Boo! Hiss! Why I prefer heroes to villains

 

Since Covid19 came and changed everything, I have been reading to fill my time. Nothing new in that but, as I’ve said previously, I’ve learned not to finish a book I’m not enjoying. In a further development, I’ve been using lot of the time on my hands to think about what I’ve read and to wonder what makes me enjoy a book and what not. And I’ve come to a conclusion. There are lots of reasons to like or dislike a book but the main one is…the people. 

I’ve often said my fiction is character-driven and that’s how I like it as a reader as well. I’ve never subscribed to the school of thought that says all characters have to be nice (whatever that means) as long as they’re interesting, but as I’ve analysed my response to books I read, I’ve concluded that  nor can they be entirely unpleasant.

So here’s a tale of two books. I finished them both and one of them was clearly more literary and, for simplicity, “better” than the other. In the red corner, Book A. It’s incredibly well written. It’s clever. It’s original. In the blue corner, Book B. It’s nicely written, though nothing like as well as Book A. It’’s clever, but nothing like as clever. And it’s formulaic rather than original. 

Reader, I loved Book B so much more. I won’t say I cried when it ended but I was a little sad. And the reason was because the characters in Book A were interesting enough but I really didn’t like them. Almost without exception they were selfish and introspective. They were either over-aggressive or whimperingly passive. most of them were discontented when they had plenty to be content about, and they were short of redeeming features. Almost all of them were in some way manipulative. The bad ones — and there were plenty of them — were very bad indeed. 

Book B, by contrast, offered a full range of characters from hero to villain and every one of them was human. The female lead was thoughtful, given to frustration with those around her but genuinely imbued with feeling for her fellow humans. Her love interest was charming in the right way, noble without being morally superior, and both were warmly witty. The minor characters, too, had their faults and  their redeeming features in equal measure. 

In short, if the characters in Book B were real, I would enjoy spending time with them. I would seek them out and know that, no matter the threat to me, someone would be looking out for me. If I were forced into the company of those in Book A, on the other hand, I would never relax. I would be wondering which of them was going to turn on me for no reason, and whether the inevitable attack would be verbal or physical. 

Both books, by the way, were equally suspenseful. For me, this lays to rest the argument that the only interesting characters are villains. 

So…do you subscribe to the idea that a character must be likeable to be interesting?