Brantford Public Library's Online Book Club discussion

As we found with several of our previous book club picks, Necessary Lies is written with the dual narrative of Ivy and Jane. This seems to be a commonly used style by many authors in the last decade or so.

Do you normally like more than one Point of View in a book? Do you think it works well in this book? Do you think it is an overused literary style?

I don't mind more than one narrator in a book and I think it worked in this book just fine. I especially enjoyed hearing Jane's story. It is true that we see a lot of books with multiple narratives these days and although I don't mind it, I still prefer a straightforward 3rd person narrative when reading a novel. I don't mind switching between multiple storylines but I prefer to do it in 3rd person instead of 1st.

I'm not a writer but it seems to me that using multiple narratives makes things a bit easier for the writer. The character can speak directly to the reader and just tell them everything they are thinking. Don't you think it would be more challenging to get a reader to really invest in a character when you are writing 3rd person?

I think it was imperative that we have a 2 person narrative, with Ivy being a possible candidate and her sister already an unwilling victim and then the flip-side with the social worker pushing candidates into the program. I feel it allowed for the emotional impact of the program to be felt by the reader. I think the author must have been on a debating team at some point in her academic life to present both sides so well.
My fav is 1st person narratives.

I prefer having various narrators if it is done well. I think that it allows the author to go deeper into characters by doing this. I don't think that we would understand either Jane or Ivy as well if this was told in just one voice.