Book of Terror
Leonard Wolf, Helen Adam
1979
The Saturday Evening Post Treasury
Roger butterfield, Roger Place Butterfield
1954
🎧
Twelve Creepy Tales [11 stories, 1 poem]
Edgar Allan Poe
2012
🎧
Six Creepy Stories (Berenice / Black Cat / Cask of Amontillado / Masque of the Red Death / Raven / Tell-Tale Heart)
Edgar Allan Poe
2013

Frequently asked questions

What is the Unreliable Narrator trope?

The person telling the story can't be trusted. Gothic fiction loves a narrator who might be mad, lying or simply wrong. The reader becomes a detective, reading between the lines for what really happened.

What are some unreliable narrator books?

Popular unreliable narrator books include American Psycho (1991), The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926), The Works of Edgar Allan Poe in Five Volumes (1903), The Black Cat (1914) and My Sweet Audrina (1982).