Books with unlikeable characters

[Booklover23]

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

Any recommendations for my last book of the year?

Tbh I can’t remember, it was two years ago, maybe unpleasant is too harsh but I definitely didn’t sympathise with anyone.

Yes! Bruce is also awful, and reminds me of so many guys I went to uni with at Edinburgh 😅

Englefield by Sebastian Faulks
How to Kill your Family by Bella Mackie
Both black humour. Very black in the case of Englefield.!

Both Prep and Sisterland by Curtis Sittenfield

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

The Great Gatsby

The heroine and her father in The Mysteries of Udolpho both need a good slap.

Martin Chuzzlewit is a jerk

The Weekend by Charlotte Wood - 3 main characters all irritating, fab book.

@FuckItItsFine

Yes he certainly is

I was also going to suggest this.

This one is a brilliant book. But I do have a soft spot for Olive.

Nellie Oleson in the Little House books

Practically everyone in Oliver Twist, ditto Great Expectations

Some of Mary Wesley's characters are awful.

Those twins in one of the books

Absolutely this. I like Olive, but she's clearly marmite to other people. Brilliant book as is Olive Again.

They’re meant to be what, twelve though? 😅 Twelve year olds are irritating little gits.

Jaws (the novel) is full of unlikeable characters. The shark is quite sympathetic in a way!

Those Patrick Melrose books.

Didn’t particularly like Eleanor in Eleanor Oliphant.

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

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

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

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

Wuthering Heights - everyone in it is vile.

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

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

Atomised by Michel Hoellbeque

Gone with the wind

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.

Why?