2000s YA Books With Unreliable Narrators
Looking for 2000s YA Books About Unreliable Narrators? You’re in the right place. Y2K YA was all about narrators who were slippery with the truth. Check out my list!
If it’s been a while since you sat in English class — or maybe you dozed off a bit while you were there — an unreliable narrator is … a big fat liar.
Okay, maybe that’s too harsh. Maybe the narrator just isn’t very objective. Or is in denial. Or suffering from a mental illness. Sometimes the narrator will fess up to being untrustworthy at the outset, while other times his or her deceit isn’t revealed until the end of the book. That’s my favorite — the Shocking Twist!
I have to believe that the current popularity of YA books about lies and liars is a direct result of the success of Alloy Entertainment’s Pretty Little Liars, with books written by Sara Shepard and published starting in 2006, and an ABC Family show which premiered in June 2010.
Liars in 2000s Popular Culture
In general, liar fiction draws on the timeless trope of the Unreliable Narrator. However, the PLL concept also has ties to the Group Tied Together by a Dark Secret trope, which may have entered the YA sphere with I Know What You Did Last Summer (the 1973 book was by Lois Duncan, and the movie adaptation released in 1996).
Pretty Little Liars (the show) also incorporates some other popular YA tropes: high school cliques, mean girls, not-quite-dead, teacher-student romance, police are useless, and seriously-this-is-still-going on?
There have been plenty of recent YA books inspired by the sneaking and backstabbing of PLL. But let’s take a look at some recent YA books that specifically reference liars:
Here’s my list of 2000s YA books with unreliable narrators:
Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher (2007)
Liar by Justine Larbastelier (2009)
The Lying Game by Sara Shepard (2010)
Liar Society by Lisa and Laura Roecker (2011)
Tell me who your favorite unreliable narrators in YA Books are…
Cara Lange from Choker by Elizabeth Woods
Jamie from Tighter by Adele Griffin
Josey from The Vanishing Game by Kate Kae Myers
Leena from Frost by Marianna Baer
Yeah… I have a whole Goodreads shelf dedicated to unreliable narrators lol.
Tighter — absolutely I completely forgot about that one!
That was a twist I never saw coming.
I haven't read the others (though Vanishing Game is on my library wish list)
Thanks so much for stopping by and chiming in.
Great post. I am really bad at choosing my top faves for anything, so I won't try, but I really enjoyed reading your picks. 🙂
I am impressed with your description of Unreliable Narrator. 🙂
I agree with you about Thirteen Reasons Why–her perspective on the events was definitely not reliable.
You mean big fat liar, pants on fire? Yes, I am very concise. And mature.
I struggled with whether to include that book but decided that Hannah wasn't entirely reliable….
You mentioned THE SIXTH SENSE which is mine. When it's done well, then it's "WELL DONE".
Ooh, I like that saying. I'm using that!
I know! I just watched that movie again with someone who'd never seen it, and the whole time I was amazed that I never saw that twist coming.
Have you read or watched Shutter Island?
Would The Catcher in the Rye -(Holden Caulfield) be considered an unreliable narrator?
Definitely. He's a great pick 😉
Ooh Thirteen Reasons Why is one of the best books I have read. It is just so powerful and bold to write about such a topis as suicide. Very well done and I hope the author writes more books because this one was amazing.
It is a really unique and powerful book. Jay Asher did publish The Future of Us this year, but it's totally different — much less dark.