Recently, I read a book and went to Goodreads to check reviews, but most of them were complaints about unlikeable characters. This mystery/thriller book involved four murders, and none of them would have occurred if any of the victims weren’t unlikable and loathsome individuals. I feel like this is one of the most common complaints about books in general — characters being unlikeable and unrelatable.
I understand the frustration with unlikeable characters *if they were intended to be likeable but were poorly written*. Many books have characters meant to be likeable or neutral but end up being total a-holes (for instance, Pedro in “Like Water for Chocolate” is an utterly despicable person, which doesn’t make sense in the context of the story, yet I didn’t see many readers noticing that at all). However, **the main point of many books is to have unlikeable characters**. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be conflict, and the plot would be incredibly dull and ridiculous, or even non-existent. I wonder if people who complain about unlikeable characters, obviously meant to be so, are aware that most fiction books would be boring and essentially the same if every story only featured nice and likeable characters being sweet to each other.
When you see people complaining about unlikeable characters that are clearly meant to be unlikeable, what are your initial thoughts? Does it mean “I picked the wrong book/I’m not the target audience/I didn’t get the point of this book,” or something else?
by MediterraneanSeal