I first came across this common complaint when I read Yellowface, recently I’ve seen it in relation to The Correspondent, and many other books in between. People complaining that the main character is unlikeable, selfish, rude, etc.
Personally I revel in this kind of character. I haven’t read The Correspondent yet but I loved Yellowface. Isn’t it fun sometimes to secretly shed the social shackles of being Good, always Good Good Good, and just enjoy someone being bad???
I don’t recall ever disliking a book because the character was unlikeable, to me the main question is are they enjoyable, which is a different thing.
What do you think?
by OpenCantaloupe4790
16 Comments
I can dislike a character as long as I don’t mind spending time with them. It’s a hard line to walk.
I think that people can’t read anymore. They get their reading preferences from TikTok and think that books dealing with real stuff are problematic. They want perfect main characters with agency, always making the right decisions, they want healthy relationships and perfect ending. I’ll shoot myself in the head before I read books fitting their criteria.
They serve a purpose. Flannery O’Connor.
I love them! That means the writer is creating an awesome villain!
If they’re well-written and supposed to be unlikeable, I’m fine with that.
If they’re unlikeable because they’re *badly written*, not so much. The main character in The Maidens by Alex Michaelides is a great example of the latter, and she drove me bat-shit fucking crazy!!
I had a lot of fun hating the main character in Yellowface. It didn’t matter that the story was from her POV.
I need to get to The Correspondent sooner rather than later. It seems like something I would enjoy.
Characters’ “likeability” has no bearing on whether a work of art is enjoyable or not. These people aren’t your friends – they’re characters in a work of fiction. What do their personalities do for the artistic goals of the work itself? This goes for movies, TV, video games etc as much as literature.
I agree with you, I prefer a main character that’s not supposed to be likeable lol
Some coworkers tried a virtual book club during the covid shutdown. We read three books that I thought were hot garbage, then I recommended one of my favorites, Mildred Pierce.
It was UNREAL the number of people who were mad because Mildred made bad choices throughout the book. Um no duh? That’s what the book is about? This woman struggling with her relationships and business goals and her overwhelming devotion to her horrid daughter? She’s flawed that’s literally the entire point? Aaaahhhhh!!!!
love em
Unlikable characters are fine when they are *supposed to be* unlikable. You’ll rarely see people complain about this type of character though as they are meeting the readers expectation. The issue is more around characters that the author wants the reader to like, and flubs it so bad that readers end up hating the character. There is nothing more annoying than a character the story/author is telling you is super cool, or nice, or funny, etc. but they just aren’t. It creates a weird rift between what the story is saying, and what the reader is experiencing, and it completely takes you out of the story.
If you want to really be torn about a character being likable or not, read the Flashman novels
like or dislike, just make them interesting
Sometimes it’s like practicing for acceptance of unlikeable real people, or at least practice in not condemning them for not being someone you can enjoy your time with. Theodore Sturgeon’s story Need has a rather unlikeable guy who it’s easier to sympathize with from afar, because he deals with a situation that must be a living hell, and deals with it a bit poorly… but it’s hard to say I’d be any better at it.
A lot of Philip K. Dick characters are kinda scum, especially his cop characters — he clearly didn’t like cops, and nowadays it’s ever easier to see why — but often are in situations that we as readers wouldn’t wish on anyone at all, them included.
I grew to dislike the MC in the Circle by Dave Eggers a lot. However, I was still engrossed by what she was doing. I loved the book, and it lived with me for a long time afterwards, but she was awful.
I enjoy reading unlikeable characters tbh. If they are well written, depending on the character, there will probably be elements of the character you relate with (e.g., motivations of jealousy, arrogance or whatever) which I enjoy grappling with. Good example is maybe Franzen’s Crossroads – I really didn’t like any of the characters/how they communicated and treated each other, but I could understand why they were the way they were because they were well written.