This thread is to discuss books that switch point of views between characters!
The first one that comes to mind is “Wonder” by R. J. Palacio all the characters basically have their own chapter to show their point of view and it’s done really well!
Then some books from my childhood come to mind like “Double Act”, “Little Darlings” and “Secrets” all by Jacqueline Wilson.
So question time:
Have you ever read a book that switches point’s of view?
If so, what did you think? If not, what do you think of the concept?
One of my favourite books of all time has multiple povs: AURORA RISING
PLS READ IT
but its just amazing to see the utter contrast between each character, so good
Lol I’m reading a book rn with tons of different characters and each chapter is a different character with a different view point. It’s a southern historical fiction and kinda hard to read but I’m slowly getting into it. It’s Shadow Country by Peter Matthiessen
I love reading books that switch POVs, especially when written well. I reckon Joseph Heller‘s books do this really well. He wrote Catch-22, and others. Though he was also brilliant at writing with a disjointed time frame, having it all line up still and make sense.
It was okay but I didn’t enjoy it much. I’d prefer one POV throughout the whole book. Maybe I also just read the wrong books because whenever I wanted to see a situation from another character’s POV, it didn’t switch. So, that kind of annoyed me
@Bookworms What’s your opinion on switching POVs in books?
It can be a really good way to focus on 2+ main characters, or the main and their love interest. I like how in some, the chapters can alternate between the 2 mains to be able to see both sides off a situation.
I have a love/hate relationship with multi-pov books. I have read quite a few (usually 3rd person), and from what I’ve seen they can either be very well utilized or… not. I’ll talk about the positives, though, because the negatives are pretty much just ‘can be poorly written’ which applies to everything book-related under the sun.
It can allow for an in-depth understanding of a situation, or two characters’ relationship, which I usually greatly enjoy. I’ve also seen it used to illustrate different aspects of one setting/society, which I find very interesting to read! It’s pretty much impossible to touch on all aspects of a world from just one perspective, so I really enjoy seeing different character’s takes on the same situation, and think it can allow for a better sense of the world the story/ies take place in. Multiple PoVs can allow for this even when 2+ characters may not know each other personally until later on, or ever.
I think a lot of multiple PoV series (that may contain subseries, or just have a different cast in every installment) make use of this and I love it. I’ve been meaning to try and find a series that has subseries from different 'era’s so to speak, that come together to make a kind of comprehensive history of a world-- so if anyone has any recommendations like that please give them to me right now!!!
