Reached page 300 of a 350 page book before I realized the main twist

I was in a book club debate last night and someone casually mentioned the big reveal from this novel we were discussing. I had read the same book, same edition, and somehow I completely missed the setup for the ending. I thought the main character was just being paranoid, turns out the narrator was unreliable the whole time. It was humiliating to admit I skimmed past three chapters of foreshadowing because I was distracted by my phone. Has anyone else gotten that far into a book and realized you basically read a different story?

2 comments

2 Comments

davis.noah6d ago

Oh, I hear you but I have to push back a little on this one. Honestly, I think missing foreshadowing is part of the fun of reading, not something to feel bad about. The best books are the ones that work both ways - they make sense on a surface level but reveal more when you look closer. Getting to page 300 and then having the rug pulled out from under you is actually a sign of a well-crafted story. It means the author set things up properly without making them too obvious. I've done the same thing more than once, and I actually feel like those books stick with me longer because I want to go back and see what I missed.

grant.sam5d ago

Nah, I gotta disagree hard here! Missing the whole point of a book until page 300 just means you wasted hours on something you weren't actually reading.

-1