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The discussion about unreliable narrators split my book club in half
Last month at my book club in Austin, we read 'The Silent Patient' and half the group argued the narrator was genius while the other half said he was just a gimmick. Things got heated when Sarah pointed out the twist relied on a medical inaccuracy about amnesia that ruined the whole premise for her. Three people walked out after someone yelled that you can't criticize a book just because you guessed the ending early. Now I'm stuck figuring out if we should pick books with unreliable narrators again or avoid them entirely - what's your take on how much a narrator can fudge before it breaks a story?
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jordan_hill7d ago
Man I had a similar thing happen at my place over dinner once except it was about that movie The Usual Suspects and my brother-in-law swore he knew the twist from the first scene and wouldn't shut up about it the whole time. Like honestly I think some people just get mad when they don't catch something or when they do and feel too smart for the room, either way you can't win with book club drama.
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My buddy Jake's book club in Denver had a full-on shouting match over "Gone Girl" when someone said Amy's diary entries were too obviously fake to be convincing. He said it took them three months and two new members to recover from that night.
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Drove through Denver once during a snowstorm where two truckers argued over the best chili recipe for three hours straight.
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