Books from different perspectives

[Curlybrunette]

Hi everyone,

Wondered if any of you had read any books where each book in the series is from a different characters perspective?

I think the only one I've read is the series by Jamie McGuire, #1 is A beautiful disaster and #2 A walking disaster.

I really enjoyed that style, especially reading how in a situation a man would think differently to a women.

Can you recommend any others?

Thanks
x

It's not quite the same but Susan Howatch writes books in which each section is written by a different character - Cashelmara, The Wheel of Fortune, Penmarric are some.

And in her Starbridge series, each book is written by a different character but doesn't always depict the same events.

i don't know if this is what you mean, as it's not the same author, but 'longbourn' is 'pride and prejudice' from the POV of the servants and i really enjoyed it. a real insight into life for the non-gentry at that time

What about Philippa Gregory's The Cousins' War series? I'm going to be reading them later this year and each one is from a different perspective - The Lady of the Rivers (Jacquetta Woodville), The Red Queen (Margaret Beaufort, mother of King Henry VII), The White Queen (Elizabeth Woodville), The Kingmaker's Daughter (Anne Neville), and The White Princess (Elizabeth of York, daughter of Elizabeth Woodville and Edward IV).

Not quite the same, but the Poisonwood bible is all of the females of the family telling the same story but from their perspective.

Jane eyre and wide Sargasso Sea both tell the story of the mad woman in the attic, but wide Sargasso Sea is a prequel to Jane Eyre.

The Instance of the Fingerpost - is a kind of historical mystery, but told in four parts from the point of view of four key witnesses.

ooh yes mummytime that's a good one

Great thanks, I'll look out for those, it's good that they aren't all romances too, I tend to default back to girl meets boy, girl hates boy, girl ends up marrying boy, style romances instead of trying new topics!

My immediate thought was An Instance of the Fingerpost too. Amazing story - totally different from the different perspectives. In fact, now I want to reread it myself!

Happenstance by Carol Shields is very good but it isn't a series.

Half the book is written by Brenda, the wife, and then you flip the book over and read the other half, written by Jack, the husband. Or vice versa to start with Jack and then Brenda. It makes no difference.

Each of them tells the story of the same five days, when Brenda goes away to a convention in Philadelphia and Jack stays at home for work and takes care of their two children.

Jodi Picoult seems to alternate chapters for the POV of different characters in a lot of her books.

And Monster Love by Carol Topolski is quite a brutal story about a couple on trial for murdering their daughter, with each chapter being told by a different person (neighbour, police officer, social worker etc)

This book is great and written from different persons' points of view. It's The Submission by Amy Waldman.

Review from Amazon ( I loved it!)

A jury gathers in Manhattan to select a memorial for the victims of a devastating terror attack. Their fraught deliberations complete, the jurors open the envelope containing the anonymous winner's name - and discover he is an American Muslim. Instantly they are cast into the roiling debate about the claims of grief, the ambiguities of art, and the meaning of Islam.

The memorial's designer is Mohammad Khan, an enigmatic, ambitious architect. His fiercest defender on the jury is its sole widow, the mediagenic Claire Burwell. But when the news of his selection leaks to the press, Claire finds herself under pressure from outraged family members and in collision with hungry journalists, wary activists, opportunistic politicians, fellow jurors, and Khan himself. All will bring the emotional weight of their own histories to bear on the urgent question of how to remember, and understand, a national tragedy.

You'll probably kill me for mentioning this, but Stephanie Meyer has a version of Twilight on her website which she wrote from Edward's pov.

I know the books aren't literature, buti I found it really interesting reading it nonetheless.

Great thread. Would love to read some of these now.

Saraand I was going to say 'Happenstance' too. Excellent book (as are all Shields' books).

A bit of a different genre to some of the others, but the Game of Thrones series has each chapter from a different POV. Although each chapter moves the story on rather than goes over the same scene.

Gone Girl also switches between the husband and wife, one of whom is an unreliable narrator with different povs and different points of the novel as well.

The Collector by John Fowels. Told from both the victim and abductor's POV. Bit creepy but v.good.

A more masculine book, but ken kesey 'sometimes a great notion' is written from several pov. The writing is so good that he flips between characters without telling you, yet you know whose head you are in now.

I would definitely recommend Happenstance by Carol Shields, or indeed any of her other books (though they don't follow the same pattern).

I love Longbourn, which is P&P from the servants' pov, though obviously not by Jane Austen.

ooh I loved 'Longbourn' hackmum!

The Cazalets series by Elizabeth Jane Howard is written from the different perspectives of all the family members. Five Little Pigs by Agatha Christie tells the story from five characters' points of view and you have to piece together whodunit.

Marilynne Robinson Gilead and Home is the same story told from two different perspectives.

Gone Girl is a good example - from both wife and husband's point of view.