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| Shawnee Bluff Winery Overlooking Lake of the Ozarks |
Hello! I've been scarce in the blogosphere the last few weeks. What have I been doing, you ask? Well, I...
- Vacationed at Lake of the Ozarks with friends. Our boat stalled! Adventures abound!
- Repainted the apartment
- Dug up some fascinating research while brainstorming my next WIP. No, not actual digging, but how cool would that be?!
- Saw Guardians of the Galaxy. Yes, it's as good as you've heard!
- ...And read a lot. Boy, do I need to get caught up on Goodreads.
It's that last one that raised a question for me, and I thought I'd throw it out to you guys. I noticed a trend in myself while reading a few books lately. I kept liking characters I'm pretty sure the author didn't want me to like!
This wasn't a "we love to hate them" villain scenario either, aka Loki. In both instances most recently, the characters I liked were key secondary characters--flawed to be sure, yet often friendly foils to the MC--but the MCs for various reasons didn't like them. Vocally. And repeatedly. Did not like them, denigrated and put them down.
As a reader, I feel like I was *supposed* to not like said characters. I know that's what these authors were going for, and I know they succeeded in part because several reviews and comments bear that out. BUT, for me, the MCs' attitudes made me dislike THEM instead of disliking the secondary characters I was supposed to. I think it felt especially strange because these (unrelated) books happened to fall one after the other in my reading pile, and it made me wonder if I was somehow missing the strength of the MCs or misinterpreting something.
I'm a character reader. I'll take fascinating characters over a fascinating plot or world every time. And suddenly it felt like I was cheering against the MCs in these examples. I'm sure it's just a matter of these particular books and these particular MCs not speaking to me, but it was an extra bummer that the secondary characters who were so well-written and multi-faceted were slammed so much by the MCs. It was a seriously confusing dynamic, and odd to have it happen multiple times in quick succession.
Anybody else have this experience? Have you been a fan of a character the MC disparages?
How has YOUR summer been going so far?
How has YOUR summer been going so far?
Welcome back, Nicole!
ReplyDeleteYes, Guardians is that good.
There have a been a few books where I connected more with the secondary character, but I don't remember the main character being mean. (Now you've made me worry how mean my main character was to the secondary characters...)
Sometimes evil characters are better than the heroes and a lot of times they can be more fun to write.
ReplyDeleteI have to say, in a few episodes of The Walking Dead, I did root for the zombies because the "heroes" were being so stupid! :)
Slight variation on that topic- I've noticed there are a lot of anti-hero stories out there lately too. I haven't read the book yet, but the show that spun off of it-Dexter. He's a complete anti-hero. He's a murderer, but he only kills bad people so you root for him even though you know he's bad.
That picture looks amazing!! I'm glad you're enjoying life. About the characters... I don't know, I'm all over the place. Sometimes I like secondary characters and sometimes I hate them. I also think that my responses are not always aligned with what the author wanted me to feel. But most of all, I don't enjoy characters that are mean. No matter if they are in the right or not. Being a strong character or not allowing others to treat you like a punching bag is not the same as becoming mean yourself. If a MC is mean, I will instantly like him less and root for someone else. So, I guess you're not alone in this! =)
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