Give me a book where the main character is heavily flawed. I don’t want an anti-hero, or a person who’s morally grey. I want someone who genuinely makes crappy decisions in life, and would most likely be judged if their thoughts,actions and moral compass were shared with the general public.
Bonus points if you find yourself shamefully relating with them (even if you would never admit this over your dead body)
Thank you in advance
by unknown_cai
20 Comments
“The Progress of Julius” by Daphne DuMaurier.
Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh
The Magicians by Lev Grossman 🙁
The Name of the Wind
Idk if this really answers your question because he’s just a horrendously written, repugnant little fucker rather than deeply flawed. But he’s definitely horrible.
The Kid from Blood Meridian would probably fit your prompt a little better.
The Cipher, Kathe Koja
All the Ugly and Wonderful Things by Bryn Greenwood – you won’t believe what you end up rooting for by the end
I haven’t read it yet, but by all accounts I’ve heard, Lolita fits this description quite well. It’s been on my reading list, but I struggle to make myself read it
yellowface by r.f. kuang
You mean, like Lolita?
Journey to the end of the Night by Ferdinand Celine. Bardamu, who is the quasi-autobiographical alter ego of the equally flawed author, is an extremely selfish, petty, and hateful character. His only redeeming quality is his self-awareness, or I guess to be more accurate, his understanding of human nature—that is, he knows he’s a shit person but knows everybody else is as well.
The book is famous for its use of common language in a time where most French authors wrote in a more elitist vernacular. The first third also stands as an excellent anti-war treatise. Celine himself is most famous for being a Nazi sympathizer. If you can get over that, it is a brilliant and beautifully disgusting book.
Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica.
The Guest by Emma Cline. Gosh, I hated the MC.
Rin from The Poppy War. She just gets worse as the series go on
Rejection by Tony Tulathimutte
A Confederacy of Dunces
Try Dostoevsky 😆 or basically every classic Russian writer
Emma by Jane Austen
Property by Martin
You by Kepnes
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. what a generational hater.
also going off goodreads reviews an interesting litmus test for media literacy. a lot of people seemed genuinely upset they related to a character with racist and hateful thoughts.
The bell jar