Top 5 Wednesday: Most Unlikable Characters!

118368Top 5 Wednesday time! This is a weekly book meme – the Goodreads group lives here – and this week’s topic is:

Most Unlikable Characters
— NOT VILLAINS! These are protagonists or side characters that are unlikable! (These should lean more towards characters who aren’t intentionally unlikeable. Not villains, or mean girl/guys, etc.)

I, like all bookworms, have encountered characters that I think the author intended for me to like, or even love, but I hated their very existence. Wished they could be obliterated from the book. Replaced by someone better. ANYTHING.

So, here’s the list of said undesirables:

  • Bella Swan from the Twilight Saga. I wanted to love Twilight all those many moons ago when it was the thing – and whilst I thought it was okay at the time, I’ve never been able to like Bella. She’s too passive and boring and whiny. I ended up abandoning the series after three books. I just couldn’t face a fourth. *shudders*

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  • Mare Barrow from Red Queen. Mare was far too generic a heroine – I felt like I’d read about her before, several times over. Her blandness irritated me enough that I gave up after reading about two thirds of Red Queen, which was disappointing because the premise was brilliant and it had excellent reviews.

 

  • Mal Oretsev from the Grisha Trilogy – NO SPOILERS PLEASE! I’ve only read the first two! i just find Mal quite annoying. I don’t why exactly. I just do.I feel like it’s probably more his relationship with Alina that irritates me than the character himself. Maybe he’ll get better in book 3? I remain hopeful.

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  • Alyssa and Jeb from the Splintered series. I loved book 1, I wanted to love book two, and book three got DNF’d, mainly because of these two. I found them whiny and annoying. You know what would have been better? A series solely about Morpheus. That I would finish! I feel like part of my issue with this series is that I started reading it when I wasn’t all that critical of what I read and the fact it was an Alice in Wonderland retelling gave it extra brownie points. By the time I got book 3 my attitude to reading was a lot different and the initial excitement for the series had worn off. Still, the actual world building and plot of this series is fantastic, as is Morpheus, so it’s not by any means a total miss.

 

  • Quentin and Margo from Paper Towns. I didn’t manage to finish this one either. They were all so annoying! They ruined a perfectly good road trip. *shakes head.*

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Well, I’ve spotted a pattern – if I hate the characters chances are I’ll not finish the book. I actually found it weird how many of these I hadn’t finished, because it’s something I rarely actually do. This list makes me look like a serial book dumper – I’m not! I promise!

Anyhoo, what do guys think? Agree with me? Disagree? Let me know!

lizard

17 thoughts on “Top 5 Wednesday: Most Unlikable Characters!”

  1. itsmisselizabeth says:
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    I was a little shocked at first to see Mare Barrow on the list but before I read why you didn’t like her I thought to myself “eh, I can see that.”
    I agree that her character felt familiar. Cliché if you will. Almost as though I were reading a Cinder wanna be. Except Cinders character was more likeable. I really enjoyed Red Queen though.
    Also I sort of agree with Bella on the list. Bella from the movie, heck ya! But the book Bella I actually did like. Of course I was also 15/16 when I read it.

    Liked by 1 person

  2. Aimal @ Bookshelves & Paperbacks says:
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    Agreed with Bella. I honestly can’t believe I didn’t think of her while constructing my own list. Not only was she insanely boring and spineless, but she was also rude. I remember when she said Mike reminded her of a dog because he was always so optimistic and enthusiastic. That’s a horrible thing to think about someone who’s been nothing but nice and accommodating! >.<

    ~ Aimal @ Bookshelves & Paperbacks

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  3. Moira says:
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    I haven’t read Red Queen in its entirety, but I did read a sample of it on Goodreads and stopped reading rather quickly because I couldn’t stand the main character. I couldn’t finish Paper Towns either, and I don’t even remember what I thought of Bella because I think I blocked anything Twilight related from my memory.

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  5. blackmutts says:
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    My friends who refused to read Twilight on principle all like to complain about how Edward was controlling, possessive, and generally a really creepy boyfriend. I always come back with “he was what Bella wanted him to be.” I wasn’t a fan of the books, but I found Bella to be the most annoying character in them. Also, Meyers used the cheat of listing off intellectual books Bella read to show Bella as smart, but then Bella proceeded to demonstrate hardly any actual intelligence through her actions in the entire series. As for Mal in the Grisha series… I was not overall a huge fan of the whole series. The second book irked me so much that I wasn’t going to finish it, but after the positive response on the blogs et al, I broke down and read the third. The third is by far the best of the books, and both Mal and Alina (who drove me nuts as well) were much less annoying in it.

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    • thelibrarylizard says:
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      That’s good to know about the Grisha series. I’ve been kind of dreading reading the third in case it got worse. And I hate when authors use the “they’ve read X show they are smart” thing – actions show a character is smart, not reading material. Thanks for commenting! 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

      • blackmutts says:

        The Grisha trilogy is one I think that would have been better shorter- the second book had a lot of filler and the third cuts to the real action. Still, it pains me that so many people have read this one over Laini Taylor’s Daughter of Smoke & Bone series (similar titles, no dragging second book and a better balance between romantic yearnings and world building/actual plot points happening)

        Liked by 1 person

      • blackmutts says:

        Me too! I should stop comparing other books with it because it’s just not fair for them- it’s easily in my top ten series list. (Although I spent the first half of the first book worrying that it would turn into yet another Twilight but once they revealed Karou’s history, I lost all concerns and finally allowed myself to be swept up)

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