Unlikable Main Characters

[Merc]

I've read plenty of books where I hated, couldn't stand, loathed, and downright cursed at often, the main characters. It kinda gave me a drive though. Like when the dumb blonde in a slasher film opens the door in a now deserted house(due to all of her friends being murdered or abandoning her ass) and asks, "Hello?". I was turning pages waiting to see what horrible things would come to this person I hated. ... Wow. I'm a bad person >.<
As far as unlikable though, I didn't really like Harry all that much. Loved him to bits and pieces don't get me wrong, and will forever have sold my soul to the books, but, really? I loved so many other characters so much that I was kinda all, eeh she'll be along to help soon hold your shorts.
I can't stand Eragon, but I enjoy the plot, so I convince myself I can tolerate him.

 

[MichaelSullivan]

I'm sure it's really just a matter of taste and audiences can be found on both sides. Personally, I would love to spend time in real life with my main characters. I have one non-fantasy book that has a main character is pretty unlikeable and I still struggle with what I should do with this book. I mean I love the writing and the story but because I don't like the main character very much I'm not as enthusiastic about it as I am others.

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

I can't even play a video game or sit through a movie if I don't like the main character. I'm with Michael... I'll have a hard time getting through a novel in this situation.

The only novel I've read with an unlikable main was a Dean Koontz book I read in high school. (Forgot the name.) The main character was a slutty teenage girl, and I just felt like maybe she got herself into the mess she was in. (Blaming the victim?) It was still a great story, and I was really into it at the end. It may have helped that what made me not like her was something that was revealed halfway through the story. Also, I read the whole thing in one sitting.

But keep in mind, Teenage Me had more free time, and my mom was into Koontz books so I had read several of his stories. I trusted the author. Now, I'm lucky if I can find time for an uninterrupted chapter. If I don't know the author, I better want to know his character because I will put the book down, giving me time to think before I pick it up again.

 

[Elder the Dwarf]

I started reading the thread with one mindset and now am on the complete other side. I disagree with most of your definitions of "unlikeable". If you sympathize a character and root for them, you like them. Period. Doesn't matter if you disagree with their actions or their choices, you like them. So, maybe not in the drizzt books but definitely in the sellswords series, you like Entreri. And Jarlaxle is one of the most likeable characters in either series.

I realized in reading this thread that I can't stand reading books where I don't like the main character. Not when I don't like the character for a couple pages, because I definitely hated Harry at times, as well as Robin Hood from the Outlaw series (forgot the author). I've read several books in school (Catcher in the Rye, Their Eyes Were Watching God, The Awakening, The Scarlet Letter, etc.) ad they were all miserable experiences.

 

[mirrorrorrim]

I'm of kind of the same opinion as Elder the Dwarf. Instead of like, though, I would instead say you need to enjoy reading about the main character. Honestly, I think bad characters are often a lot more interesting and enjoyable to read about than straight-laced saints. For one, they make me feel better about myself. But even more than that, grey characters are much more unpredictable than straight-up good ones. In the beginning of the Hobbit, Tolkien mentions that Hobbits are so predictable that you would never even need to ask a Hobbit for his opinion on a matter, because you'd know it already, but then points out that Bilbo ends up doing and saying things that are quite unexpected, which is part of what makes his story so interesting.

I think characters that are too perfect are the same as Hobbits--you know how they'll act in any given situation, so there's no point in actually reading about it. I think the same goes, however, for characters who are too perfectly evil. If your character burns every village he passes through, that also gets boring rather quickly.

Also, I think perspective plays has a huge effect on all of this. It's no fun being stuck inside someone's mind while they do terrible things for hundreds of pages straight, even if it's interesting how or why they do it. If your main character is going to go on being a monster for too long, I feel it's helpful to switch to another perspective. I feel that Tolkien did this masterfully in The Lord of the Rings. In Books I and II, most events are from Frodo's perspective. In Book IV, however, Sam's point of view becomes more and more prevalent, and by the end of it, the story has switched to his view entirely. We don't switch back to Frodo's perspective until the Ring is destroyed, near the end of Book VI. By using this technique, Tolkien lets us see Frodo fall completely into the Ring's grasp, but we don't actually have our narrative view darkened by being inside of him while it happens.

In my writings, I'm purposefully switching to someone else's perspective whenever one of my main characters becomes particularly unpleasant or unbearable.

 

[Steerpike]

The main character does not have to be likeable, redeemed (or redeemable), or even feel bad or have any conscience about the the horrible sort of person they are. But you have to do a very good job to pull this off with a main character in a novel. To see it done well, read Monument, by Ian Graham.

 

[Devor]

I think there's a lot of factors which go into creating a character that's likable, and it's not restricted to a reader's moral opinion of everything the character does. I think there are stories where the villain is more likable than the hero, and I've seen stories where a character becomes unlikable just because the author is constantly telling you how great he is (through narration or through other characters bragging on them) without proving it well enough in his actions.

I think "likable" is exactly the right word; I should just like reading about this character. I need to like them, not as a friend or as a person, but as a character. If I don't, I might actually start to cringe every time the character appears on the page. I don't like cringing, and too much of it will lead me to stop reading on.

 

[Erica]

I suppose you'd have to describe what you mean by unlikable. There is some subjectivity here. Do you mean "I eat babies for breakfast" unlikable or simply "I have a penchant for making bad choices" unlikable? I will say that some of the characters I have liked the most in novels I've read were deeply flawed, so flawed does not mean unlikable.

I think someone else mentioned Thomas Covenant as a somewhat unlikable character who still hooked you in. I can't say I disliked him, exactly, because I knew where his angst came from. But I did want to smack him sometimes. But the story and the other characters were compelling enough I stuck it out.

 

[DameiThiessen]

I like to write my characters so the reader don't like them at all at first, but comes to like them by the end of the story. Character evolution should do that, I think.

 

[Stranger]

I started reading the thread with one mindset and now am on the complete other side. I disagree with most of your definitions of "unlikeable". If you sympathize a character and root for them, you like them. Period. Doesn't matter if you disagree with their actions or their choices, you like them. So, maybe not in the drizzt books but definitely in the sellswords series, you like Entreri. And Jarlaxle is one of the most likeable characters in either series.

I realized in reading this thread that I can't stand reading books where I don't like the main character. Not when I don't like the character for a couple pages, because I definitely hated Harry at times, as well as Robin Hood from the Outlaw series (forgot the author). I've read several books in school (Catcher in the Rye, Their Eyes Were Watching God, The Awakening, The Scarlet Letter, etc.) ad they were all miserable experiences.

Catcher in the Rye was miserable indeed. Holden annoyed me so much. "Whine, whine, whine. Oooh, I'm cool because I swear. Watch me do stupid things. Hey, I feel like whining again so why don't I do that for the next 30 pages! Also, everybody is a phony."

 

[Elder the Dwarf]

Catcher in the Rye was miserable indeed. Holden annoyed me so much. "Whine, whine, whine. Oooh, I'm cool because I swear. Watch me do stupid things. Hey, I feel like whining again so why don't I do that for the next 30 pages! Also, everybody is a phony."

Oh wow, we might be the same person... that is my exact impression of Holden. That and "I'm gonna do nothing for 200 something pages except sit in New York, cuss, and possibly bum a cigarette at some point. Yeah, I'm kinda the man."

 

[Sparkie]

one of my pet peeves: characters who are too good.

On this point, Brian Sanderson's Elantris comes to mind. While I enjoyed the story and the excellent world-building, the hero was almost too much to take. I can't remember his name, but I remember he was a real goody-two-shoes type. Vanilla to the core.
Still, I didn't let it ruin the overall experience of reading the book. I, for one, don't need to 'like' the main character (or any other character for that matter). As long as the story is good, I'm happy.

 

[Lord Darkstorm]

Hmm, I think there might be a bit of a difference between likeable, and believable. While the main character was a bit too good in ways, it didn't really make him unlikable, but a little hard to believe.