TTT: “Meh” Characters

For me, characters are a pretty big portion of whether or not I like the book. When a main character is someone I really don’t like, it pretty much spoils the book–to a degree. Of course, some characters tend to redeem themselves at the end, and the book can’t be faulted anywhere else, so I tend to love that book anyway. Still, characters are important. And some of them, unfortunately, just don’t click with me.

Not saying that I hate some of these characters or the books they come from, for that matter. Some of them are books I didn’t like, but a number of them are pretty much from books I liked even with the characters not resonating with me.

Ten Characters I Just Didn’t Click With

Maia – The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison
I loved this book, but it was kind of difficult relating to Maia and his first world emperor problems. That said, at the end of the day, his story was still fascinating, and I loved the characters that surrounded him, especially when it came to the strong women in his life.

Alina – Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo
My final verdict on this girl is still pending, as I have only read the first book of the Grisha trilogy. Shadow and Bone opened up for a lot of potential in Alina, though admittedly I found her character underwhelming in this first book. I LOVED everything else about this book, though, and Alina’s potential to become awesome is right there, just not fully realized. Yet.

Lila – A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab
Right now, Lila is on my “dubious” list of female characters to relate to. I’m somewhat relieved that there’s a female viewpoint in this book, but I’m also annoyed at how forced of a character she feels to me. How does one make her strong? Have her go all out by wanting to be a pirate. Really? Pirate?! What century of Grey London is this?! Sigh. Character kitschy-ness aside, I love the writing of the book so far and am enjoying the narration.

(Note: I wrote this post on Sunday and after getting halfway through A Darker Shade of Magic I have changed my mind on Lila altogether. There were, after all, female pirates on the high seas, and she’s badass enough to run her own crew if she frelling wanted to, kitschy or not. So technically I only have nine people on this list…oops?)

Deuce – Enclave by Ann Aguirre
I DNFed this book for a reason. Deuce as a character definitely had a hand in it. Stalker being the potential love interest was also a great big variable, yes. Actually, most of the characters were people I couldn’t be bothered to like at all, and I just didn’t click with any of them.

Meghan – The Iron King by Julie Kagawa
I think I ranted enough about Meghan to last me a lifetime XD. So I’ll just point y’all to the accompanying review and leave it at that.

Kvothe – The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
Okay, don’t hate me! I ended up loving this book, but it is still pretty difficult to click with Kvothe as a character. I didn’t even sympathize with him up until a few hundred pages into the story, and only because he experiences quite a bit of trauma in his past. Admittedly, he does have his moments and I have, on occasion, found myself admiring his development.

Four – I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore
If I had to pick the livelier option between a cardboard box and Four, I’d probably pick the box. At least I can paint it with sunshines and rainbows and thunderstorms no problem. Four was just…meh. His romantic interest was…meh.

Raim – The Oathbreaker’s Shadow by Amy McCulloch
Just didn’t sympathize or click with this character at all. The adventure and world was interesting enough, but as I said, I couldn’t get into the story. The characters didn’t help with this, either.

Mary – The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan
Like Meghan, Mary was a YA heroine I couldn’t click with. Her problems annoyed me at best, and at worst, I kept wishing she’d just throw herself down to the zombies just to end the whining about her love life.

Viv – Tear You Apart by Sarah Cross
Another character I had little love for, especially when she spent most of her time agonizing over her pretty abusive love life, especially when she wasn’t running away from it, but rather trying to get her volatile romantic interest back. ‘Nuff said, I didn’t click with her either.

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This was actually a bit difficult to do, since I didn’t want to just look at characters in books I disliked.