DIRECTIONS: For a book told by somebody who is in it. Answer question 2 before you read the dashed box.
Unreliable does not mean lying. Usually the teller is:
Young — sees it correctly, does not understand it.
Mistaken — wasn’t there, or was told wrong.
Covering — tells it the way that suits them.
Wishing — tells you the version they want.
Find the line where you first stopped taking the teller’s word for something. Copy it, with the page.
What tipped you off?
The commonest tell is somebody else in the room who goes quiet, changes the
subject, or does not answer.
Go back to that scene. Is there a person in it whose face, silence or reply does not match what the teller is telling you? Who, and what exactly did they do?
The Bit You Do Not Believe
Any book · Reading closely · Page 2 of 2
Find a place where you know something the teller does not. What is it, and how did you come by it — an earlier chapter, somebody who told you and not them, or just being older than they are?
Find something the teller says about themselves — I never cry, nobody likes me — then the page where the book quietly says otherwise. Which of the four does that make them: young, mistaken, covering, or wishing?
If you never once doubted them — is that because they are reliable, or because you were not looking? Go back to a scene where the teller came off well and read it for the other person’s side. What did you find?