I recently found that I’ve enjoyed characters in stories who for whatever reason are angry and push people around them away. Whether it be due to a commitment to a revenge plot or jealousy over another character’s circumstances. When well written I enjoy them like emotional jelly beans. Unfortunately, I’ve only stumbled accustomed such characters as minor and not as protagonists or major characters. I’d love any recommendations featuring a character that goes through this particular journey.
by Spasmochi
12 Comments
Hmm, {{Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney}} is kinda like this.
Chouette, mother of a special child that becomes all but feral.
I’m not sure if you’re looking for a character who pushes people away at first and then opens up as the book progresses, but if so… {{Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine}} by Gail Honeyman
Don’t know if you like a dark fantasy sort of setting, but…A Deadly Education by Naomi Novick. The protagonist is super hostile to everyone but somehow you like her anyway.
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett (her attitude changes throughout the story though; the 1993 movie adaptation makes this theme among others even a bit more obvious than the book)
I’ve got two who might fit the bill.
{{The Lawrence Brown Affair by Cat Sebastian}} my all time favorite. Although the MC is less angry than afraid and hurt.
{{The Games We Used To Play by David Jimenez}} it’s very new, I just finished it today. One of the MCs is mad at the world and the life he might have had. He also believes that nobody could ever truly love him, and therefore pushes people away.
{{John Dies at the End by David Wong}} / Jason Pargin (David Wong was a pseudonym but he used his real name now. David Wong is also the name of the main character)
Dave has experienced a lot of shit and is very angry at the world because of it. He’s honestly an asshole who doesn’t want anything to do with the plot, but has to engage with it anyways. He’s a great character though because if you’ve ever dealt with depression, he’s so perfectly realistic.
Edit: added the Goodreads thing
The titular character in the Murderbot Diaries isn’t angry so much as suspicious and isolated and traumatized, but does push people away pretty consistently & only gradually learns through the course of the series how to connect with anyone.
Catcher in the Rye?
The Guest by Emma Cline – you meet the character sort of at the end of them pushing everyone in their life away but the story unfolds as the novel continues. It really draws you in, lots of emotional jellybeans 🙂
The gargoyle by Andrew Davidson
Zara in [‘Anxious People’](https://www.waterstones.com/book/anxious-people/fredrik-backman/9781405930253) has this kind of personality, though it comes out more as icy pragmatism than anger. Beneath her harsh surface she’s hiding a layer of guilt and loneliness, and the narrative follows her working through this with a therapist, as well as eventually opening up to a stranger.