Tl:dr at bottom
Charlie Huston is my favorite author. He released Sleepless in 2010. I remember reading it when it came out and having some misunderstanding about the story that was cleared up about halfway through. I still enjoyed it, because I like the way he writes, but I always knew I should read it again.
There are three different narrations in this book. Third person, first person in the form of diary/journal entries, and another first person.
Some authors, when doing this, will give headings with characters names or maybe even choose different fonts to differentiate different perspectives. Not Huston. He has a habit of not helping you.
Not remembering what confused me originally, I simply went into the book assuming all narrations were following the same character, but maybe there was some sort of time difference or something. Nope. 100+ pages in, I realize/remember that while the third person and journal entries are the same character, the first person narrator is simply another character that never introduces himself (well, not in the first 100+ pages). There were obviously some weird inconsistencies that I didn’t understand, but I’m not necessarily the best reader. I don’t sit and try to figure things out…I read and let the story happen to me. I assume it will all make sense eventually. And now for the second time, I realize I’ve completely misread a third of the book. But this time, I’m just going to put it down and maybe try again next year.
Tl;dr: Author didn’t introduce separate narrator, leading me to think everything was happening to one character instead of two.
What kind of weird choices have authors made that caused you to completely misinterpret what you’ve read? Even if you acknowledge that it’s your fault for missing it.
(Sadly there was another time when a new character was introduced about halfway through a book that bore a striking resemblance to MC. I was so confused. Turned out, it was the MC and I had literally been reading his name wrong in my head for 200+ pages and eventually it just clicked. That one was weird.)
by jstnpotthoff