Multiple 1st person POV novels

Ed_in_Bed · Mar 8, 2020

Hello

I'm not sure if this is the right bit of the forum to ask this, but I was wondering if anyone has come across a well-written book that uses multiple 1st person POV characters? Any genre. I'm just interested to see how they deal with the switches.

Thanks for any recommendations!

Ed.

Elle. · Mar 8, 2020

Just finished The Better Liar by Tanen Jones - it's a dual 1st POVs — the switches happen at chapter breaks.

katfeete · Mar 8, 2020

Naomi Novik’s Spinning Silver uses multiple first-person viewpoints very effectively — I wasn’t confused, though my mother complained she occasionally got tripped up. Novak also used chapter breaks. Superb book, well worth reading.

I’ve also read multiple epistolary novels (Wrede and Stevermer’s Sorcery and Cecilia, Brust and Bull’s Freedom and Necessity) that are obviously multiple firsts — probably not what you’re writing but they may be worth a look for stealing tricks.

thethinker42 · Mar 8, 2020

If you don't mind a self-rec (it's up to readers if they're well-written, lol!), but most of my books are dual 1st POVs. The Road Home, The Husband Gambit, and Risky Behavior are examples. They switch POV at chapter breaks, as Elle mention that Tanne Jones does, and each chapter is marked with the name of the POV character (I didn't do that in the beginning, but enough of my readers said they prefer it that way that I decided to make it my default; readers who don't need the chapter labels just ignore them.)

Lakey · Mar 8, 2020

Sarah Waters has a couple of books that do this - Fingersmith and Affinity are both very good examples as they use fun differences in voice to distinguish the narrations. Both of these alternate — Affinity has a main narration in one POV, and interludes in another POV, while Fingersmith switches about halfway through the book (and then switches back later, as I recall).

Another fairly recent book with dual first-person POVs is Elizabeth Wein’s outstanding Code Name Verity. This book switches halfway through, and plays with both voice and narrator reliability in very clever ways.

Finally for an older book with four first-person POV’s, try Vera Caspary’s noir classic Laura. The POV changes every few chapters, as I recall, though I’m not sure if any of the characters gets more than one turn to narrate (I just don’t remember).

:e2coffee:

Helix · Mar 8, 2020

My go to for this is The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. She has four or five (it's a while since I've read it!) first person narrators.

Ed_in_Bed · Mar 9, 2020

That's brilliant. Thanks, all, for the recommendations. Thank goodness AW is back online

Animad345 · Mar 14, 2020

The Noughts and Crosses series by Malorie Blackman.

Multiple 1st person POV novels

Ed_in_Bed

Elle.

katfeete

thethinker42

Abnormal Romance Author

Lakey

professional dilettante

Helix

socially distancing

Ed_in_Bed

Animad345