Swept Away is recounted by an "unreliable narrator," certainly one of the most complex and subtle narrative voices an author can use. An unreliable narrator is a character whose version of events is not to be trusted. The major challenge that such a narrator presents to the reader is to sift through the narrative truths and untruths to arrive at a reasonably objective view of events. Often this species of narrator is so untrustworthy that readers simply cannot know all of the truth. Such is the case with Jeanette Taylor, the narrator and central character in Swept Away.

Jeanette gives early evidence of being an unreliable narrator when she fails to notice any of the signs that Bill might be a very disturbed individual and not a good companion for a trip into a remote area. Bill's untrustworthiness is foreshadowed sufficiently enough that the...