The best books with bold narrators

Fireborne is the first book of a YA crossover fantasy series called The Aurelian Cycle trilogy.

The primary narrators – dragon riders Annie and Lee – are best friends born on opposite sides of a class uprising and civil war that ripped their lives apart. Annie and Lee’s world is complicated. There are no easy choices or untarnished heroes – including Annie and Lee.

By telling this story through two very different points of view, Munda forces us to draw our own conclusions about right and wrong. She doesn’t make it easy. I can’t promise you won’t throw the book across the room in outrage at least once, but you will chase after it and keep reading until the (not that bitter, I promise) end. 

Thanks to some, urm, interesting choices on the part of my high school American Literature teacher, I didn’t read this classic civil rights drama until college.

Lee turns the idea of the unreliable narrator on its head by creating an innocent narrator. There are many things that six-year-old Scout doesn't understand about her world, which allows her to observe it with unassuming clarity. But Scout isn’t just innocent. She’s funny. Her irresistible wit brings light to what could have been a very weighty and dark book.

Scout’s voice makes us want to keep reading a story that forces us to confront some very uncomfortable truths about the United States…truths that haven’t changed as much as we want to believe.

Illuminae is the first book in a YA science fiction series called the Illuminae Files Trilogy.

The story is told through intersecting first-person narratives constructed from journals, letters, texts, reports, and pictures. You want to absorb all that “found footage” goodness on paper. Trust.

There’s almost no exposition in Illuminae, especially in the first few chapters. That’s the beauty of these books – the narration is so visceral and urgent that you get invested in the story long before you really understand what’s happening. Putting the pieces of the world-building together is an addictive mystery in and of itself.

I don’t recommend cracking open this book the night before anything requiring a good night’s rest and lots of focus – your mind will be in 2575 until well after you’ve finished the last page. 

Rosewater is the first book of the Wormwood Trilogy. This adult science fiction story takes place in the decades after a massive alien lifeform dubbed Wormwood lands on Earth and infects Earth (and humanity) with fungal artificial lifeforms that leave some people “sensitive” – able to read thoughts, find objects, and see the future.

Thompson’s narrator, Kaaro, is a sensitive who was once a thief but now works for a secret agency inside the Nigerian Government. Rosewater is non-linear – it jumps back and forth between different moments in Kaaro’s life. This lets Thompson directly contrast young Kaaro’s narration with that of older Kaaro, who knows more about the alien…and himself.

These striking shifts in voice and perspective make Kaaro’s emotional evolution just as delicious as the outrageously creative details of Thompson’s speculative future. 

The Last Queen is a totally addictive historical novel bursting with love, danger, political intrigue, and heartbreak.

The Last Queen is the story of an impoverished young woman named Jindan who is swept into the court of Maharaja Ranjit Singh as his last and youngest bride. Eventually, Jindan becomes Regent for her young son and rises to the occasion, becoming an inspirational leader so formidable that she strikes fear into the hearts of the encroaching British Empire.

Exploring the world of pre-colonial Punjab through the eyes of Jindan is breathtaking – an experience you’ll enjoy even if you aren’t a history buff. The details of Jindan’s world are even more gripping because they’re real, and so is she.