Submitted by lucia-pacciola t3_zz1ubh in books
EDIT: Big thanks to all of you who recommended the Agatha Christie book!
I'm talking about well-written stories, by an author who's an actual competent storyteller. Stories where you know the narrator isn't necessarily being entirely truthful or accurate in their account. AND! AND it's not just indistinguishable from bad writing or poor characterization. And also not just readers nit-picking.
A good example of an unreliable narrator: Patrick Bateman (American Psycho, by Brett Easton Ellis). Can we trust Bateman's account? Not at all. Bateman doesn't even trust his account. But it's the only account we have, so we make do with his unreliability.
A bad example of an unreliable narrator(?): Severian (Book of the New Sun, by Gene Wolfe). Every example of Severian's unreliability I've seen either seems to not be an example, or just be a reader's nit-picking.
What are some other good examples of an unreliable narrator in literature?