Originally Posted by Nancy Fulda
There's actually a word for this in the industry. It's called an 'unreliable narrator' and it's a fairly common tactic in first-person narration.
A deft author can render secondary characters with enough detail to allow readers to form an opinion that conflicts with the views expressed by the viewpoint character, and the contrast between those two viewpoints can become an excellent source of literary tension.
The trick is to depict events and actions rather than just interpretations. It all comes back to the old adage of 'show, don't tell'.
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