I know ‘unlikeable’ is a vague descriptor. A character I may love, you may hate. And, often, characters don’t fit into one camp or the other because people don’t.

However, some characters are objectively more hateful than others… deeply flawed, few (if any) redeeming qualities, you catch my drift.

Personally, I love an unlikeable main character (both writing and reading them). There’s something so cathartic about following the story of an ‘unlikeable’ character.

There’s a big discussion to be had around whether readers need to be able to root for characters to enjoy a narrative, whether all narratives need to be ‘enjoyable’, etc. There’s a lot of nuance there. A well-written unlikeable main character is a tricky thing to do ‘right’. It’s something I enjoy experimenting with (watch out for my next TINY TERRIBLE TALE 😉 ).

I just finished reading BOY PARTS, and YESTERYEAR (both of which I think got the whole ‘unlikeable’ main character thing spot on), and I flew through both books, despite not liking the main characters (for the most part).

So, what do you think? Are you ‘yay’ or ‘nay’? And do you have ‘stipulations’?

I’m camp ‘yay’, in case you didn’t guess. I LOVE deeply flawed, objectively ‘bad’ people (characters or otherwise). Unlikeable main characters are often perfect insights into why people behave the way they do, and allow us to see through a lens that is (hopefully!) very different from our own.