Today’s topic for discussion is books written with Multi POVs. To assist me with this will be using David Rose GIFs! I do hope you enjoy reading todays post as much as much as I did putting it together.
What is Multiperspectivity?
Well Wikipedia defines this as:
Multiperspectivity (sometimes polyperspectivity) is a characteristic of narration or representation, where more than one perspective is represented to the audience.
Most frequently the term is applied to fiction which employs multiple narrators, often in opposition to each-other or to illuminate different elements of a plot, creating what is sometimes called a multiple narrative, or multi-narrative.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiperspectivity
Yes I know using wiki as a source isn’t great but it did the job on this occasion, it defined it much more succinctly than I could have done.
How Many is too Many?
I honestly didn’t even think about this having a limit or anything like that and then I read Zodiac Academy… and yeah lets just say that was an experience! If you’ve not read them then I can tell you there is more than a few and you get more as the series goes on. I can’t even put a number to it. Its was different I mean I did low key love that it was written like that but it was an adjustment to begin with, I also think it helped that I did read the first 7 books one after another so yeah.
For me as a reader I would say as long as I’m still able to follow the story, I don’t mind how many there are. In fact most of the time, especially if I’m reading romance, I get a bit disappointed when there is only one POV.
Love it or Loath it
I think it’s pretty obvious from the above that I am a fan of Multiperspectivity. I feel like I get a better sense of the story if I have more than one characters POV to go off. Thinking about it though, this is probably because I enjoy reading books written in 1st person and so I can see how this limits story telling from a writers perspective. Having other POVs when reading in 1st Pov opens the story up a bit more.
On the flip side I can see why people would also hate multi-pov stories, sometimes it can be hard to follow along, which can also make following the story difficult. I think this is when the quality of the writing is important, each POV needs to have its own unique voice so you can get a true feel of who is who when switching between them.
Over to You…
I’d really like to hear your take on this, are multipovs something you enjoy or do they make you want to gauge your eyeballs out? Leave your thoughts in the comments and I catch you on the flip side!
Books & Other Pursuits 