Unlikeable Characters – Love Them Or Hate them?

In All Your Little Lies, Annie is a lonely woman who longs for social contact. Unfortunately, she’s terrible at making friends and, worse, has a secret that she feels is so shaming it stops her from behaving naturally around other people. In fact, she’s so very awkward that she’s hard to like; her desire to please, alongside her social incompetence, leads to the very opposite outcome.

As writers we’re often told that our characters don’t need to be likeable but they do need to be relatable. That is, we need to make sure it’s possible for the reader to connect. For me, that’s the great beauty of books. When I read, I get a chance to inhabit someone else’s world, and learn about why they are who they are, in a way that’s much more difficult to do with unlikeable people in real life.

So, I love books with unlikeable characters, whether they’re unapologetically wicked or just seriously challenging to bear. I’ve been thinking about some of the books I’ve enjoyed with unlikeable characters. Maybe you’ve read them?

In Dark Places by Gillian Flynn, Libby Day states herself that she’s grown from an unlovable child to an unlovable adult. In this dark and disturbing thriller, the events that broke her are revealed but all is not quite as it seems. But as Libby searches for the proof of her brother’s guilt or innocence, which she does purely because she needs the money, it is her anger, her disregard for social niceties and her resilience that helps her solve the case.

Emma in Louise O’Neill’s powerful Asking For It is beautiful, popular and, let’s face it, a bit of a queen bee. When she’s the victim of a sexual assault, she’s also slut-shamed on social media with awful consequences. The fact that Emma is not very likeable makes this devastating story even more uncomfortable as readers must confront social conventions around blame. The book cleverly challenges our views of who gets to be considered an acceptable ‘victim’.

I found the eponymous Olive Kitteridge in Elizabeth Strout’s book by turns likeable and unlikeable but she always felt honestly herself. This is such a strong portrait of a character that allows space for the contradictions in individual lives and behaviour. It shows the importance of taking the whole of a person and their actions into account rather than judging on a few characteristics that might make them more or less palatable in any given situation.

I feel there’s something very reassuring in reading about people who struggle, who aren’t always pleasant and who make mistakes because this is the very essence of what it is to be human. It is okay to be who we are.