Why do so many books have chapters like this?

[StealthPolarBear]

JANE
AMY
JANE
AMY
JANE
AMY
JANE
AMY
MARTHA
AMY
MARTHA
AMY'S MUM
AMY
AMY
AMY

Cool the first time someone did it. Getting annoying now.

Just to help the reader navigate the text. People read quickly these days. And maybe the voice isn't that differentiated, so it's easier to tell at a glance who the focus is.

This has been done for at least 15 years in many kinds of novels where there is more than one point of view. What bothers you about it?

I don't know, it's a good question. It feels like a gimmick to me, and fairly new. What was wrong with just telling a tale from one perspective, like in the good old days?
See also "you walk into a room. A man is waiting with a gun. You shout for your wife to call the police"
Aaargh.gimmick gimmick gimmick.

Some stories can’t be told in a single point of view, that’s why.

Some might have a present-day and past narrative, for instance, with perhaps the latter taking place before the present-day narrator was born. So it would be impossible for the present-day narrator to tell that part of the story.

If done well it shouldn’t be intrusive, though.

And Charles Dickens uses this method in novels such as Bleak House, which has about half a dozen POVs from memory.

So it’s not new.

It's a big thing when 2 authors are writing a story together from the perspective of the 2 main characters, like Eve of Man by Tom and Giovanna Fletcher.

I like it, but I prefer the story told twice from both perspectives.

OK iabu.

I think it's to facilitate the hoped-for screenplay! I don't like it as I often prefer one of the characters and start skipping forward to their bits.

@StealthPolarBear

OK iabu.

Not at all. If it interrupted your reading flow it wasn’t done well.

What @oneglassandpuzzled said, I can't quote a comment with a quote in it 🤷‍♀️

If it doesn't flow and fractures your reading experience then it's poorly done.

🙂 And what’s working for one reader may not for another.

Dracula and The Woman in White both have this sort of narrative too - so it’s really not that new and gimmicky!

I’m sure there are loads of other examples, those were the two that came to mind.