10 Fantastic Books with Horrible Protagonists
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 2 มิ.ย. 2024
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Very interesting video as always. You discuss topics that no other book tuber does
I am very interesting 😌
@@WillowTalksBooks
Indeed 🎉
Thank you for this video! I'm tired of people who give 1 star reviews just because the characters are unlikeable, especially when this is the entire point of the book.
Yeah that really boils my blood as well. Like, way to advertise how boring you are 😭
Wuthering Heights is a beautiful book and anyone who disagrees is entitled to their wrong opinion 😊🖤🖤❤️❤️
I read it at 13 or so because it was a plot on an old show called Fantasy Island, about an island where wishes are granted. A woman loved Wuthering Heights and wanted to be Cathy ... which is a choice.
I was obsessed. I read Jane Eyre (by an understandable progression) and liked it a lot, but loved WH. Now, a long time later, Jane Eyre has better stood the test of time for me.
But Wuthering Heights IS beautiful and also a wild soap opera. It's about the power of love, and hate, and which one is stronger. It's about refusing to inherit the sins of the father (and mother) and forgiveness as freedom.I'm not sure how much I realized on the first reading.
Accurate, and funny. I’ve not loved a book so much where I hated every character. Wonderful book.
“The titular bookseller what dies” 😂😂
I'd suggest Vanessa in My Dark Vanessa as an unlikable main character. You go in primed to like her because you know as a young teen she was groomed and abused by a teacher, and yet the adult version is awful, in large part due to the brainwashing from her abuser. But she doesn't act the stereotype of a victim, and she's not interested in talking about her past even if it could help others of this man's victims. I cried for her so many times, but no one can say she's kind for most of the book.
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine is another example. Again, I cried so many times, and loved Eleanor, but she was horrible a lot. But also funny. And lonely. And human. At the end, you understand the origins of her worst qualities. I don't want to spoil it, but she has a moment where she thinks something unkind and realizes that mean voice was what kept her alone and isolated, but it was never HER voice at all.
God I loved Yellowface. I listened to the audiobook and omg it was fantastic. I love how drawn out Athena's death is. It was very darkly comical and really set the tone for the book. I heard R.F. Kuang said that she wanted the book to feel like a panic attack and oh boy (as someone very familar with those) it sure does.
I'm currently reading my way through the Crown of Feathers trilogy by Nicki Pau Preto and one of the main characters Val, is immensely hateable but I want to know what happens next so bad. Slight TW there is an abusive relationship there so just a heads up.
I loved Yellowface; the main white character was horrible but so interesting. Her Asian friend was also a fascinating character.
A Wonderful and well articulated video! My thoughts exactly. Give me the most unlikable yet interesting person you can come up with. I don't need a fictional friend! 🙃
Hahaha that’s a great way to put it!
I loved this!!! I've been saying this for years! An author who immediately comes to mind for me when I think unlikeable characters is Gillian Flynn, particularly in Sharp Objects.
I need to reread Wuthering Heights. I read it in high school and disliked it, but I think that was because I was reading it for school.
I put down the book if the main character is likable 😂
LOL
You’re so right about Wuthering Heights, that’s exactly how I feel about it. Cathy and Heathcliff are such compelling arseholes ❤
I love an unlike protagonist, where the goal was to be so.
Having happy sunshine characters all the time Is so boring.
Its good to mix it up to get more of an interesting read. ✨️
This video reassures me that my protag being awful won’t necessarily turn ppl off of reading it through. 💛
Thank you for the recommendations!! Very interesting topic!
Love your videos. We have very different reading aesthetics, to be sure, but I enjoy your perspectives and passion for books.
I do not enjoy Frankenstein, but I love your representation.
I saw the title of the video and thought, "Moshfegh is gonna be here...." After reading "Lapvona" at your recommendation and loving it so much, I went on a bit of a binge and read "McGlue" (talk about unlikeable), "My Year of Rest and Relaxation" and her short story collection "Homesick for Another World".
You raise such a good point, one I like to argue all the time, about how protagonists do not have to be likeable, and, really, when you look at the roots of storytelling, are not. Tragic "heroes" are not like Superman. They are complex, dark, conflicted. But definition they have fatal flaws. When I was teaching playwriting, it was easy for students to think of a protagonist as "the good one" and the antagonist as "the bad one", and I would always try to steer them away from that thinking.
AS long as a character is compelling and we follow what it is that they want, and the steps they take to get it, we don't have to like them one bit, just as you say here.
Well done!
being a big fan of irina,
cathy, heathcliff, stevens
(and soon going to ottessa),
i agree the books would never
work if their narrators were not
such ass*oles, maybe because
when unlikable characters fall
in love and romantic feelings
come against their will, it is
always deeply engrossing. 💭
I also loved withering heights but I vaguely remember another awful character Cathy in East of Eden, awful characters are memorable
the fact that I’ve read the majority of these books has just made me realize that I love unlikable characters 😂
This is such a fun video idea! I find I really enjoy a complex, dark, unlikeable protagonist in my books.
I loved Death of a Book Seller
This is an interesting list.
The book My Year of R&R I dnf-ed it as I could not stand the person, really and truely.
I don't understand how Keyko is unlikable and horroble I see her more strange. If you let her be and don't push your standards like high paid job and marriage on her she doesn't have it difficult as I don't see her ever complaining that she misses something in life. To me it looks like others [that I belog too as I am not a neurodivergent ] are those who have a problem even afraid of her strangeness, like she is jeopardising their way of life. I had good time with that book.
It's fine if a book has an unlikeable protagonist but I don't appreciate when the author clearly wants you to support all the decisions and quirks of the main character.. I'm thinking Green dot by madeleine gray, exciting times by naoise Dolan. Hated those because the author seemed to be basing their protagonists off themselves
In the middle of Yellowface right now, and everything you said about it is spot on! I keep finding myself thinking I don’t want her to get caught! 😂
Very interesting. Thank you. Here's some more yellow. 💛💛💛💛
I despised Wuthering Heights when I read it in high school. I really need to reread it, I think I might like it now that I’m in my 30s
The first time I noticed this phenomenon was Lolita. The protagonist is a literal pedophile, but I would catch myself hoping that he would get away with his schemes because Nabokov’s writing is that good!
Wonderful thank you. Can I suggest Earthlings by Sayaka Murata - oh my goodness, no-one is nice in this book, but it's still weird and brilliant!
Ohhhhh I just got to the part where you recommended them. ....LOVE LOVE LOVE
I need a character I can connect to. They don't have to be likable. Hell, in my own life, I have a soft spot for curmudgeons.
That connection can be to their wounds, their vulnerability, their ambitions--or even just their smartassery. Like, if they're awful--but to people I dislike--then that can be a point of connection.
*gasp* Vivi!!!!! That's an adorable stuffy! 😄
As a neurodivergent my experience is relating to a character and then seeing people refer to them as unlikeable 🧍
Brilliant video
I need to read Wuthering Heights someday. When I tried reading it, I expected Jane Eyre 2.0 and it was clearly not the right angle 😅
Yes! I am here for this take.
Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots is my favourite unlikeable protagonist book. So much fun, so weird in all the best ways, fantastic satirical themes, what more could you want?
currently reading Lolita so this video came at the right time loll
I have a brilliant coworker that exclusively reads sweet romance novels with likable characters and happily ever afters. I can’t say I understand it, but it makes her happy so good for her. 🤷♀️
I can't imagine anyone disliking Wuthering Heights!
I'm glad you said they are all assholes. I always thought readers never mentioned Nelly as if they thought (or more to the point, didn't put any thought into it) that the narration was flowing right through an inconsequential character. I wondered why readers didn't seem to notice all the times she manipulated or withheld information and was therefore a catalyst for major drama. Haha, sometimes she was such an asshole.
Oh, oh, and how about when Heathcliff goes to confront (or claim?) Cathy in her fancy new home? The book doesn't say this outright, but during that pivotal (melo)drama she is hella pregnant. Yeah, never mind mortally upsetting the pregnant lady, Heathcliff, as your immature emotional needs are so much more important, a-hole. Lol, Willow, I've seen videos where you mention that you love camp, and Wuthering Heights is so OTT it could definitely be played in that direction. Maybe people who dislike it just can't handle the outrageous energy?
Btw, when I read the (5 star) autobiography of Mary Shelley and her mother by Charlotte Gordon. So many jaw-droppingly incredible incidents left me feeling that many periods of M.S.'s life should be written as a show called "Everyone I Live With Is An Asshole!"
That double biography is just so good.
I think one of the best books with an unlikeable protagonist I've read is Disgrace by Coetzee - he is absolutely, completely awful, but the book is compelling. As you say, they don't have to be likeable if they're interesting.
The fact that i've been wanting to talk about this kind of topic for a long time , and i found your video ❤.
Although i wanted to actually talk about dilemma of horrible people creating masterpieces, be it literature , music or cinema . And how we many times , ignore the character of the artist , if the art moves us in any way . Or in the opposite scenario is it wrong to discredit a amazing piece of writing if the writer as a person is simply shitty and immoral . I just wanted to know your views on this . About shittier side of famous writers throughout history
It’s a big question. If the person is alive and actively causing harm to a group of people (JKR) then anyone who chooses to support that author is an indefensible monster. But if they’re dead, well, maybe you’ll enjoy my video on Yukio Mishima :)
@@WillowTalksBooks I'll definitely check it out
Couldn’t help but notice the iced coffee.
Was it recorded on the Saturday?
That was some heatwave we had this side of the border!
Haha no, this was filmed a week ago. But yeah I spent that heatwave exploring Loch Leven. Gorgeous place!
As soon as I watched the intro, I wondered if Wuthering Heights would be on the list. I think for me, a protagonist can be unlikeable if the rest of the characters/plot make it worth it. Unfortunately, WH didn’t do that for me, it’s just made me feel miserable 😂
The protagonist in The Last Days of Jack Sparks is such a good send up of 2010's atheist social commentators.
I've seen a few creators saying that Normal People has awful MCs. Haven't read it tho
They’re definitely flawed and very human (that’s the point) but they read more “complex” than “horrible”
yooo is that vivi?
Yup
Ah wuthering heights…they are all diabolical and I love it. Fabulous video. Boy parts is also everything 💜💜💜💜💜. You have made my Monday morning bearable, you have also convinced me to reread Frankenstein, however the last read left me a blubbering mess so….🥹🥺
I haven't read many of this , but the protagonist from My year of rest and relaxation was unbearable for me. Probably bc she represented someone who abused many of us , that pretty girl who thinks shes better thn everyone. I couldnt get far into it at all. I wished i could though bc it seemed like a lot of people liked it