Narrator Unreliability of The Moth Diaries

The Moth Diaries by Rachel Klein is a gothic novel inspired by a mentally ill girl's diary she wrote when she was a junior at a girl's boarding school. It is mainly about her delusions about a mysterious new girl, her unhealthy obsession with her best friend, and unusual accidents that happen around her school all while dealing with multiple mental disorders and family tragedy.

As you can notice, the narrator is not at all reliable. I the novel, almost all she writes about is her best friend Lucy and her growing interest with a new girl name Ernessa. The narrator is furiously jealous of the two's friendship, which in return makes her despise Ernessa. She tells the readers about how Lucy and her used to have a very tight friendship and how she made her forget about her father's suicide when she first came to the school. After Lucy and Ernessa become inseparable, the narrator starts having flashbacks and nightmares about the tragedy, which tells the readers that without Lucy's companionship, she can't deal with what happened to her. I think this is the reason why the protagonist goes on a downward spiral as the book progresses; her obsession with Lucy was partly because she provided her a world away from her troubled past and as the two girls drift apart, the narrator is forced to face to her painful past.

However, because we already know the narrator has psychological disorders, she ignores what's really going on and instead blames her issues on Ernessa. She becomes infatuated with the girl, following her at night, accusing her of ridiculous things and digging into her past just to find something unusual about her. She also blames odd occurrences happening around her school on her. For instance, when the headmistress's dog is killed, she convinces herself that Ernessa was responsible for it. Another very peculiar thing about the narrator and Ernessa is that they seem to be very similar to each other. The narrator notes that she is the only other Jew in the school and has dark hair and pale skin just like her. Also, Ernessa's father had committed suicide too. A particularly odd part in the book was when the narrator, as her and Ernessa stare at their reflection on the window, notes that they resemble each other so much. Her friends note it too throughout the book. This was the part where I realized that the book might have even more plot twists, and that Ernessa may just be an alter ego the narrator had created, as she has borderline personality disorder. I am not sure yet if this is the case, but it is a very interesting and likely theory.

Overall, as you can note, the narrator of this book is very unreliable, which makes it hard for the reader to distinguish whether the events in the book really happen or not. However, it also adds a twist to the story and makes the book more captivating and enjoyable.