Book Blogger Hop No. 85: Multiple Narrators

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This Week's Question

How do you feel about books

with multiple narrators?

(Submitted  by Eli @ 

The Book Supplier)

My Answer

This is a very interesting question!  Books featuring multiple narrators are not all that common. I certainly haven't read that many; in fact, I've only read one, as far as I can recall. However, I've seen them on the blogosphere, whether on other blogs, Amazon, or Goodreads.

I really do like this technique, but only if it's done in a very skillful manner. Not every writer can handle it. The thing is, an author has to be able to "speak" in different voices. Unfortunately, I think that some writers might have difficulty achieving this, and thus, all of their characters tend to "sound" the same.

Back in 2012, I read three books from a series titled "Heven and Hell" (no, this is not a typo), by the paranormal and YA author, Cambria Hebert. The first book, Masquerade, tells the story through four different narrators. I found this entirely satisfactory, and not distracting at all. Hebert was able to create very distinctive personalities for each of these narrators, so that I knew when each of them was telling the story. Of course, it helped that each one had their own section of the book. Still, I found it very easy to experience the story from each of these different viewpoints. 

Here's a quote from my review of this novel:

"Hebert's story is highly original and unique.   For one thing, she has four different narrators telling the story: Heven, Sam, The Hate, and The Hope. The last two are supernatural beings, but their identity is not revealed until much later in the novel.   I especially like the idea of contrasting these two.  It's amazing to see how an evil being twists the events taking place into something utterly depraved, while the same events, seen from the perspective of a good being, take on a shining beauty.  Furthermore, using these two narrators has the effect of drawing the reader along, turning pages to find out, among other things, just who and what these narrators are."


As you can see, I thought this author was highly succesful in creating a story in which multiple narrators did indeed work. Although I haven't read any other books where this technique is used, I would definitely be open to doing so! Again, in the right hands, this would make a story not only more complex, and thus, more interesting, but also more compelling, as the reader would be eager to find out how these various viewpoints all tie in to the grand scheme of the story.

I think I'll seek out more books whose authors employ this technique. In my honest opinion, it's well worth it!

You can read my entire review of Masquerade, by Cambria Hebert, HERE.
     

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