A book where you really get involved with the characters

[tobee]

I feel like reading this kind of book.

However, I'm more interested in hearing about the books you have read where you felt really involved with the characters; where you even missed them when the book (or series maybe) was over.

I'm imagining (and hoping) that there will be a variety.

I really enjoyed the Sophie Kinsella - shopaholic series. Not sure if it's your cup of tea, but a good light hearted read. They made the first book into a film.

A bit old now but have you read the Cazalet Chronicles? I haven't read them for a few years bow but the characters still live in my head.

I just finished Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus. The main characters are riveting.

I have read the Cazalets books. Although the last one (or two?) slightly spoiled it for me.

A Suitable Boy. Extremely likeable characters (well most of them).

Behind Closed Doors by B A Paris, I was on the edge of my seat through the whole book and was really invested with the main character.

The last Cazalet book, written so long after the others and not long before EJH died, is awful. Characters behaved in ways they just wouldn't. I gave it straight to the charity shop and when I reread the series will pretend it doesn't exist. Love the first four though.

I think Iain Banks is good for making you care about his characters (which is something I like in a book). Like Danny in Espedair Street and Preston in The Crow Road, to name my two favourite IB books.

Also Quoyle in E Annie Proulx's The Shipping News. So decent and worn down by life and you just want things to work out for him. I haven't seen the film thankfully so have a very different picture of Quoyle in my head as I'd find it hard to care about Kevin Spacey ..

There must be many more! Usually I'd go to my bookshelves to ponder but not at home at the moment. Watching with interest.

Came here to say the Cazalets too. No one writes dialogue especially between children like her. I really really was invested in Louise I so wanted her to be happy.

Oh, and also My Dear I Wanted To Tell You by Louisa Young.

Riley and Nadine come from two very different families. They meet as children and are only eighteen when war breaks out. As a reader I really cared about the challenges they face in the novel. There's another couple who struggle with a different set of problems after the war ends and both are well explored.

It's an affecting love story but much more than that. Very interesting - and fairly graphic - about the pioneering plastic surgery following facial injuries in WWI, and also the difficulty of readjusting to normal life following the horrors of trench warfare.

Wolf Hall and the sequels. I was so involved that I raced through the first two and a half books then slowed right down because I didn’t want the end that I knew was coming. And when I passed by Austin Friars by accident on my way somewhere else I had absolute goosebumps.

Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Epic.

Of Mice and Men. I cried like a baby at the end. They didn't want much. I wanted to climb into the story, rewind and buy George, Lennie and Candy their little farm and they could live happily ever after.

I find that Laurie Graham books have fantastic, interesting characters, she writes about many different subjects,The Kennedys, Wallis Simpson and Napoleon, stories woven around fact and others that are fiction that tell really funny, believable stories set in more modern times
Her last books were about Dr Dan, Oh how I loved that series, I felt as if I knew them personally.
It's absolutely criminal that she has to self publish now, She is, in my opinion, one of the country's greatest authors.

His Dark Materials by Phillip Pullman. Just amazing. An immersive world and such brilliant characters. Moved me to tears at the end of the third book. Highly recommended.

I’m currently re-reading the Seven Sisters series by Lucinda Reilly in preparation for reading the final book which was released a few weeks ago. Loving them all over again - read the 3rd one in it’s entirety yesterday (didn’t do much else all day)

In my opinion, #1, 2, & 7 are the strongest ones, I didn’t love #4 or 6, and 3 was ok, but it took me longer to be drawn in.

Each book follows one sister so they are stand alone books in a sense, but they also all link together, so even the weaker books are worth reading because they feed into the larger story. The final book is about the mysterious father of the Seven Sisters.

No spoilers please to anyone who has read Pa Salt’s book yet - I am sitting with my little notebook as I go through the sisters’ books writing down clues!

@highlandcoo I really enjoyed My Dear I Wanted to Tell You, once I'd got into the book and past the first few chapters. It stayed with me a long time too.

The Dust that falls from Dreams - Louis de Berniere was heaven

Louis de Berniere
The Dust that falls from Dreams
So much life left over
Autumn of the Ace

The Book Thief.

Wonderfully written characters.

Robin Hobb "The Liveship Traders" series if you like fantasy.

Any book by Stephen King.

Prozac Nation by Elizabeth Wurtzel, I became totally invested in the book that I would forget where I was and would laugh and cry at aspects of the book.
but I’ve read the book so often it fell apart and had to get a new copy. This is now very much in bad condition because of the amount of times I have read it.
I can’t recommend the book highly enough either

All of Margaret Forster. I'm reading 'Over' and am practically sitting next to the main character.

Gone with the wind. It's not just Scarlett.

"CHERUB is a series of teenage spy novels written by English author Robert Muchamore, focusing around a fictional division of the British Security Service called CHERUB"

And the Harry Potter series.

Ah these are interesting answers! I will look at poster's choices more closely.

I suddenly thought of a character that I really got invested in. In fact I sort of fell in love with which I hadn't had before!!! Unfortunately, the person is, although based on a real person, fictionalised, long dead and gay but never mind!! It's Dr Rivers in Pat Barker's Regeneration trilogy. I read the books and listened to Peter Firth on audible; just found his character very calming and deeply empathetic.

Also the girl in Rebecca and the girl in Good Morning Midnight.

I was probably most susceptible to being invested in characters reading children's books when a child. Charlotte and Clare in Charlotte Sometimes, Josephine in Cold Christmas and Karl and Jonathan Lion in The Brothers Lionheart.