Counterfeit

An unreliable narrator in a literary work is one whose ability to accurately reflect the facts of an event is called into question, either through the style of narration, events in the story, or challenges from other characters. The convention, especially with first-person narrators, is to believe the narrator is being truthful about their own story. Ava’s many asides and addresses to her audience, the detective, create a confiding, confessional style that furthers the belief she is sincere. Later chapters with a different narrator cast a different light on Ava’s motivations and actions, suggesting the Ava that Winnie sees is far different from the persona Ava has constructed for the detective. This throws Ava’s remorse, repentance, and insistence about victimhood into question, making her an unreliable witness to her own experience.

The point of view of a narrative controls the information available in the story, adds to the tone, and helps develop character. The first-person narration used in the chapters of Ava’s confession conveys a direct, confiding tone and lends veracity, and reader sympathy, to the story Ava tells. In first-person point of view, a