Let's Do The Twist!

[rachelmanija]

I know it all depends on execution, but in general...

Poll #26831 Do the Twist

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 114

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What is your favorite twist?

View Answers

Two or more characters are actually the same person.
20 (18.7%)

One or more characters are actually imaginary or hallucinations.
9 (8.4%)

One or more characters were dead all along.
12 (11.2%)

Someone is secretly God.
5 (4.7%)

It's all taking place in virtual reality.
2 (1.9%)

It's all a dream.
1 (0.9%)

What you think is the future is actually the past or vice versa.
38 (35.5%)

The narrator misunderstands something.
48 (44.9%)

The narrator is lying about or deliberately omitting something.
42 (39.3%)

Someone is secretly related to someone else.
22 (20.6%)

A character is a woman.
21 (19.6%)

A character is queer.
19 (17.8%)

A character is trans.
14 (13.1%)

A character is [some other surprise marginalized identity].
12 (11.2%)

A character is a cis man. (Has anyone ever seen this one? I can't think of an example.)
3 (2.8%)

Someone the protagonist trusts has been secretly manipulating them all along.
27 (25.2%)

The entire story was all deliberately planned by a character.
40 (37.4%)

Someone is a mole.
22 (20.6%)

The narrator is in a mental hospital or otherwise delusional all along.
3 (2.8%)

The apparent victim is actually the perpetrator
22 (20.6%)

Everyone in the story is actually pigeons/aliens/dolls/etc.
14 (13.1%)

Something else I've forgotten to mention, so please explain in a comment..
6 (5.6%)

What twist do you HATE?

View Answers

Two or more characters are actually the same person.
8 (7.5%)

One or more characters are actually imaginary or hallucinations.
25 (23.6%)

One or more characters were dead all along.
23 (21.7%)

Someone is secretly God.
26 (24.5%)

It's all taking place in virtual reality.
48 (45.3%)

It's all a dream.
73 (68.9%)

What you think is the future is actually the past or vice versa.
4 (3.8%)

The narrator misunderstands something.
4 (3.8%)

The narrator is lying about or deliberately omitting something.
17 (16.0%)

Someone is secretly related to someone else.
4 (3.8%)

A character is a woman.
6 (5.7%)

A character is queer.
9 (8.5%)

A character is trans.
13 (12.3%)

A character is [some other surprise marginalized identity].
10 (9.4%)

A character is a cis man. (Has anyone ever seen this one? I can't think of an example.)
0 (0.0%)

Someone the protagonist trusts has been secretly manipulating them all along.
20 (18.9%)

The entire story was all deliberately planned by a character.
10 (9.4%)

Someone is a mole.
4 (3.8%)

The narrator is in a mental hospital or otherwise delusional all along.
66 (62.3%)

The apparent victim is actually the perpetrator
11 (10.4%)

Everyone in the story is actually pigeons/aliens/dolls/etc.
14 (13.2%)

Something else I've forgotten to mention, so please explain in a comment..
2 (1.9%)

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Comments

[cyphomandra]

Oh this is hard, because it’s really hard to think of something I always like. I was also at a talk by Jeffrey Deaver once where he talked about the distinction between twists for the reader and twists for the characters that I found really useful (and a heavy reliance on the former is why a lot of modern thrillers don’t work for me, because all the tension goes out of the story once you know the twist). “The narrator is hiding something” for example - this works for me if the reason is strong and not just so that the readers will fall for it.

I do agree with usually liking the “this is actually a different genre” than you expected and usually not liking “it was all a dream”, although time loops and VR are more successful.

One of my favourite twist narratives that I’ve read in the last ten years or so was Ginn Hale’s The Rifter, which I though had an absolutely brilliant twist. (I would read it again to see how she did it and then again just because it was so satisfying, as opposed to the vague anticlimax I get with a lot of modern thrillers)

[rachelmanija]

The Rifter had multiple brilliant twists!

[marjorie1170]

I adored The Rifter. Read it at least twice. Maybe should read it again.

[lilacsigil]

I love “The narrator is hiding something” only when the narrator doesn't know that they're hiding it. For example, a murder mystery I read where the narrator was incredibly frustrated about her poor memory on the day of a murder, so she sees a "recovered memories" therapist, remembers everything, acts on that with serious consequences...and then finally realises that her recovered memory is actually physically impossible. The clues were already there for the reader but the narrator was so gung-ho that she had definitely remembered the entire truth that it was very convincing!

[sholio]

Oh yes, thiiiis - I love narrators that actually think they're telling the truth, but actually don't realize they're lying. The intentionally-lying narrators really only work for me mainly when there's a very specific framework for what they're omitting and why, e.g. finding out that the narrator has been leaving out specific facts because their "first person account" is actually being recorded in an interview with a government agency and they're self-censoring, for example.

The Vlad Taltos books have a really fascinating example of "narrator doesn't know he's lying" which is simultaneously very meta. The books (which are mostly first-person narration) were written over a period of about 30 years, so consequently there are some narrative inconsistencies, and these are explained in-universe by gur aneengbe univat unq uvf zrzbevrf zrffrq jvgu. Jr (gur ernqre) xabj guvf orpnhfr bgure punenpgref pnyy uvz bhg ba vg naq cbvag bhg gung gurl qba'g erzrzore guvatf gur fnzr jnl.

[viridian5]

“The narrator is hiding something” for example - this works for me if the reason is strong and not just so that the readers will fall for it.

I hate that: it feels so cheap, like I fell for a stupid trick for feeling something when the narrator knew something different all along.