It’s happened to all of us. You start a new book, and you wait. You wait for the magic to happen. You wait for that moment when something snaps into place, and you just get the main character.
Lilac and Tarver from These Broken Stars. She was a major pain in the ass who represented some of the worst female stereotypes, and Tarver lost my respect for putting up with her.
Étienne St. Clair from Anna and the French Kiss. I am not a fan of how their relationship unfolds (I can’t say anything specific without giving away plot details). The details, when you’ve read them, reveal that Étienne is a weak-willed douche masquerading as a romantic. It didn’t work for me, and neither did he. And that Anna wasn’t bothered by how he comported himself didn’t endear her to me either.
Jane from Austenland. It’s been a while since I read this, but I do remember feeling vaguely frustrated by Jane’s passivity several times. She wasn’t the worst character, but she certainly didn’t make me want to be her best friend.
Juliette from Shatter Me. I get that she’s had a rough time. I get that she’s a little mentally unstable because of it. But I still can’t quite forgive her for the horrible experience of being in her head.
Elizabeth from Roomies. I know she was young, and youths are notoriously annoying, but still. I lost patience with her many, many times.
Cadence from We Were Liars. I actually legitimately can’t say anything more about this one. There just isn’t a way to do so without giving away important plot details. I just didn’t approve of her behaviour, let’s leave it at that.
Tris from Insurgent. I don’t feel like this one needs much explanation if you’ve read the books. All the self-pity and whining and wilful idiocy. Just NO.
Joanna from My Salinger Year. Okay, I feel bad talking about this one because this book was a memoir. I just… didn’t get along with her. I didn’t like that she let her boyfriend get away with horrible behaviour, and I had trouble with her voice. It just came across a bit cold and wibbly. Yes, I know that’s not a real word.
“The wife” from Dept. of Speculation. I appreciated the experimental format of this book. I appreciated how the characters were developed and how the plot was unfurled. But I just didn’t like the narrator. I felt for her, I understood parts of her. But I didn’t actively like her.
Viola from A God In Ruins. Of course, you’re not really supposed to get on with her. But still. I didn’t.
I didn’t anticipate how… icky this post would make me feel! I don’t like writing negative stuff in reviews, but this just basically rounded up the bad things I wrote over the past two years into one post. At any rate, I’ve linked to full reviews for books I’ve written them for, so you can see the things I *did* like about them – because there were some, I promise.
I am curious to know, though, who did you find difficult to read? Which characters didn’t you get along with? Did you struggle with any of the same ones as I did?
Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly link-up feature hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Every week TTT has a different topic, and everyone who links up has to create a link of ten items that fit that topic. To see past and upcoming topics, go here.
[…] Top Ten Characters I Just Didn’t Click With […]
Hm…Now that I think about it, Lilac did embody some female stereotypes that I’m not a fan of, namely her obsession with pretty dresses when she should be more focused on surviving. But dude! She’s an engineering ace! And that’s what really impressed me about her.
I fully agree with you on Juliette.
Check out my TTT.
I haven’t continued with the series though, so to be fair, she might get better as it continues. I’d be curious to know if that’s the case… but not curious enough to actually read the books!
“We Were Liars” made my list — looking back at my review reminded me of how much I hated all the characters! I didn’t really mind Tris from “Insurgent” but I can see where you’re coming from. Same goes for Jane from “Austenland.”
Awww I loved Austenland but yeah Jane wasn’t my most favorite character of the group. My TTT
There were a lot of things I enjoyed about the book, it was just that I had a bit of a hard time with Jane. Not all the way through, she definitely isn’t the worst on this list, just enough that I felt annoyed and remember feeling annoyed. Have you watched the movie? Maybe it’s better on screen?
Totally agree with Tris in that book. She should have gotten over than much quicker than she did. Great list 🙂
I mean, if it were reality I’m sure she’d be totally traumatized for the rest of her life, but when it’s fiction there’s only so much time you can spend living through that with someone before it’s just not a good reading experience anymore, you know what I mean? Particularly when it’s a young adult action book – you go into it wanting a specific type of read, and constant self-flagellation isn’t it. I was definitely disappointed!
Candence from We Were Liars was pretty annoying but I apart from that I don’t really remember much of her. Oops. I tried to get into These Broken Stars but it didn’t really work. I will be reading Shatter Me soon though so I’ll make sure to keep an eye on Juliette! Great list!
Nattie @ Book Rambles – here’s my Top Ten :3
I felt like I was very much in the minority when it came to my feelings on We Were Liars. I didn’t like the story much, but I was definitely in the minority there as everyone else seemed to love it. Actually, come to the think of it, the same goes for These Broken Stars! I felt like Shatter Me definitely got better as the book went on, and I think the things that bothered me were more stylistic than character-based. Juliette annoyed me, but it was more how she was written that irritated me, if that makes any sense. You might find her fascinating, and might not have any trouble getting along with her. I hope that’s the case!
Tris was on my list this week too!
I liked Tris in the first book, but by the second she’d lost me. So whiny! I didn’t put My Salinger Year on my list because I was trying to focus on fiction, but I wanted to crawl into the pages and slap Joanna every time she stuck with her worthless excuse for a boyfriend. There were so many signs that he was not stable or grown-up enough for a real relationship and I felt like she put up with waaaaay too much crap from him!
I was okay with Tris in the first book, though the plot holes big enough to drive a truck through bugged me. By book two the combination of both was more than I could handle. I didn’t finish the series. (It didn’t help that someone spoiled a major plot point for me.) I went back and forth on My Salinger Year. I finally decided to include it because honestly her character was one of the most difficult I’d encountered on the page in recent reads. The number of times I actually gave her stern talkings-to was absurd, not to mention that it made me seem kind of like a crazy person since I was basically lecturing… to a book. I was also, possibly unfairly, irritated that she didn’t spend more time on working in publishing, an experience I’d give a limb for. I didn’t want to hear about her stupid boyfriend. I wanted to hear about the BOOKS.