Not Enjoying the Worst
If you read enough (or watch enough television or listen to enough music), you begin to notice patterns. A book (or show or song) will be successful, and other artists will try to copy it, putting out similar work. The theme I keep encountering lately is books with terrible characters.
I don’t mean poorly written. I mean that the writer designed a book where every person is awful. They think awful things. They take selfish actions. They are terrible to other characters. And all of the characters are equally awful. In these books, there is no one you can root for.
I know there is an audience for these books because publishers keep making these books. But now that I’ve noticed this pattern in multiple books, I’ve realized that it’s on me to stop reading these books when it dawns on me that there are zero characters I’m rooting for. When I’m okay with everyone losing, it’s time to put the book down.
3 comments
I feel the same. And a friend and I were just discussing something I think is related – she said she can’t read a book unless it makes her feel good. She doesn’t want to feel unhappy or unsettled when she finishes and when all the characters are terrible, we both agreed if left us feeling…icky.
I agree. I’m certainly going through a phase where I can’t handle doom and gloom, or nasty characters without a redeeming feature. I just won’t do it.
Maybe Goodreads’ Did Not Finish shelf will help with that. I’m already invested in not bothering with books that don’t grab me, so if I hate all the characters…off it goes, back to the library. A lot of TV shows are like that as well – once in a while it’s an interesting character who does terrible things, but lately, things like Succession and The White Lotus have terrible people doing terrible things for no good reason. Sigh. I like a good ending, and usually end up just wishing everyone was dead. With books, I don’t even bother to get that far.