Top Ten Tuesday: Characters I Didn’t Click With

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week’s topic is Top Ten Characters You Just Didn’t Click With.

I am all about character development. I am one of those people who loved the finale of LOST, because it did right by each character. Sure, not every thread from the run was wrapped up in a tidy little bow, but I felt like the finale was all about the characters, and did justice by them. The same is true with a book, I am much more willing to overlook a book’s flaws if the characters are written well. On the flipside, I don’t care how well the book was written, if I can’t click with at least one of the characters to some degree, I’ll probably hate it (probably, but not always).

Top Ten Characters I Just Didn’t Click With:

1. Quentin Coldwater (The Magicians)

I’m going to be honest and just say that I really hated this book. I even read it twice, because I thought I’d give it a second chance when it was chosen for my book club. But I hated it even more the second time around. A lot of that has to do with the characters, and specifically Quentin. He just wasn’t likable. He’s given this amazing opportunity to study magic and have all his dreams come true, and most of the time he still acts like a sullen teenager and he just drove me nuts.

2. Rachel and Everyone else (The Girl on the Train)

I’m apologize to any of the millions who loved this book and whom I may offend, but I also hated this book. So much. All three female narrators were practically extensions of the same person (I honestly couldn’t tell them apart while reading) and the men were horrible stereotypes. All the women whined and drank and the men lied, cheated, and abused their wives. I couldn’t click with any one of these characters.

3. Quin Kincaid (The Seeker)

This book seemed so interesting (and it’s set in Scotland!) that I was really excited to read it. Then it really disappointed me, and that was mostly because of Quin. She’s a trained fighter, so I was expecting this awesome badass female character, but she just felt incredibly weak to me. Instead of fighting, she wipes her memories and spends months avoiding her life. Then fights against regaining her memories. She just annoyed me a lot.

4. Ani FaNelli (Luckiest Girl Alive)

This book wasn’t nearly as bad as The Girl on the Train – in fact, I actually kind of liked it – but I still didn’t really click with Ani. Most of the time she just felt like a spoiled rich girl to me. The further I got in the book, and started to learn more about her history, she started to become more sympathetic but I never really grew to fully like her.

5. Camille Preaker (Sharp Objects)

This is one of those rare times when not clicking with a character didn’t really ruin the book for me. Camille wasn’t a particularly likable character – but compared to her mother and sister she’s practically a saint. She has her own issues, mostly thanks to living with a mother like hers. This was the first time I ever read a book where I didn’t like the narrator at all, but I still liked the book because the actual story was just that good. I don’t think you’re really supposed to like Camille, and Gillian Flynn is good enough to make the story completely engrossing in spite of that.

6. Holden Caulfield (The Catcher in the Rye)

I know, this one may be shocking to some of you, but for some reason I just didn’t click with him. Maybe I need to give the book another chance, perhaps I wasn’t in the right mindset when I read it the first time. But I just didn’t love the book or the character as much as I hear other people say they do.

7. Nick and Amy Dunne (Gone Girl)

There’s just something about Gillian Flynn’s writing that lets me love her novels in spite of the fact that I quite often do not like her characters at all. Nick and Amy are both pretty horrible people, and yet the novel is compelling enough that you can’t put it down. I will point out, though, that Gone Girl is actually my least favorite of Flynn’s novels. Sharp Objects and Dark Places are both much better.

8. Tris Prior (Divergent)

This one may come as another surprise. I didn’t hate Tris. I actually didn’t even dislike her, but there was just something about her that I didn’t click with and I felt less and less sympathetic for her as the series went on.

9. Ada Boyce (After Alice)

I know, this book hasn’t been published yet and I haven’t even posted my review yet (because I’m waiting until closer to the publication date), so it’s not really fair to pick a character no one else knows. But I’m actually having trouble coming up with 10 characters for this list, and she definitely belongs on it. I really didn’t click with her at all. Maybe part of it was because I had just finished The Thing About Jellyfish which had a young female protagonist whom I loved and I’m just comparing the two (which also isn’t fair) but I just found myself not really caring about Ada at all.

10. Beckan (A History of Glitter and Blood)

By the time I was done with this book and had a better overall grasp of it, I liked the originality of the story. However, I just had the hardest time connecting with Beckan throughout the entire novel. This is another case where I just can’t put my finger on what it was about her I didn’t like, but there was definitely something.

So there is my list. The first few were really easy, but before long I was really trying hard to come up with characters I didn’t click with. I guess that’s a good thing; or maybe I just missed a lot of characters I don’t like (and will be reminded of them when I read everyone else’s posts).

What literary characters did you discover you just did not click with?