Books with dislikable characters

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Ok so weird request, but I have noticed that I tend to quite like books with unlikable and even pretty loathsome characters - think Gone Girl, The Casual Vacancy, and more recently The Recovery of Rose Gold.

So - can anyone recommend any books in this vein (yes I know it’s a bit weird)

Any chick lit that has lengthy descriptions about hair make-up or nails on the first page

This - in fact make that any chick lit 🤣

The Tin Drum by Gunther Grass. My favourite ever book but my god the main character is such a weirdo.

OP that is so bizarre - I was talking to my friend about this recently. I also seem to really like books with characters that other people find unlikeable - god knows what that says about me In fact, Gone Girl and Girl on the Train are about the only two books of that genre that I have really enjoyed!

I'd throw in:

• My Year of Rest & Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh
• Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh
• Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney
• Notes on a Scandal by Zoe Heller

I didn't find The Slap characters unlikeable at all (well certainly not all of them) but I often see people say that

I think any decent book has flawed characters, surely expecting the main characters in a book to be likeable is how a child reads a book (and even children's books can have flawed characters, see Snape in HP for probably the most famous example).

Having said that Wilkie Collins is great on fascinating 'bad' characters, myself (!) in Woman in White of course, but also Lydia Gwilt in Armadale and Magdalen Vanstone in No Name.

The great gatsby.

Every single one of them is utterly vapid and loathsome and they all bloody deserve each other.

Also nineteen eighty four.

Winston is not remotely likeable and neither is anyone else but it's a brilliant book and quite harrowing.

My lovely wife by Samantha Downing

Oh gosh yes The Little Stranger!

(& scared me half to death)

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine.

Queen of the North by Anne O'Brien. The lead character was a real person, wife of Henry 'Hotspur' Percy. She spends half the book lamenting that he died and that people are blaming her, but she encouraged him to go off and fight the king. It was blatantly treasonous and he only did it because she asked.

Actually, there are a few of Anne O'Brien's books where the main character is a nasty piece of work.

My Brilliant Friend, both the main characters are very flawed.

Catcher in the Rye has to have the prize for fucking most annoying book that everyone else seems to love. Never managed to finish it, despite trying several times. Same with Catch 22. I obviously don't get 'cult status' books.

Sorry, off topic but total waste of time books

I’ll bring the level of literature right down with the Wideacre series by Philippa Gregory. Not one single redeeming feature in the main character and not many in the others

The Collector by John Fowles.

Anything by Louise O'Neill. She is a master at that

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Engleby by Sebastian Faulks. He is utterly awful, but I find the book so compelling I've read it about 20 times.

Mary Anne in normal people!

I’d forgotten about Engleby - I must reread. The Party by Elizabeth Day also has vile characters.

Philip in My Cousin Rachel is unlikable in that interesting unreliable narrator way. Is he an absolute bellend, or is Rachel really manipulative? He’s certainly, at best, a partial bellend

The Catcher in the Rye's Holden Caulfield I dont think he has likeable bone in his body

The female protagonist in Tokyo by Mo Hayder. She's perverse, selfish and obsessed by some highly unsavoury things. In fact most characters in Mo Hayder's books are deeply unpleasant and flawed.