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Books with unlikeable characters

139 replies

Booklover23 · 18/12/2024 16:24

Ok so not very Christmassy but I am a fan of an unlikeable protagonist.

Any recommendations for my last book of the year?

OP posts:
Andante57 · 19/12/2024 08:42

SlightDrip it’s so sad that Ross died young as I think the books after her death are less good, though I very much enjoyed The Big House at Inver.
Yes, I sometimes wonder about Charlotte’s dash to shut the gate but if IIRC she wasn’t aware then of Roddy’s feelings for Francie.
The scene at the station when Francie sees Hawkins getting into the train with the Dysarts is so good that I’m sure one or both of the authors must have experiences something similar.
At the end, I wish there had been an epilogue of what happened next!
There was a tv series made but Charlotte was shown as a slim, quite attractive woman which completely missed the point.

RenoDakota · 19/12/2024 00:08

Never Greener by Ruth Jones.

SlightDrip · 18/12/2024 23:46

Andante57 · 18/12/2024 17:23

The Real Charlotte by Somerville & Ross. Charlotte Mullen and Roderick Lambert are brilliantly drawn, horrible people. Gerald Hawkins isn’t great either.

Great to meet another S and R fan! I actually adore Charlotte, despite her awfulness — her consciousness of her own squat plainness and unfeminine cleverness and her desperate grá for dire Roddy, and that brilliantly chilling moment where she thinks about pretending to fall and let the spooked horses trample Francie in the lane…

FuckItItsFine · 18/12/2024 23:39

TitusMoan · 18/12/2024 22:56

Why?

Show quote history

I just couldn’t warm to HC. Found him so relentlessly negative and just unpleasant. I know he’s suffered trauma, he’s depressed and he’s a teenager. Still unlikeable to me. Just my personal feelings on it.

NooNakedJacuzziness · 18/12/2024 23:38

Cathy in East of Eden is one of the most evil characters you'll ever come across, she's great in an terrible way

Allthegoodnamesarechosen · 18/12/2024 23:31

Oh I really admire Fanny! I suppose her virtues are as you say not for ‘modern sensibilities’ ( I won’t say what that implies).

David Copperfield gets on my nerves, he is so obviously the author in light disguise , and can do no wrong , which makes for a rather uninvolving tale. Actually quite a few of Dickens’ male leads are rather annoying, thé minor characters have more varied traits and are so much more interesting.

BridgetRandomfuck · 18/12/2024 23:22

Mansfield Park is another one - Fanny is difficult to warm to with modern sensibilities, and Edmund is pretty insufferable- you get a ‘happy’ ending, but no one really comes out of it well. The supposedly charming Crawfords don’t have many redeeming features either. It’s an interesting book though, makes you wonder what else Austen would have written if she had lived longer…

Julen7 · 18/12/2024 23:18

Perfume - Patrick Suskind

minipie · 18/12/2024 23:18

Anything by Lionel Shriver

Lots of Ian McEwan

Anything by Maupassant but especially Boule de Suif

Lots of wartime novels have many unlikeable characters, for obvious reasons although the main protagonist is usually likeable enough. Not sure if it needs to be the main character who is unlikeable?

BridgetRandomfuck · 18/12/2024 23:15

HeadNorth · 18/12/2024 18:33

Gillespie and I by Jane Harris - excellent book but chilling, it stuck with me. The narrator is a piece of work and I will leave it at that.

I was going to add this! A great book, especially if you like an unreliable narrator, but a hard read due to actions of said narrator…

EveInEden · 18/12/2024 23:13

The Poppy War.

It's fantasy based on the Japaense invasion of China in WW2. Pretty dark toward the end.

alloutofcareunits · 18/12/2024 23:10

Definitely We Need to Talk About Kevin. I couldn't finish A Prayer for Owen Meany as I found him so annoying! I also found it difficult to like anyone in Never Met Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro.

murasaki · 18/12/2024 23:03

Line of beauty by Alan Hollinghurst. Everyone is an 80s Tory arsehole. Everyone.

Great book though.

LifeInAHamsterWheel · 18/12/2024 23:01

The main character in "Slammerkin" by Emma Donoghue is very hard to like. I liked the story but not her!

TitusMoan · 18/12/2024 22:56

FuckItItsFine · 18/12/2024 17:24

The Catcher In The Rye for me.

Why?

Behindthethymes · 18/12/2024 22:52

Great thread. I’m taking notes.

I might get flamed for this but I find Claire insufferable in the Outlander series.

Nick Hornby’s protagonists are pretty awful people - About a Boy, High Fidelity.

FuckThePoPo · 18/12/2024 22:47

Gone with the wind

ThinkAboutItTomorrow · 18/12/2024 22:42

Atomised by Michel Hoellbeque

RockyRogue1001 · 18/12/2024 22:30

Came on to say notes on a scandal and gone girl, but pps have mentioned both

Catandsquirrel · 18/12/2024 22:23

The well beloved by Thomas Hardy.

Love the settings but Jocelyn Pierston's pursuit of beauty means his attitude towards women leaves a fair bit to be desired over the many years

AyrshireTryer · 18/12/2024 21:28

Wuthering Heights - everyone in it is vile.

Timeforatincture · 18/12/2024 21:19

Magnificent unreliable and highly dubious narrator in Pale Fire (Nabokov). What a wild ride that is!

SheilaFentiman · 18/12/2024 21:18

Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney- didn’t like any of them!

TribulationPeriwinkle · 18/12/2024 21:13

Undine Spragg in The Custom of the Country (Edith Wharton)
Angelica in Angel (Elizabeth Taylor)
Carrie in Sister Carrie (Theodore Dreiser)

DuesToTheDirt · 18/12/2024 21:12

StiffyByngsDogBartholomew · 18/12/2024 17:07

Vanity Fair ? You can't help but admire Becky's determination and grit but, my word, she certainly schemes her way through the world

Edited

I was going to say this. A lot of people love her but I really don't!