Not too long ago, I shared about my love for unreliable narrators in fiction and I even came out with a list. But recently I had a discussion about these narrators and I realized some of my friends had pretty serious opinions about them as well. And not everyone loves them. Shocking!!
It was for me, at least. I mean what is there to not like in them, right? RIGHT?
Credit: Tenor
Well, my so called friends (am seriously reconsidering my allies here!) gave me bunch of reasons to support, which I begrudgingly have to accept, that the unreliable narrators might not be for everyone.
But I am sure there is at least one kind of unreliable narrator that each of us like. They are not all the same!!!
Types of unreliable narrators
Yes today I am gonna talk about the kinds of unreliable narrators that we usually find in fictional world and why they are so important in their books. Ready for the ride?
Unreliable narrators that are naïve
Okay not totally naïve but they can’t help it. For some reason they are not fully aware of what is happening to/around them, maybe by their own doing or not.
For example, Jack from the Room was inside the shed for years before he was broken out and seeing the world with the innocence of a young boy is definitely not reliable.
Unreliable narrators whose perception is misleading
There are many characters that fall into this category in the recent times. Christopher Boone from The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, for instance, cannot be taken at his face value, as he on the Asperger’s / Autistic spectrum and his understanding of things is quite literal and lacks depth.
Patrick Peoples from The Silver Linings Playbook and Charlie from the Perks of being a wallpaper have repressed memories, while Rachel from the girl on the train has been under the influence of alcohol almost the entire time of the story.
And these books largely depend on these narrators and otherwise would have been another run of the mill novel.
Omitting to state the facts is also kinda lying, of course. But Eva does that so well in We need to talk about Kevin. The whole books is written in the form of letters to her estranged husband and she talks about everything but why Kevin did what he did (mass shooting at his school) and if she did enough to prevent that from happening.
I recently read the Woman in the Window for my book club and found that Dr Anna Fox holds back a lot from others and the reader as well. Well, on a happier note that backfires right at her and that plays so well into holding the suspense to the story.
Unreliable narrators that outright lie and manipulate
These are my favorite kind of unreliable narrators!
Man, they toy with us and mislead us perfectly into their trap without breaking a sweat. Take Patrick from American Psycho, he is suave, well read and smart and he commits gruesome murders with a finesse (or not!). His unreliability is the only thing that left us questioning the reality at the end.
Credit: Giphy
I love Gone Girl and I adore Gillian Flynn‘s writing and her unreliable characters (yes there are many). Nick and Amy seem sincere and innocent until we start unraveling their traps and deceit. I mean talk about the plot twists these unreliable narrators provide.
Final words
Yes, they misrepresent facts, break our trusts and some time lie to our faces even. But so what?
Credit: Giphy
I mean what narrator is truly objective and trustworthy! They all talk about the things they believe are true. So what if these narrators add a bit of bias, color the truth or even hold stuff back from the reader? They are as amazing as their lying conniving selves they can be, to me!
New year, New day and hopefully a new beginning. I know time is just a man made construct and the ‘new year’ doesn’t change anything. But for me, and many of others, this is big deal. And if you are anything like me, you probably have great plans and schedules that are ready and have just begun to be put to use.
I don’t call them resolutions, because we all know how quick I am at failing them. But they are typically long to do lists and new ideas to be tried out. So what is on store for this year? Let me show you my GRAND plans for the new year.
Reading Plans
Here is a list of reading challenges that I will be participating this year.
Goodreads Reading Challenge 2019
I think this is the most basic of all the reading challenges. I am increasing my target from 35 to 45. I know it might seem very less compared to other prolific readers/ bloggers around here. But I hate having to stress about reaching the target and not enjoying the book.
Target: 45
A – Z reading challenge 2019
Hosted by the Ginger Mom and company, I did great last year and that motivated me to join this year’s challenge as well. But this year I will plan to participate more and be more social.
Target: Reading books with the titles starting with all the letters of the alphabets
Reading more classics
One of the major goals I have is to read more classics during the year. And I will following these two challenges for my reading choices.
Penguin’s classic books reading challenge for 2019
I love reading indies and promoting indie authors. I am making it a point to read more indie books anyway, so why not make a big deal of it and join a challenge for that, hosted by As told by Tina.
It has been years since I read a Nancy Drew and I found a stash of those books a while ago. So I am going to take a go at it. I will be following this Goodreads group as a guide.
Blogging Plans and actions
We come to the interesting part of the post – the blog plan.
I participated in the Tidyathon hosted by Clo and Sam of Book Dragon247 and Fictionally Sam and I totally loved it. And all the colorfulness you see on my blog are just a result of that. It is still a work in progress, let us just face it, editing about 200+ posts and graphics is not a small deal. At least that is what I tell myself.
For 2019, I decided I will blog better, like every other blogger here. But knowing me I won’t do well without an action plan. So here are my plans.
Blog content
When I started Elgee Writes I used to post lots of book reviews and a little bit of personal updates. I have come a long way from that and currently I post four times a month with a variety of content like quotes, quizzes and tags and lot of discussion posts with a weekly review.
And joining Nicole’s Book Blog Discussion Challenge last year made the switch more easier. So I will be joining the challenge for 2019 as well. As I was saying earlier, I will be more vocal and participative in this link up as well.
I am also planning to include more fun and non bookish posts in the coming months but not to worry, it will stay a book blog.
I am proud of myself with my last year’s blog hopping and I plan it to keep up.
Action:
Visit blogs I follow at least weekly once.
Reply to all the comments on my blog
Return the comments by visiting their blogs
Learn to follow and use blog statistics.
And to care about the follower counts.
Blogging Schedule
This is a more obvious one – more consistent blogging.
I already post 4 times a week and I more or less am consistent in doing that. I plan to continue that but I am trying to make it more streamlined. I am putting to use of all the time I have spent on ‘pretending to be organized’ into becoming actually organized.
So what I am going to do differently?
Action:
Planning the topics ahead of time.
Working in batches
Scheduling posts at least two days before the publishing date
Taking planned holidays off the blog
Make more blogging friends
Yes you heard it right!
Blogging has got me so many new virtual friends this year, especially ones with similar interests. Isn’t that really great?
I am part of a few Discord, Facebook and Twitter groups. But being the introverted booknerds that we are, it is understandable that I didn’t take part in the conversations as much as I wanted. So this year I will be doing exactly that.
I don’t usually talk about my personal life and goals online but I am making an exception. I will explain why in a bit.
Take more photos of the places I visit. (Bonus if I post on Instagram)
Learn to knit
Take initiative to talk to more people
Create and follow routines in general life (See I am being more organized!)
Self care and self love, for obvious reasons and I am not breaking that down
I guess that is it for now! I am not going to be trying too hard or be stressing myself with these plans, but using these action plans as guidelines and take it as they come.
Pin me!
Let us talk
What are your goals for the year? Do you have New Year resolutions? Share your favorite blog that I should be following already. Let us talk.
You know what, I will tell you guys myself! I am an indecisive schmuck when it comes to choosing my next read. And I used to think it was normal too, until I saw those beautiful posts on monthly and weekly TBRs. Well, as much as they inspired me, they broke me.
How I Choose My Next Read?
So I guess I need a system. FOR CHOOSING MY NEXT READ. That makes sense doesn’t it? I should not be wasting an hour or two of my precious time on deciding what I am reading next instead of reading it already. Especially with the tremendous growth I have been showing when it came to planning of late. It should be a cake walk right?
Let us get on with it, I will choose my next read right away WITHOUT WASTING ANYMORE TIME.
Method 1: Choosing the book (ARC – Advance review copies) that is closest to the publishing date.
Well, these seem obvious right? With planning and I being so chummy these days, I just have to choose one that is near the deadline. I never thought it was going to be this simple. Now I can just read!
BUT.. But I don’t feel like waging a war with the zombie right now. Maybe, I am in the mood for a romance, especially since it is winter and all.
Let me check the Goodreads’ romance shelf.
*Ends up ordering two or three or ten books and spends the night worrying about how broke I am*
Method 2: Choose a book from the recommendations and reviews of your favorite blogger
Today is new day and a new beginning. Let me pick one book before I have my morning coffee so that I can start reading while I commute or run errands.
Let us make this easy. Pick the one that your favorite blogger recommended recently.
But which one? I have so many favorite bloggers and they have so many books on their recommendation.
It is going to take a while, guys. Let me get that coffee first.
*Ends up blog hopping till it is dark, skipping breakfast, lunch and survives on coffee*
Method 3: Pick one that has stayed the longest on your TBR
I will just pick the one that I have in my TBR already.
May be the one I added the first, like the First in first out. This method works so well for stocks in the stores, it should work me too.
OMG, I need to read THIS, I have no idea why I have not read this. It has been so long that I don’t even know where it is. I just have to find this on my shelf.
Well, that is a bust. I have no clue where it is.
Method 4: Pick the one right next to you, literally.
You know what? I am just going to pick that random book that is physically near me and save the time instead of searching for one in these heap.
But my e-reader has like 100s of books and it is near me as it should be as always. Should I pick that one up already? The ‘latest one I added in that’ makes more sense right? What am I if not the most sensible one!
I am going for it. And I am just going to ignore the hard copies and their beautiful covers. Like I care about them. Or do I?
Method 5: Take a quiz or two
Sigh I give up. I can’t do this. I wish someone told me what to read. Someone like Goodreads but not exactly that.
No two bookworms can be same, right? Even if we read similar books and have similar tastes in bookish things, we can’t all be the same, can we? And that is true especially in my case because most of my bookish habits are weird and eccentric.
Tell me how different am I in my bookish habits than you in the comment section below, won’t you?
10. I do not care for the book covers
Of course, I love a beautiful art work on the book as much as any one else.
But I do not buy or judge books based on their covers. And in case of e-books I rarely even glance or remember them. I know many of my fellow book bloggers who do wonderful displays with those book covers on #bookstagrams, but sigh I can not be one of them.
9. You can’t spoil it for me
I don’t care for spoilers as such but I don’t mind if I stumble upon a few by mistake.
I know it might spoil the suspense or even the ending of the story for some, not for me. While I am not one to jump to the last age to know the ending, I am okay with a few small details or a major twist that I hear anyway. You will never find asking me to spare the spoilers
8. People before books, I guess
I am the crazy bag lady (mostly) who always carries a book or five with me everywhere I go. Yet if I were reading a book and someone talks to me, I close the book and talk to them.
When I am reading a physical copy I always try and remember the page I stop at. In fact I don’t even own bookmarks except for the free ones that come with the books. What is the point of owning those fabulous. beautiful bookmarks when I seldom use them right?
I can only see those awesome people who use those bookmarks or anything that resembles it so cleverly. Sigh.
6. I try to pause my reading at page that ends with 5 or 0.
This is one of the habits that I formed right from my childhood and I can’t seem to break it. Remember I told I don’t use bookmarks and I try to remember where I stopped at. So to make matters easier, I used to stop only at pages that ended in fives or tens.
Well, you can consider this as my kinda ‘five more minutes’ before bed time.
5. Read the book before I watch the screen adaptations
I am not sure when this habit started but I always make sure I read the book before I can get myself to watch its series or movies adaptation. I know I have broken this rule once or twice, owing to ignorance about the book at all or just the sheer volume of the book. I have found some great books and classics at that.
I am definitely gonna keep up with this one, so that I can see my own imaginations.
4. I have poor memory for character names and settings
I remember the names of most of the people I have met in real life, but I forget the settings / locations and the names of the characters I read in the books. Okay not immediately but in a while and this makes me the worst candidate for reading books in series.
Oh, to overcome this disadvantage, I can say, I have even started noting the character names and locations in my reviews.
3. It takes me a while decide on the books
Though this is not a steadfast habit and there have been lots of books that I have loved right from the first chapter, I usually take a few minutes or hours off from the book to decide how I felt about it.
After the break I start recollecting what I liked and didn’t like about the book, since I don’t usually take notes for books I read for reviewing. This works for now I guess.
2. Audio books are a huge no-no for me
I have enjoyed a few audio books in the past but I feel they require to much effort from me. I have to try much harder to focus on the narrator’s voice than the writing or the story itself.
It is so draining and as you all know, the time taken usually is a lot more. For me reading comes naturally, listening not so much.
1. I jump into a book blindly
Like most of us, I add a lot of books to my to-be-read shelf from others recommendations and blogs. But I like reading a book with zero knowledge about it.I like to be surprised by how good the book turns out to be, or bad in some cases.
I don’t even read the blurb usually and it is a blessing, sometimes, that I have such a poor memory that I even forget the reviews I read when I added the book to my list.
It seems to me that I am the only one that have these habits. Let me know if you have or do any of these things and make me feel better, please.
If you had been following my blog for a while you might have realized that I don’t give up easily. Sure I come back here on my blog and bitch about how hard the book was to read, but I don’t usually give up on the book or as we book nerds call it DNF aka Did Not Finish.
I do wonder if that is a wrong thing to do sometimes a lot of times. I mean there are literally millions of other books in the world and why am I not reading something else that I would actually enjoy more. Well my dear fellow nerds, I am gonna tell you why.
10. I want to give it a chance or two.
I know many people who believe in giving up on books if they are not enjoying it in the first 50 pages! Oh but not me. I totally believe in second or er.. even fourth chances. I just don’t want to wonder how the book was after I quit on it. See I am just being fair.
9. I have spent way too much time on it.
I generally read fairly fast. It is only when I struggle to like a book I take longer to complete it. But I don’t want to give it up since I have already spent too much time on it. You see the conundrum- to give up or not!
I have a weird rule when it comes to book adaptation. Books before screen. Yes, when I hear about the new movie / series that is being adapted from a book, I would want to read the book before the visual details could spoil my imagination. I want to see my own movie inside my head before I could watch the larger one. I am sure most of y’all understand what I mean!
6. But I love this author.
As any bookworm would do, I have some serious author obsessions. It goes without saying if I read a book by an author and I love it, I am gonna pick their next one too, irrespective of the reviews and rumors. And even if I don’t like it right away, I somehow believe that I will grow on to to like it. Of course I have been let down by this assumption far too many times for my own good.
5. I promised them I would review.
Of all the reasons I have stated above, only this one could be considered legitimate.
As you all know I am currently open for accepting books for review and manuscripts for beta reading. And when I do accept such books/MS, I feel obliged to read it completely before I review them. Even if I hated it all the way.
4. ‘What is wrong with me?’
Most of the books I pick up for reading or add to my never ending TBR list are from other bloggers’ recommendations. While I don’t necessarily read the blurb or review before I read a book, when I struggle through a book and I am this close to giving up, the glowing recommendations it had had received pop up in my brain. That takes me down on a spiral that ultimately leads to ‘what is wrong with me?’
Solution: Read it and read it fully you might like it.
3. I work towards a goal, people
On a similar note, I have a personal rule that I would rate, review and / or count the book towards my reading challenge only when I finish a book. It means when I DNF a book, I don’t get to rant about it or even to add it up on my yearly challenge. With the yearly reading slump I am getting onto, I can’t afford to do that, can I?
You all know it. Reading Lolita or the Tale of two cities is always gonna be a bumpy ride. I can’t think of reading a classic without giving it up a few times, for a short while. I somehow get back to them and finish reading them even if it is a long term project. I mean what is life without a few challenges, right? RIGHT?
1. I have given up on my life.
Let us face it. Being a book worm and freelancer writer I do not have a life outside books and my laptop. So what am I losing in reading few more hundreds of pages before I can truly say ‘I hated this book’? I have given up on my life and books have taken over it.
Do you DNF comfortably? Or do you find reasons, like me, to keep pushing yourself? Are there any other reasons that you don’t give up? Let me know the most recent book that you DNF-ed.
Dani from Perspective of a Writer gave us a prompt to discuss my Favorite Stephen King Character for the week. As most of you all might guessed that it is for the love of the King of horror that I jumped on to post for this meme. Let us get on to this shall we?
While it may not be the most popular of Stephen King’s novels, Rose Madder will always hold a special place in my mind. My relationship with Stephen King has not always been smooth and it was Rose Madder that made all the difference. So it might not come as a surprise that I would choose someone from it as a character I love…. to hate.
Yes you heard it right.
I choose a character that I completely hate yet I can’t ever push to some dark corner of my mind and forget about or move on from. Intrigued? Let us talk about Norman Daniels.
Who is Norman Daniels?
Norman Daniels is the antagonist of Rose Madder. Norman Daniels was a police officer in Aubreyville and married to Rose McClendon. The story majorly deals with how Rose escapes the clutches of the masochist and malevolent Norman, making Norman play a predominant role.
What makes Norman Daniels such a remarkable fictitious character?
Norman is sexually, physically and emotionally abusive towards his wife Rosie. He beats Rosie for reading a trashy book (brace yourself, Misery’s journey) so much that causes her miscarriage. Being a cop and having cop friends makes it easier for him to get away with it.
Rose doesn’t even dare to get away from him because she knows he will find her, for about nine more years. And even when she finally runs away, he finds her as she suspected.
He is racist, homophobic and also sexist
Norman Daniels is a crude redneck that hates more than half the population, quite literally. He hates everyone almost equally, be it women, gays, African Americans and the Jews. He bites homosexual men to death. He doesn’t think twice about killing a witness.
He is the sickest of fictional human monsters – ever
Norman Daniels makes the other Norman, from the Psycho and the Bates Motel look nice.
His favorite method of punishing men is to pop their testicles and/or bite them. He has already raped and murdered a witness and continues to punch, kick, bite and murder women and men alike as he stalks his runaway wife without remorse.
I can bet that one cannot read the opening scene of Rose Madder, that entails the scene of his beating, her miscarriage and him getting away with it, without wincing. I had to put my book down more than once to get over it.
He has no redeeming qualities whatsoever. He is one of the truest monsters not just of Stephen King’s creation but also in any book I have ever read /heard of.
He literally turns into an animal
As if this is not evil enough, he turns into a minotaur by the end of the book.
His rage and his obsession literally and figuratively changed him into a raging bull whn he finds out Rose ‘s location and that she is dating another man. He also realizes that she is supported by her lesbian friends at the women’s shelter. He murders them and rushes to Rose’s apartment where he almost kills Bill, Rose’s date.
If Norman Daniels was the worst ever, why and how did he become my favorite character?
Norman Daniels controlled the entire story
As one would expect of a Stephen King’s book, Rose Madder has its supernatural elements. While things are not picture perfect (pun intended) and the supernatural part was okayish at the best, at least for me, it was Norman that made the entire book strong.
Even when the macho Norman turns to a panic stricken human afraid for his life, I could not ignore him. The book would have worked so much better as a thriller/suspense about an abused woman and her crazy husband.
How many characters, in the entire Stephen King world of books, have had the power to make the book work even without the supernatural elements? None other than Norman Daniels, IMO.
And that to me, that is the mark of a character etched to perfection.
Who is your favorite character from Stephen King’s world? Do you have any antagonists that you cannot move on from? Have you read Rose Madder? Let us chat.
