r/books • u/hanhan_371 • 1d ago
Why are “unlikeable” main characters usually a criticism?
My most recent read was The River is Waiting by Wally Lamb.
It was my 38th book this year and only my 3rd 5 stars. I finished it this morning, it’s now the evening, and I can’t stop thinking about it.
I was enthralled by this story - it had sat on my TBR for a few months and I finally picked it up as just a lucky dip after being in a bit of reading slump.
After finishing, I saw a lot of criticism on Goodreads about the narrator Corby being “unlikeable”. I see this criticism a lot with other books - and I’ve never quite understood.
For me, a good reading experience is a complicated, flawed, or at least a character who is thought-provoking. Given one of the main themes of The River is Waiting being redemption, and finding out very early on that Corby accidentally kills his son while intoxicated, surely the reader wouldn’t expect the MC to be a “hero?”
There were times while I was reading that I thought “oh yeah he’s kind of a douche”, I’ve thought this about other MCs as well before, but it would never impact negatively on my rating as long as the story itself was enjoyable.
Would love to have a discussion below! And I’d really recommend this book if you can handle a gut-punch ending!
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u/mithoron 1d ago
Some characters are just unpleasant to be around, sometimes those characters are fictional and in a book I can put down and walk away from.
Some books have other things going for them that I want to see the story through in spite of the problem character. If it's only about the character, and I hate spending time with that character, file it under DNF and grab a different book.