TOPIC ON THE TABLE: NARRATORS AND HOW THEY IMPACT BOOKS

I recently had the pleasure of reading the Book Thief by Markus Zusak, and let me tell you, it had a HUGE impact on me. Why, you might ask? There were several factors that left an impact, but the main one was the narrator of the story: Death.

Before we get into September’s blog, I should probably introduce myself because you might not know who I am. My name is Willa R. Finnegan, and I am the thirteen-year-old, award-winning author of Snow: Cursed. I wrote my debut at eleven, had it published at twelve, and here I am. But that’s enough about me. Let’s get into this month’s topic.

Like I said at the beginning of this post, the Book Thief made a massive impact on me, mostly because of its narrator. Death was very witty, and very matter-of-fact, but he was also very touching and made me truly think about every single little thing he said. Now don’t get me wrong, at the beginning of the Book Thief, having a narrator took some getting used to, but at the very end I loved having Death as the narrator. His final words at the end of the book really hit home with me, and some of his quotes were exceptional. That last line made me start crying at the end, even after the events beforehand: “I am haunted by humans.”

But after I closed the book, I began to ask myself this question: would the Book Thief be nearly as impactful as it was if Death hadn’t been the narrator? Or if there was no narrator at all?

That’s the reason I am bringing this topic to your attention today. Would some books be more impactful with a narrator?

I read a lot of YA because, well, I’m a “young adult”, but what I usually read is from a first-person perspective, including some of the books on my TBR—To Kill a Kingdom, Shadow and Bone, etc.—and that’s the way it is with lots of books these days, in my opinion. But now I’ve started to ask myself: would some of those books be more impactful with a narrator? A narrator along the lines of Death?

Don’t get me wrong—I love first-person narration. Getting to be inside a character’s mind is something truly special. But I feel like some stories could be even cooler if they had a narrator as special and as thoughtful as Death in the Book Thief, and maybe those stories would have even more of a lasting impact on me if they did.

I encourage you to ask yourself this question: do you think a narrator would change your opinion of your favorite book? Or maybe get to you like a book that you didn’t like? Reading the Book Thief has definitely made me think about using a narrator in my future projects, and made me appreciate narrators more, too.

I hope you really liked this blog today. Please subscribe to my website at the bottom of this page, and also sign up for my monthly blog at the top of the tab. Thanks for reading September’s blog, and I hope to see you all again in October!