2015, meme, top ten tuesday

[Top Ten Tuesday] – #74 – Characters I Didn’t Click With

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Top Ten Tuesday is an original weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish. I thought this would be a fun way to share a condensed version of potential rambles and thoughts that I have.

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This Week’s Theme:
Characters I Didn’t Click With

Initial Thoughts:

The defining characteristics for characters to be “click”-worthy generally involve their presence to make me empathize with their conflict and connect with them on their journey. I don’t have to necessarily enjoy how they act but it’s more asking yourself “is there a sense of coldness or feeling of being in arms-reach to the character” that’s on display here for me to not feel fully invested in their dilemmas.

I will speak of this from two fronts: books and films, as I do, with unpopular opinions abound.

Catcher in the Rye – J.D. Salinger

I dislike Holden Caulfield with the burning heat of ten thousand scorching suns plummeting into the magma of Mount Doom just before the Fellowship delivers the ring and destroys any chance at happiness as the all the lava spews over the crushed volcano and the molten hardens…because this little shit just gave me migraines.

The Here and Now – Ann Brashares

Prenna was presented like some lackadaisical heroine who was gifted an unnecessarily gross amount of Monopoly Get Out of Jail Free Cards. And when you’re knowingly humanity’s last hope (or whatever), STOP PLAYING CARD GAMES.

Red Queen – Victoria Aveyard

This is redeemable, Mare, I know you can do it. Just prove that you can have some semblance of curiosity in Glass Sword because you seriously dropped the ball by not asking pertinent questions when you had ample opportunity to. No one can protect you from yourself.

The Messenger of Fear – Michael Grant

Mara. You could have totally just said “fuck you, Messenger” well, no, you couldn’t…but you basically let this dude control how you ought to think/act. As for Messenger, dude, at least give her some form of reason to believe in your shit. There’s no real conflict that ties to Mara until the end–so why the investment?

We Were Liars – E. Lockhart

I appreciated the unreliability in Cadence but that just meant I read this story with a 10 foot pole and my detective hat. Which might be a defining reason as to why I didn’t enjoy the nothingness that was purple prose-y food eating sessions for 200 pages…

In Real Life – Lawrence Tabak

As a console/MOBA/MMORPG gamer, I had super high hopes for this book. But when the story feels like it misrepresents geek culture and sets a negative precedent towards the individuals (otherwise “famous” progamers), it’s just a big no-no.

Evidence of Things Not Seen – Lindsay Lane

While I appreciate multi-POV books, this story was told in 20 perspectives; 1 per chapter. As soon you think you might feel some sort of investment to their story, it shifts.

The Young World – Chris Weitz

While there were thousands of pop culture references in the entire book to make it seem relevant and click with today’s YA audiences, it makes no sense [to me] when these references are thrown in because it’s the cool thing to talk about and to feel nostalgia over when the word is desecrated. The first rule of Nostalgia Club is you don’t talk incessantly about what gives you nostalgic feels.

Allegiant – Veronica Roth

Let me just get it out of the way that I found the ending to be appropriate given what happened throughout the series. I was fine with and not enraged. Okay, now that I got that out of the way: the introduction of Four’s voice made the overall appeal and strength of the story diminish. Maybe it was just his narration that I honestly couldn’t care about; so much that it is the core reason why I actually don’t care to read “his” story.

Dark Places – Gillian Flynn

Was I curious as to the mystery? Absolutely, I even rooted for her to an extent. But a large part of me also just didn’t care. Maybe the film delivery felt too convoluted for me by the reveal…but I’ll never know how the book is since I won’t read it.

Afterthoughts:

SURELY THERE ARE MORE PEOPLE I DESPISE AND JUST DON’T CLICK WITH BUT THAT IS ENOUGH RAGE FOR ONE POST. OMGTHEANGER.

Cheers,
Joey

connect: afterthoughtAn // twitter  |  anotherafterthought // goodreads

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39 thoughts on “[Top Ten Tuesday] – #74 – Characters I Didn’t Click With”

  1. So much truth with We Were Liars…did not connect with Cadence at all!

    Allegiant was a flop of a book for me. I agree that the ending works (though I do wish it could be different) for the series but it wasn’t necessary for Four’s POV in the grand scheme of things.

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    1. I’d probably throw the biggest real-talk smack with Cadence, if she were my friend. My goodness.

      Yeah, everything was so muddled in Allegiant. Like, had they actually ventured out into the barren Chicago or whatever you want to call it (outside the fence–but before Nita’s building place) then it would have let room for other things to happen. And less Four drama please. AND ALSO WHAT THE FUCK URIAH ZZZZZZZZZ. (Made me so mad, okay?)

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      1. Allegiant was a giant snooze fest for me. So much talking and not doing anything. I felt like NOTHING HAPPENED.

        Which is why I am dreading it being made into 2 movies…though I think they might be going in a slightly different direction with them with the way Insurgent ended.

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  3. Lmfao at Holden. The very mention of his name and the book gave me fits of rage when I was in high school and college. Nowadays I just glare and mumble expletives under my breath.

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  4. I haven’t seen Dark Places yet, but I liked reading the book better than I liked Gone Girl. I don’t remember if I liked Prenna in The Here and Now. The book was kind of slow. I have to admit it creeped me out, though. The whole mosquito thing felt like it could happen. Yikes!

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      1. Yes, GG is actually my least favorite og Flynn’s books. I liked the other two better. Although, they did creep me out a bit!
        I only remember the mosquito thing. I didn’t even remember her name! Obviously, it wasn’t one of my favorites.

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  6. I heard Dark Places (movie) was a flop compared to its predecessor, Gone Girl. I liked the book though (except for the too numerous unnecessary details ugh). And yeah, Four’s POV? So annoying!

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  7. I totally agree about Four in Allegiant – I think I’m naturally against reading books with multiple POVs (probably because I haven’t read many good ones, haha), and I definitely didn’t click with him during his chapters. We Were Liars is on my to read list, so I’ll have to see how I feel about Cadence when I read it!

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  8. I didn’t include ‘hate,’ though I could have filled a list with those characters for sure! Four would have made a good addition to my list, though–I remember feeling that his narration had a sort of ‘tacked on’ feel for me.

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  12. Good point about Allegiant! I had problems with Four’s narration as well, it was just harder to read. His voice was similar to Tris’, and I kept getting them confused.

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  15. Pingback: [Retrospective] – A Rewind Of: Sept 2015 | thoughts and afterthoughts.

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