Characters who put you off novels?

Baryonyx · Sep 3, 2010

Greeble said:
Harry Potter. What a twat.

Gotta admit I wasn't a big Harry fan either. He was tolerable though, it was the supporting characters who really carried the Harry Potter series.

Even though the main character was a bit of a boring dud the HP series has some of my all time favourite supporting characters.

Camilla Delvalle · Sep 4, 2010

AZ_Dawn said:
The Martians from War of the Worlds. I finished the first chapter. I generally give old books a pass on being cliche, but when the Martians used their heat ray, I though, Laaaame!

It was published in 1898.

TCnKC · Sep 4, 2010

Hello everyone, newbie here. Just wanted to chime in on the topic.

Without a doubt, Thomas Covenant is also my #1 character who turned me off. I tried to give it a chance because I knew that he raped someone in the book and wanted to see how an author could redeem a character from that act. I wanted to see Thomas regret his actions and for it to mean something to him the damage he did but as I kept reading it just got worse. The character had no remorse and continued to play things off because he was in a fantasy land. I put it down for months and tried to pick it back up but just couldn't bare it.

RangerSG · Sep 4, 2010

FitzChivalry in Hobbs' Assassin trilogy.

I'm sorry. I know Hobbs is a favorite to many. But I find him vapid, unsympathetic, and the fact that he gets afflicted with recurring cases of 'the author must make him stupid for plot reasons now' doesn't help either.

Camilla Delvalle · Sep 4, 2010

Yes, he was pretty stupid. But I disliked Regal more. He was such a cardboard villan, and we were made to understand this from the beginning. And I was pissed about what happened with Regal (or rather didn't happen) in the end of the first book, so I didn't continue with the second. Galen was a much better villain.

jinap · Sep 4, 2010

Emma Bovary from Madame Bovary. Flaubert's masterpiece, blah blah blah, I hated that woman. She was insipid, vain and entitled.

Heathcliff and Catherine from Wuthering Heights.

*I read both these books in their entirety, for reasons other than the awful characters.

I've also met other people who despise Holden Caulfield from Catcher in the Rye. Personally, I like the banality of the narration, but I understand why other people don't.

whimsical rabbit · Sep 5, 2010

jinap said:
Emma Bovary from Madame Bovary. Flaubert's masterpiece, blah blah blah, I hated that woman. She was insipid, vain and entitled.

Heathcliff and Catherine from Wuthering Heights.

*I read both these books in their entirety, for reasons other than the awful characters.

I have to admit that, no matter how conceited Emma Bovary is depicted to be, I consider her to be one of the best characters out there in terms of construction and characterisation. Full, consistent, and real.

On the other hand, I have to second Heathcliff and Catherine. I struggled to understand them but remained indifferent to their fate until the very end. I just didn't get them.

Satori1977 · Sep 5, 2010

dirtsider said:
Most of the female characters in Robert Jordon's Wheel of Time series bugged me too. They were b!tchy know-it-alls. Although I did like Morgaine. Another thing that bugged me was that they were always crossing their arms under their breasts, not across or over them like normal women. It drove me nuts because they either:

1. had really, really small breasts
2. had arms like a gorilla (i.e.are longer in proportion to their bodies)
3. physically lifted them up when they crossed their arms
or
4. wore bodices or corsets that lifted those buggers to the level of their shoulders.

Trust me, I'm a woman and yes, I've wore bodices and corsets.

I can't cross my arms over either. Yes, I am small, but my arms naturally go down over my ribs when I cross them. I don't see how you can cross them over...I actually tried (yes, I know, but I am bored, LOL) and my elbows stick straight out. Not even comfortable, and it looks weird. Really curious how anyone can cross their arms so high...

As for the OP, not many characters that I have hated so much to make me stop reading. Bella almost did it in Twilight. Not sure how I got through 4 books, all the time hoping the MC would die. Never felt that way before.

Catherine and Heatcliff (especially Heatcliff). I like Wuthering Heights, but they annoyed me.

Anita Blake. Loved the first few books. Now I just want to bitch-slap her.

Tried reading the Historian, can't remember the MC's name. Didn't get very far because she bored me so much.

Never read Thomas the Covenant books, though I do have a few. Friend gave them to me years ago but I hadn't gotten around to them. Now I probably won't.

mirandashell · Sep 5, 2010

I can't think of any woman I know, or remember seeing any woman cross her arms over her breasts. The only way to do is to tuck your hands right under your armpits. Which isn't very comfortable. And I don't think it's what is meant by a woman crossing her arms. Woman usually do it as sign of annoyance or as a protective action. The only time I put my hands in my armpits is to keep my hands warm.

And yes, woman do lift their breasts to cross their arms under them.

Camilla Delvalle · Sep 5, 2010

Satori1977 said:
Never read Thomas the Covenant books, though I do have a few. Friend gave them to me years ago but I hadn't gotten around to them. Now I probably won't.

If you own them, I think you can try reading them. You may not like them, but if you don't try you risk missing a great fantasy series.

Bu the way, when we are dissing Thomas Covenant: the character that I dislike the most is Esmer. Teleporting around attacking everyone and being rude, changing sides all the time just because it's his nature. He's the one who could make me stop reading.

Camilla Delvalle · Sep 5, 2010

Noone has anything to say about the characters in The Darkness that Comes Before by R. Scott Bakker?

Eddyz Aquila · Sep 5, 2010

Although I loved the character's strength, Santiago from Old Man and the Sea was really annoying. Same goes for the boring MC of the Historian.

But it didn't deter me from reading the books. In some cases, like Siddhartha, it did put me off so I just dropped the book.

Satori1977 · Sep 5, 2010

Camilla Delvalle said:
If you own them, I think you can try reading them. You may not like them, but if you don't try you risk missing a great fantasy series.

Bu the way, when we are dissing Thomas Covenant: the character that I dislike the most is Esmer. Teleporting around attacking everyone and being rude, changing sides all the time just because it's his nature. He's the one who could make me stop reading.

Maybe I will get around to them, but I have had them over ten years. I am curious though, since so many people have such negative reactions.

RangerSG · Sep 5, 2010

Camilla Delvalle said:
Noone has anything to say about the characters in The Darkness that Comes Before by R. Scott Bakker?

I don't hate his characters until The Aspect Emperor. Then I can't single one out. They all made me sick to my stomach.

blacbird · Sep 5, 2010

Given what I've seen in the early portion of this thread, how in God's name did those Thomas Covenant book ever get published? I can take a hint, and ain't about to try to read one.

schadenfreude · Sep 6, 2010

I found myself skimming mass portions Madame Bovary, Emma was that weak a character. But, UGH, do not get me started on Catherine from Wuthering Heights. I should get credit points for persevering, but my God! I wanted to drown that girl in a bucket!

I didn't particularly like O'Brien from 1984. There was just something about his character that was blah, a I don't feel like listening to your dreary, pompous attitude sort of something during those torture scenes.

But most of the characters so bad they made me put the book down came from the YA genre, and were so bad it was more like they made me shove the entire genre into a cupboard, put several padlocks on the door and then drag a piano in front of it. All the ugly ducklings turning into swans and the heroines that are absolute nutters who fall for their best bud or the child who whines about how their parents make them help out on the farm and then run off without warning on a quest, or the friggin bird kids who, for fourteen year olds, have the brains of itsy-bitsy peas...just, ugh.

Amadan · Sep 6, 2010

blacbird said:
Given what I've seen in the early portion of this thread, how in God's name did those Thomas Covenant book ever get published? I can take a hint, and ain't about to try to read one.

Donaldson's prose style isn't bad (I've read a few of his other books), and some people really like dense fantasy epics with unsympathetic characters. I had some friends in high school who just loved the Thomas Covenant series, found it deep and highly symbolic, they thought Thomas Covenant's redemption arc was beautifully done, etc.

Objectively, they are not horrible books. There's much worse out there. But the first book stopped me cold after a hundred pages (not just because Covenant was a whiny rapist, but because it bored me).

Livasa · Sep 6, 2010

Bella and Edward... I had to read the books in intervals because they annoyed me so much after the first book. I think the idea that if he wasn't a sexy hot vampire he'd just be a creepy obssessed stalker at best (entering someone's house to watch the sleep without their knowledge, eek) or a possessive, jealous, controlling boyfriend who is on the slippery slope to being abusive at worst.

OK, I have a love hate relationship with the series cos I've read them all twice... I am my own worst enemy.

Mara · Sep 6, 2010

In addition to the horribly annoying female characters from Wheel of Time, Rand Al' Thor is annoying as well. He only has one fear: developing character.

Rand goes from being a stereotypical but slightly sympathetic farmboy hero to being a cardboard cutout with no personality beyond generic acts of mild insanity.

Camilla Delvalle · Sep 6, 2010

blacbird said:
Given what I've seen in the early portion of this thread, how in God's name did those Thomas Covenant book ever get published?

Maybe because of the following reasons:

1. Good prose.
2. Characters that are not cliche.
3. Well developed world.
4. Cool mosters.
5. Awesome chessmaster villain.

(If Lord Foul lived in Middle-Earth, Frodo would find that Mount Doom instead of lava would be full of an unfinished magic potion missig only one igredient, the body of Gollum.)

Wolvel · Sep 6, 2010

blacbird said:
Given what I've seen in the early portion of this thread, how in God's name did those Thomas Covenant book ever get published? I can take a hint, and ain't about to try to read one.

The same way Twilight got published, right place right time.

Camilla Delvalle · Sep 6, 2010

Wolvel said:
The same way Twilight got published, right place right time.

Yes, that too. I forgot that one.

kaitie · Sep 6, 2010

Wow, lots of Thomas Covenant hate lol. Might have to pass those up, though I do admit to being a bit more curious now.

To be honest, I can't recall having ever stopped reading a book because I disliked a character. I'm sure it's happened, and I can think of books I disliked or characters I wasn't fond of, but I tend to just put those out of my mind, too. I'm gonna have to think on this.

Though I can give my least favorite character I've read recently. It didn't stop me from reading, but the guy did annoy me to the point that I rolled my eyes every time he stepped onto the page was Andrys from the third book in the Coldfire trilogy, which I'd actually have to go look up to find. Whiny and annoying as hell, and he had me saying, "Oh come on, just grow a pair," the whole time.

Marzipan · Sep 7, 2010

Drizzt from The Dark Elf Trilogy. Don't get me wrong I loved the man's other characters but for whatever reason I wanted to kill Drizzt because he was so damn depressing. Sadly my fiance eats up such perfect Gary Stu characters.

EmpoweredOKC · Sep 7, 2010

The narrator from "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" is tedious. Okay, the book's one of those "you have to read this!" college books, but the narrator drones on and on with heady philosophy. The storyline that *could* have mattered more--a father-son road trip--gets lost, sometimes down to a paltry couple of lines here and there that break through his incessant self-analysis.

I found the book "The Painted Drum" by Louise Erdrich to suffer from this too, in the character of Faye. Faye simply thinks about everythign--every little thing--in grand detail, wringing every drop of "insight" she can. If this were a student paper, it would be criticized on the basis that "nobody talks that way." Reading Faye was difficult, and nearly put me off the book before it got interesting.

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