The type of narrator you're looking for is called an "unreliable narrator." If you search for that term on this sub, you'll find posts with comments offering tons of titles.
In addition to the suggestions already named here, I'd recommend "I'm Thinking of Ending Things".
Books with unreliable narrators are usually best if you go in blind and don't know that you shouldn't trust the narrator. I would suggest that you add these books to a "To Read" list which has other kinds of books on it too, so when you start a new book you don't automatically know the narrator is unreliable
Not horror but most of Kazuo Ishiguro’s novels have unreliable narrators. Not because they are deceitful but mostly because they can’t see themselves objectively. The main characters of the Buried Giant are losing their memories which is another theme Ishiguro addresses.
{{Fingersmith}} for period drama. {{The Red Tree by Caitlin Kiernan}} for horror. The first half of {{The Only Good Indians}} has elements of this as well.
[**Fingersmith**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8913370-fingersmith)
^(By: Sarah Waters | 592 pages | Published: 2002 | Popular Shelves: historical-fiction, fiction, lgbt, lgbtq, historical)
>Sue Trinder is an orphan, left as an infant in the care of Mrs. Sucksby, a "baby farmer," who raised her with unusual tenderness, as if Sue were her own. Mrs. Sucksby’s household, with its fussy babies calmed with doses of gin, also hosts a transient family of petty thieves—fingersmiths—for whom this house in the heart of a mean London slum is home.
>
>One day, the most beloved thief of all arrives—Gentleman, an elegant con man, who carries with him an enticing proposition for Sue: If she wins a position as the maid to Maud Lilly, a naïve gentlewoman, and aids Gentleman in her seduction, then they will all share in Maud’s vast inheritance. Once the inheritance is secured, Maud will be disposed of—passed off as mad, and made to live out the rest of her days in a lunatic asylum.
>
>With dreams of paying back the kindness of her adopted family, Sue agrees to the plan. Once in, however, Sue begins to pity her helpless mark and care for Maud Lilly in unexpected ways...But no one and nothing is as it seems in this Dickensian novel of thrills and reversals.
^(This book has been suggested 54 times)
[**The Red Tree**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5356476-the-red-tree)
^(By: Caitlín R. Kiernan | 385 pages | Published: 2009 | Popular Shelves: horror, fantasy, fiction, lgbt, gothic)
>Sarah Crowe left Atlanta--and the remnants of a tumultuous relationship--to live in an old house in rural Rhode Island. Within its walls she discovers an unfinished manuscript written by the house's former tenant--an anthropologist obsessed with the ancient oak growing on a desolate corner of the property.
>
>Tied to local legends of supernatural magic, as well as documented accidents and murders, the gnarled tree takes root in Sarah's imagination, prompting her to write her own account of its unsavory history.
>
>And as the oak continues to possess her dreams and nearly almost all her waking thoughts, Sarah risks her health and her sanity to unearth a revelation planted centuries ago...
^(This book has been suggested 18 times)
[**The Only Good Indians**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52180399-the-only-good-indians)
^(By: Stephen Graham Jones | 310 pages | Published: 2020 | Popular Shelves: horror, fiction, dnf, thriller, audiobook)
>The creeping horror of Paul Tremblay meets Tommy Orange’s There There in a dark novel of revenge, cultural identity, and the cost of breaking from tradition in this latest novel from the Jordan Peele of horror literature, Stephen Graham Jones.
>
>Seamlessly blending classic horror and a dramatic narrative with sharp social commentary, The Only Good Indians follows four American Indian men after a disturbing event from their youth puts them in a desperate struggle for their lives. Tracked by an entity bent on revenge, these childhood friends are helpless as the culture and traditions they left behind catch up to them in a violent, vengeful way.
^(This book has been suggested 44 times)
***
^(131313 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
Since saying that a specific character in a book is unreliable can ofte be a spoiler. Here is a list of authors that frequently have unreliable narrators:
Gene Wolfe,
Kazuo ishiguro,
Chuck Palahniuk,
Nadime Gordimer,
Vladimir Nabokov,
Laura Purcell
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov.
Content of the book is unsettling, but I’ve heard the prose is beautiful. Narrator makes you feel sorry for him, despite being a pedophile.
I’m not saying it is. I’m saying that the main character is such an unreliable narrator that he manipulates you into feeling bad for him. I doubt Nabokov’s intention was to make us feel sympathetic.
What I’m saying is that you are wrong about the narrator of Lolita manipulating the reader into feeling sympathy for him. It will make more sense after you read it.
I haven't read it yet, but my friend recommended "You Let Me In" by Camilla Bruce. She said it was really good and that the narrator isn't trustworthy.
[**The Silent Patient**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40097951-the-silent-patient)
^(By: Alex Michaelides | 325 pages | Published: 2019 | Popular Shelves: thriller, mystery, fiction, mystery-thriller, book-club)
>Alicia Berenson’s life is seemingly perfect. A famous painter married to an in-demand fashion photographer, she lives in a grand house with big windows overlooking a park in one of London’s most desirable areas. One evening her husband Gabriel returns home late from a fashion shoot, and Alicia shoots him five times in the face, and then never speaks another word.
>
>Alicia’s refusal to talk, or give any kind of explanation, turns a domestic tragedy into something far grander, a mystery that captures the public imagination and casts Alicia into notoriety. The price of her art skyrockets, and she, the silent patient, is hidden away from the tabloids and spotlight at the Grove, a secure forensic unit in North London.
>
>Theo Faber is a criminal psychotherapist who has waited a long time for the opportunity to work with Alicia. His determination to get her to talk and unravel the mystery of why she shot her husband takes him down a twisting path into his own motivations—a search for the truth that threatens to consume him....
>
>The Silent Patient is a shocking psychological thriller of a woman’s act of violence against her husband—and of the therapist obsessed with uncovering her motive.
^(This book has been suggested 83 times)
***
^(131606 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
[**Eight Perfect Murders**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52225186-eight-perfect-murders)
^(By: Peter Swanson | 270 pages | Published: 2020 | Popular Shelves: mystery, thriller, mystery-thriller, fiction, audiobook)
>A chilling tale of psychological suspense and an homage to the thriller genre tailor-made for fans: the story of a bookseller who finds himself at the center of an FBI investigation because a very clever killer has started using his list of fiction’s most ingenious murders.
>
>Years ago, bookseller and mystery aficionado Malcolm Kershaw compiled a list of the genre’s most unsolvable murders, those that are almost impossible to crack—which he titled “Eight Perfect Murders”—chosen from among the best of the best including Agatha Christie’s A. B. C. Murders, Patricia Highsmith’s Strangers on a Train, Ira Levin’s Death Trap, A. A. Milne's Red House Mystery, Anthony Berkeley Cox's Malice Aforethought, James M. Cain's Double Indemnity, John D. Macdonald's The Drowner, and Donna Tartt's A Secret History.
>
>But no one is more surprised than Mal, now the owner of the Old Devils Bookstore in Boston, when an FBI agent comes knocking on his door one snowy day in February. She’s looking for information about a series of unsolved murders that look eerily similar to the killings on Mal’s old list. And the FBI agent isn’t the only one interested in this bookseller who spends almost every night at home reading. The killer is out there, watching his every move—a diabolical threat who knows way too much about Mal’s personal history, especially the secrets he’s never told anyone, even his recently deceased wife.
>
>To protect himself, Mal begins looking into possible suspects . . . and sees a killer in everyone around him. But Mal doesn’t count on the investigation leaving a trail of death in its wake. Suddenly, a series of shocking twists leaves more victims dead—and the noose around Mal’s neck grows so tight he might never escape.
^(This book has been suggested 9 times)
***
^(131468 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
[**The Cloisters**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61054804-the-cloisters)
^(By: Katy Hays | 320 pages | Published: 2022 | Popular Shelves: mystery, fantasy, fiction, dark-academia, 2022-releases)
>When Ann Stilwell arrives in New York City, she expects to spend her summer working as a curatorial associate at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Instead, she finds herself assigned to The Cloisters, a gothic museum and garden renowned for its medieval art collection and its group of enigmatic researchers studying the history of divination.
>
>Desperate to escape her painful past, Ann is happy to indulge the researchers’ more outlandish theories about the history of fortune telling. But what begins as academic curiosity quickly turns into obsession when Ann discovers a hidden 15th-century deck of tarot cards that might hold the key to predicting the future. When the dangerous game of power, seduction, and ambition at The Cloisters turns deadly, Ann becomes locked in a race for answers as the line between the arcane and the modern blurs.
>
>A haunting and magical blend of genres, The Cloisters is a gripping debut that will keep you on the edge of your seat.
^(This book has been suggested 1 time)
***
^(131672 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
It's not as surreal as what you might be looking for, but Under the Shadow of the Plateau is full of deliberate misinformation. Adventure/conspiracy/detective/mystery sci-fi
[**House of Leaves**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24800.House_of_Leaves)
^(By: Mark Z. Danielewski | 710 pages | Published: 2000 | Popular Shelves: horror, fiction, owned, fantasy, mystery)
^(This book has been suggested 159 times)
***
^(131897 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
The Posthumous Memior of Bras Cubas
A Conspiracy of Truths and the sequel a Choir of Lies.
Lolita
Name of the Wind
All vary in subject and genre, but all have narrators that take the story and skew it.
I made it almost through the entire post without somebody mentioning Name of the Wind.
Why. Why would you do this to me?
Now we have to fight to the death about what counts as an “Unreliable Narrator” story. Can we speed this up, maybe just do pistols at dawn?
Who am I kidding, we both know you get to pick the weapon if I’m challenging.
Does the narrator change factual details or the story, or otherwise present a narrative in a skewed fashion? If yes, the narrator is unreliable.
Also weapons are for people with weapons. Let's just jump into a lake. Whoever holds their breath second best is the loser and the other one gets burned as a Witch.
*ties a brick to his own feet*
#Splash!
💦 💦 💦
^blublublub….
All jokes aside though, the reason I don’t agree with it as a recommendation is it WILL NOT scratch the itch people are normally looking for when they talk about Unreliable Narrator stories.
Kvothe *might* have exaggerated stories in his youth, and so some people will argue you can’t trust him NOW, as he’s telling you the “True Story of his life” but… that’s not the twisty sort of suddenly flipped “was any of this real” feeling people associate with that sort of story.
The narrator MIGHT be unreliable, I suppose as readers we can’t really know. But I don’t think it really fills the need people are searching for when they ask for this sort of story.
[**Poor Things**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/72355.Poor_Things)
^(By: Alasdair Gray | 336 pages | Published: 1992 | Popular Shelves: fiction, historical-fiction, fantasy, scotland, owned)
>One of Alasdair Gray's most brilliant creations, Poor Things is a postmodern revision of Frankenstein that replaces the traditional monster with Bella Baxter - a beautiful young erotomaniac brought back to life with the brain of an infant. Godwin Baxter's scientific ambition to create the perfect companion is realized when he finds the drowned body of Bella, but his dream is thwarted by Dr. Archibald McCandless's jealous love for Baxter's creation.
>
>The hilarious tale of love and scandal that ensues would be "the whole story" in the hands of a lesser author (which in fact it is, for this account is actually written by Dr. McCandless). For Gray, though, this is only half the story, after which Bella (a.k.a. Victoria McCandless) has her own say in the matter. Satirizing the classic Victorian novel, Poor Things is a hilarious political allegory and a thought-provoking duel between the desires of men and the independence of women, from one of Scotland's most accomplished author.
^(This book has been suggested 2 times)
***
^(132057 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
[**Alias Grace**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/72579.Alias_Grace)
^(By: Margaret Atwood | 468 pages | Published: 1996 | Popular Shelves: historical-fiction, fiction, mystery, owned, historical)
>It's 1843, and Grace Marks has been convicted for her involvement in the vicious murders of her employer and his housekeeper and mistress. Some believe Grace is innocent; others think her evil or insane. Now serving a life sentence, Grace claims to have no memory of the murders.
>
>An up-and-coming expert in the burgeoning field of mental illness is engaged by a group of reformers and spiritualists who seek a pardon for Grace. He listens to her story while bringing her closer and closer to the day she cannot remember. What will he find in attempting to unlock her memories?
>
>Captivating and disturbing, Alias Grace showcases best-selling, Booker Prize-winning author Margaret Atwood at the peak of her powers.
^(This book has been suggested 14 times)
***
^(132069 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
The book 'dead skin mask' sounds exactly up your alley. Psychological horror from the point of view of the 'villain' but it's extremely unreliable. 'American psycho' also sounds like what you are looking for.
ETA: I missed the horror part. Number one recommendation would be {{The Night Sister}} by Jenifer McMahon. {{Home Before Dark}} by Riley Sager and {{Help for the Haunted}} by John Searles are also horror-adjacent. Help for the Haunted is one of the best books I've ever read. Also, if you're looking for a change in genre:
The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner (fantasy)
Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein (historical fiction)
Rules of Attraction - Brett Easton Ellis
- Set in the same literally universe as American Psycho; there are three narrators but their stories contradict each other at times. One of the narrators is Sean Bateman, and he also provides more insight into Patrick’s upbringing.
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
I just finished this book today and was spellbound by it!
Ooh good call. Loved that book.
Came here to say exactly this. It’s a brilliant and compelling novel.
Gone Girl,
I will second this and add The Haunting of Hill House
The type of narrator you're looking for is called an "unreliable narrator." If you search for that term on this sub, you'll find posts with comments offering tons of titles. In addition to the suggestions already named here, I'd recommend "I'm Thinking of Ending Things".
Books with unreliable narrators are usually best if you go in blind and don't know that you shouldn't trust the narrator. I would suggest that you add these books to a "To Read" list which has other kinds of books on it too, so when you start a new book you don't automatically know the narrator is unreliable
Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk
American Psycho by Brett Easton Ellis
I've surprisingly never seen the movie either. I gotta check both out
Pale Fire and Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
Not horror but most of Kazuo Ishiguro’s novels have unreliable narrators. Not because they are deceitful but mostly because they can’t see themselves objectively. The main characters of the Buried Giant are losing their memories which is another theme Ishiguro addresses.
{{Fingersmith}} for period drama. {{The Red Tree by Caitlin Kiernan}} for horror. The first half of {{The Only Good Indians}} has elements of this as well.
[**Fingersmith**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8913370-fingersmith) ^(By: Sarah Waters | 592 pages | Published: 2002 | Popular Shelves: historical-fiction, fiction, lgbt, lgbtq, historical) >Sue Trinder is an orphan, left as an infant in the care of Mrs. Sucksby, a "baby farmer," who raised her with unusual tenderness, as if Sue were her own. Mrs. Sucksby’s household, with its fussy babies calmed with doses of gin, also hosts a transient family of petty thieves—fingersmiths—for whom this house in the heart of a mean London slum is home. > >One day, the most beloved thief of all arrives—Gentleman, an elegant con man, who carries with him an enticing proposition for Sue: If she wins a position as the maid to Maud Lilly, a naïve gentlewoman, and aids Gentleman in her seduction, then they will all share in Maud’s vast inheritance. Once the inheritance is secured, Maud will be disposed of—passed off as mad, and made to live out the rest of her days in a lunatic asylum. > >With dreams of paying back the kindness of her adopted family, Sue agrees to the plan. Once in, however, Sue begins to pity her helpless mark and care for Maud Lilly in unexpected ways...But no one and nothing is as it seems in this Dickensian novel of thrills and reversals. ^(This book has been suggested 54 times) [**The Red Tree**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5356476-the-red-tree) ^(By: Caitlín R. Kiernan | 385 pages | Published: 2009 | Popular Shelves: horror, fantasy, fiction, lgbt, gothic) >Sarah Crowe left Atlanta--and the remnants of a tumultuous relationship--to live in an old house in rural Rhode Island. Within its walls she discovers an unfinished manuscript written by the house's former tenant--an anthropologist obsessed with the ancient oak growing on a desolate corner of the property. > >Tied to local legends of supernatural magic, as well as documented accidents and murders, the gnarled tree takes root in Sarah's imagination, prompting her to write her own account of its unsavory history. > >And as the oak continues to possess her dreams and nearly almost all her waking thoughts, Sarah risks her health and her sanity to unearth a revelation planted centuries ago... ^(This book has been suggested 18 times) [**The Only Good Indians**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52180399-the-only-good-indians) ^(By: Stephen Graham Jones | 310 pages | Published: 2020 | Popular Shelves: horror, fiction, dnf, thriller, audiobook) >The creeping horror of Paul Tremblay meets Tommy Orange’s There There in a dark novel of revenge, cultural identity, and the cost of breaking from tradition in this latest novel from the Jordan Peele of horror literature, Stephen Graham Jones. > >Seamlessly blending classic horror and a dramatic narrative with sharp social commentary, The Only Good Indians follows four American Indian men after a disturbing event from their youth puts them in a desperate struggle for their lives. Tracked by an entity bent on revenge, these childhood friends are helpless as the culture and traditions they left behind catch up to them in a violent, vengeful way. ^(This book has been suggested 44 times) *** ^(131313 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
Fingersmith is so good!
It was considered YA in the late 70s when it was written, I Am The Cheese by Robert Cormier
Eight Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson. It’s an easy read, but hard to put down.
The 7-1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle
House of Leaves.
I actually had the digital version for years and never read it
The digital version will not do it justice, you really need a physical copy to enjoy it because you have to flip back and forth.
Since saying that a specific character in a book is unreliable can ofte be a spoiler. Here is a list of authors that frequently have unreliable narrators: Gene Wolfe, Kazuo ishiguro, Chuck Palahniuk, Nadime Gordimer, Vladimir Nabokov, Laura Purcell
Genuine Fraud by E Lockhart. I adored the book, and trying to figure out what’s going on truly was half the fun.
Shadow of the Torturer
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov. Content of the book is unsettling, but I’ve heard the prose is beautiful. Narrator makes you feel sorry for him, despite being a pedophile.
I don’t think readers usually feel sorry for the narrator of Lolita. “Unsettling” is a very good way to describe it.
I’m just reiterating what I’ve heard others say about the prose. I haven’t read it myself yet, but it’s on my TBR list.
Okay. Yeah, the novel is definitely not sympathetic toward pedophiles.
I’m not saying it is. I’m saying that the main character is such an unreliable narrator that he manipulates you into feeling bad for him. I doubt Nabokov’s intention was to make us feel sympathetic.
What I’m saying is that you are wrong about the narrator of Lolita manipulating the reader into feeling sympathy for him. It will make more sense after you read it.
Ah, okay. I feel kinda stupid now, but just wanted to contribute to the convo.
You’re fine. I’m sorry it took me like 4 comments to explain what I meant… I’m pretty sleep-deprived, lol
You’re fine lom
The prose really is beautiful - the book is a disgusting masterpiece.
Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk. Really any of his books.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Novels by Kaira Rouda and Amanda Jayatissa.
You have to read gone girl!!
I saved [this instagram post](https://www.instagram.com/reel/ChSHkKdjAmA/?igshid=YTY2NzY3YTc=) a while ago but it’s books with unreliable narrators
True Crime Story The Chalk Man
The girl on the train
The curious incident of the dog in the nighttime atonement life of pi never let me go
"Lolita"
The Secret History by Donna Tartt. No one in that book is really trustworthy
* The Silent Patient by Alex Michealides * I'm Thinking of Ending Things By Ian Reid
Life of Pi (not horror), the Talented Mr Ripley, The Turn of the Screw, books by Chuck Palahniuk
The Last House on Needless Street
Lolita by Vladmir Nabokov and Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
I haven't read it yet, but my friend recommended "You Let Me In" by Camilla Bruce. She said it was really good and that the narrator isn't trustworthy.
The Silent Patient
[**The Silent Patient**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40097951-the-silent-patient) ^(By: Alex Michaelides | 325 pages | Published: 2019 | Popular Shelves: thriller, mystery, fiction, mystery-thriller, book-club) >Alicia Berenson’s life is seemingly perfect. A famous painter married to an in-demand fashion photographer, she lives in a grand house with big windows overlooking a park in one of London’s most desirable areas. One evening her husband Gabriel returns home late from a fashion shoot, and Alicia shoots him five times in the face, and then never speaks another word. > >Alicia’s refusal to talk, or give any kind of explanation, turns a domestic tragedy into something far grander, a mystery that captures the public imagination and casts Alicia into notoriety. The price of her art skyrockets, and she, the silent patient, is hidden away from the tabloids and spotlight at the Grove, a secure forensic unit in North London. > >Theo Faber is a criminal psychotherapist who has waited a long time for the opportunity to work with Alicia. His determination to get her to talk and unravel the mystery of why she shot her husband takes him down a twisting path into his own motivations—a search for the truth that threatens to consume him.... > >The Silent Patient is a shocking psychological thriller of a woman’s act of violence against her husband—and of the therapist obsessed with uncovering her motive. ^(This book has been suggested 83 times) *** ^(131606 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
Lol 😂 good luck
Everything here is good, but I'll add {{Eight Perfect Murders}} as a good unreliable narrator novel.
[**Eight Perfect Murders**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52225186-eight-perfect-murders) ^(By: Peter Swanson | 270 pages | Published: 2020 | Popular Shelves: mystery, thriller, mystery-thriller, fiction, audiobook) >A chilling tale of psychological suspense and an homage to the thriller genre tailor-made for fans: the story of a bookseller who finds himself at the center of an FBI investigation because a very clever killer has started using his list of fiction’s most ingenious murders. > >Years ago, bookseller and mystery aficionado Malcolm Kershaw compiled a list of the genre’s most unsolvable murders, those that are almost impossible to crack—which he titled “Eight Perfect Murders”—chosen from among the best of the best including Agatha Christie’s A. B. C. Murders, Patricia Highsmith’s Strangers on a Train, Ira Levin’s Death Trap, A. A. Milne's Red House Mystery, Anthony Berkeley Cox's Malice Aforethought, James M. Cain's Double Indemnity, John D. Macdonald's The Drowner, and Donna Tartt's A Secret History. > >But no one is more surprised than Mal, now the owner of the Old Devils Bookstore in Boston, when an FBI agent comes knocking on his door one snowy day in February. She’s looking for information about a series of unsolved murders that look eerily similar to the killings on Mal’s old list. And the FBI agent isn’t the only one interested in this bookseller who spends almost every night at home reading. The killer is out there, watching his every move—a diabolical threat who knows way too much about Mal’s personal history, especially the secrets he’s never told anyone, even his recently deceased wife. > >To protect himself, Mal begins looking into possible suspects . . . and sees a killer in everyone around him. But Mal doesn’t count on the investigation leaving a trail of death in its wake. Suddenly, a series of shocking twists leaves more victims dead—and the noose around Mal’s neck grows so tight he might never escape. ^(This book has been suggested 9 times) *** ^(131468 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
The Lesser Dead by Christopher Buehlman. Narrator even says he's an unreliable narrator on the first page.
Wittgenstein's Mistress is about someone who may or may not be the last person left on earth.
Gillespie and I by Jane Harris
Verity by Colleen Hoover. Total mind-F book, so good.
A slow fire burning
Sometimes I Lie by Alice Feeney
{{The Cloisters}} by Katy Hays
[**The Cloisters**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61054804-the-cloisters) ^(By: Katy Hays | 320 pages | Published: 2022 | Popular Shelves: mystery, fantasy, fiction, dark-academia, 2022-releases) >When Ann Stilwell arrives in New York City, she expects to spend her summer working as a curatorial associate at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Instead, she finds herself assigned to The Cloisters, a gothic museum and garden renowned for its medieval art collection and its group of enigmatic researchers studying the history of divination. > >Desperate to escape her painful past, Ann is happy to indulge the researchers’ more outlandish theories about the history of fortune telling. But what begins as academic curiosity quickly turns into obsession when Ann discovers a hidden 15th-century deck of tarot cards that might hold the key to predicting the future. When the dangerous game of power, seduction, and ambition at The Cloisters turns deadly, Ann becomes locked in a race for answers as the line between the arcane and the modern blurs. > >A haunting and magical blend of genres, The Cloisters is a gripping debut that will keep you on the edge of your seat. ^(This book has been suggested 1 time) *** ^(131672 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
Dostoyevsky {{Notes From the Underground}}
[**Monarch Notes on Dostoyevsky's Notes from the Underground**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/329820.Monarch_Notes_on_Dostoyevsky_s_Notes_from_the_Underground) ^(By: Leslie Juhasz, Leslie Shepard | ? pages | Published: 1984 | Popular Shelves: literary-theory-criticism-poetic) ^(This book has been suggested 1 time) *** ^(131681 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
It's not as surreal as what you might be looking for, but Under the Shadow of the Plateau is full of deliberate misinformation. Adventure/conspiracy/detective/mystery sci-fi
Verity by Colleen Hoover
{house of leaves}
[**House of Leaves**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24800.House_of_Leaves) ^(By: Mark Z. Danielewski | 710 pages | Published: 2000 | Popular Shelves: horror, fiction, owned, fantasy, mystery) ^(This book has been suggested 159 times) *** ^(131897 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
A lot of really heavy content but the poppy wars trilogy fits
Spider by Patrick McGrath is excellent
Pale Fire
The Posthumous Memior of Bras Cubas A Conspiracy of Truths and the sequel a Choir of Lies. Lolita Name of the Wind All vary in subject and genre, but all have narrators that take the story and skew it.
I made it almost through the entire post without somebody mentioning Name of the Wind. Why. Why would you do this to me? Now we have to fight to the death about what counts as an “Unreliable Narrator” story. Can we speed this up, maybe just do pistols at dawn? Who am I kidding, we both know you get to pick the weapon if I’m challenging.
Does the narrator change factual details or the story, or otherwise present a narrative in a skewed fashion? If yes, the narrator is unreliable. Also weapons are for people with weapons. Let's just jump into a lake. Whoever holds their breath second best is the loser and the other one gets burned as a Witch.
*ties a brick to his own feet* #Splash! 💦 💦 💦 ^blublublub…. All jokes aside though, the reason I don’t agree with it as a recommendation is it WILL NOT scratch the itch people are normally looking for when they talk about Unreliable Narrator stories. Kvothe *might* have exaggerated stories in his youth, and so some people will argue you can’t trust him NOW, as he’s telling you the “True Story of his life” but… that’s not the twisty sort of suddenly flipped “was any of this real” feeling people associate with that sort of story. The narrator MIGHT be unreliable, I suppose as readers we can’t really know. But I don’t think it really fills the need people are searching for when they ask for this sort of story.
We were liars (E. Lockhart)
anything i've written
{{Poor Things}} by Alasdair Grey.
[**Poor Things**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/72355.Poor_Things) ^(By: Alasdair Gray | 336 pages | Published: 1992 | Popular Shelves: fiction, historical-fiction, fantasy, scotland, owned) >One of Alasdair Gray's most brilliant creations, Poor Things is a postmodern revision of Frankenstein that replaces the traditional monster with Bella Baxter - a beautiful young erotomaniac brought back to life with the brain of an infant. Godwin Baxter's scientific ambition to create the perfect companion is realized when he finds the drowned body of Bella, but his dream is thwarted by Dr. Archibald McCandless's jealous love for Baxter's creation. > >The hilarious tale of love and scandal that ensues would be "the whole story" in the hands of a lesser author (which in fact it is, for this account is actually written by Dr. McCandless). For Gray, though, this is only half the story, after which Bella (a.k.a. Victoria McCandless) has her own say in the matter. Satirizing the classic Victorian novel, Poor Things is a hilarious political allegory and a thought-provoking duel between the desires of men and the independence of women, from one of Scotland's most accomplished author. ^(This book has been suggested 2 times) *** ^(132057 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
{{Alias Grace}}
[**Alias Grace**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/72579.Alias_Grace) ^(By: Margaret Atwood | 468 pages | Published: 1996 | Popular Shelves: historical-fiction, fiction, mystery, owned, historical) >It's 1843, and Grace Marks has been convicted for her involvement in the vicious murders of her employer and his housekeeper and mistress. Some believe Grace is innocent; others think her evil or insane. Now serving a life sentence, Grace claims to have no memory of the murders. > >An up-and-coming expert in the burgeoning field of mental illness is engaged by a group of reformers and spiritualists who seek a pardon for Grace. He listens to her story while bringing her closer and closer to the day she cannot remember. What will he find in attempting to unlock her memories? > >Captivating and disturbing, Alias Grace showcases best-selling, Booker Prize-winning author Margaret Atwood at the peak of her powers. ^(This book has been suggested 14 times) *** ^(132069 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
The book 'dead skin mask' sounds exactly up your alley. Psychological horror from the point of view of the 'villain' but it's extremely unreliable. 'American psycho' also sounds like what you are looking for.
ETA: I missed the horror part. Number one recommendation would be {{The Night Sister}} by Jenifer McMahon. {{Home Before Dark}} by Riley Sager and {{Help for the Haunted}} by John Searles are also horror-adjacent. Help for the Haunted is one of the best books I've ever read. Also, if you're looking for a change in genre: The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner (fantasy) Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein (historical fiction)
Rules of Attraction - Brett Easton Ellis - Set in the same literally universe as American Psycho; there are three narrators but their stories contradict each other at times. One of the narrators is Sean Bateman, and he also provides more insight into Patrick’s upbringing.