What's new

Characters?

scrapsandsass

scrapsandsass

Oh Ricky you're so fine ...
Joined
Feb 11, 2011
Messages
8,907
So... do you ever read a book, and you like the story or the suspense of the story/plot, but you really dislike the main character? And it isn't one of those where you are supposed to dislike them... you just do?

:giggle

I just read The Silent Sister. I really didn't like Riley, the main character because she seemed whiny/pushy/a wanna-be victim/not totally believable/etc. I never really felt any sympathy for her even though I think I was supposed to. There are some other chapters later on, told from another point of view, but Riley was the main one throughout the book. I liked the story overall because it kind of sucked you in and you wanted to know what was going to happen, but I just didn't like many of the characters really. They were all kind of annoying on some level. hahaha.

I usually end up feeling kind of lost after I finish a book, but this one I was kind of glad to be done.

Have you had that happen? If so, did you finish the book anyway?
 
Last edited:
If I get past the first 50 pages and I am not connecting with a character or the storyline I absolutely purge it from my kindle and move on. I can't recall reading something where I have enjoyed the story but not the main character - that is really unfortunate. Hopefully the next one you pick up you'll connect with!!
 
yeah, I usually keep going. I try and think about why I hate the character so much. Often times it's because she share some sort of trait. I also like to figure out why the author made him/her so annoying/frustrating/whatever ...
 
I never read 'Twilight' because I loathed the Bella character so much. The only book I have read and enjoyed that has dislikable characters is 'Gone Girl' by Gillian Flynn. Worth a read, if you like a twisty tale.

I just can't bear to read books (or watch TV series/Films) with feeble women as the main characters. It grates on me, I always feel like those sort of women have been written by men, although that's not always the case!
 
Kate W said:
I The only book I have read and enjoyed that has dislikable characters is 'Gone Girl' by Gillian Flynn. Worth a read, if you like a twisty tale.
Click to expand...

Yeah... Gone Girl. I loved the book, but didn't really dislike the characters even though they were completely crazy and unreliable narrators. :)

When I first started reading The Girl on the Train, I didn't really feel like I liked the main character of that one either, but I was sympathetic and ended up rooting for her later on in the book.

It is all so weird how characters can rub us the wrong way for some reason or another but they can also grow on you (or not). But I don't regret reading The Silent Sister even though I didn't really like Riley.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels that way about a character though. :)
 
I have given up reading more than one book because of this. Maritna Cole's main character( Faye, Faith??) as a supposedly clever police woman makes me want to go " give me a break " ,and I started skipping a lot ( just to get to the end because the story it self was ok ) I tried another of Martina's books ( will add the titles later I cant remember them ) where the main character was the most gullible annoying female ever, Got to chapter 5 or 6 and have never read another of her books, though my hubby likes them .
Danielle Steel is one of the few authors where I actually prefer the film to the book. She keeps on telling us ( every single chapter, sometimes more than once) that the woman is clever, sad, brave what ever .... after the 20th repetition you start taking it our on the character , and grit your teeth.
 
Twilight - I can't believe I got through the entire series while really disliking Bella at the same time. I just wanted to grab her and tell her to grow up already!
 
if supporting characters count in this thread, there was a series i so struggled with because of the BFF. She was so super-ditzy and annoying (not sre she was meant to be that way or not but i audio booked the first one and the 'voice' for the BFF was enough to make me switch to e-book for the others - and still i found her annoying (maybe i could still hear the audio narrator in my head). That and the main character was called Pagan - and the BFF would say 'Paaay-gen' and i'd just wish that their conversations would hurry up and be over. I think i read on Goodreads that a lot of readers hated her name and found it a sore point with the series. I can't remember the title - have to find it on goodreads.... oh yep https://www.goodreads.com/series/71404-existence-trilogy - here's my PSA: if you like paranormal and Abbi Glines, don't bother with this series of hers
 
Jeanet said:
Twilight - I can't believe I got through the entire series while really disliking Bella at the same time. I just wanted to grab her and tell her to grow up already!
Click to expand...

i didn't have this problem with Bella, she was only a clueless teenager compared to some ancient, wise, if teen looking, vampires. i had that problem slightly more with the movies. I find a lot of 'contemporary heroines' spend half the book dithering, i wonder if that's what most real life females are like...
 
Last edited:
Usually when I don't like a character, it's a shallow or poorly written underdeveloped character, doing things, well, out of character. I hate not to finish a book once I start it, and I find myself speed reading and skipping to get to the end. I generally don't care for vacuous female characters in any book.
 
I usually finish books, even if I don't like the characters - or they just simply annoy me. I disliked Amy immensely. I am usually the opposite... and love characters, and want more stories, lol!
 
Oh my goodness yes! There was a series of books that I read (one of my favorite series ever actually) that had one super annoying character. She was THE main character, but one of the main characters and for the entire first book and most of the 2nd book I just was so annoyed with her that I almost couldn't keep reading. But, in the end, her being annoying was part of what made the books good and I'm glad I kept reading them!

I'm kind of stubborn with books in that if I start reading one, it has to a special kind of horrible for me to not finish the book.
 
Back
Top