unreliable narrator

A narrator whose credibility has been seriously compromised — through bias, naivety, mental instability, or deliberate deception — so that the reader cannot take their account at face value.

• (compound critical term)

• unreliable narrator technique
• unreliable narrator in fiction
• classic unreliable narrator
• reveal as unreliable narrator

1. 1.In "Gone Girl," both narrators are unreliable — Nick omits inconvenient truths while Amy fabricates entire scenarios, keeping the reader unable to trust either version. (deliberately deceptive narrator)
2. 2.Holden Caulfield in "The Catcher in the Rye" is an unreliable narrator not because he lies, but because his emotional immaturity and depression distort his perception of events. (psychologically unreliable)

• untrustworthy narrator (one whose account cannot be trusted)
• biased narrator (one whose perspective is skewed)

"unreliable" from "un-" + "reliable" (from Old French "relier," to fasten) + "narrator" from Latin "narrare" (to tell) — a teller of tales who cannot be fastened to the truth